In 1985 Johnny Romero owned les Nuages, a St. Germain nightclub frequented by James Baldwin and James Jones. I was living with his daughter, Candida. She was 17 and I was was 32. He said nothing about our age difference, but after hearing that I lived on the Lower East Side, Johnny asked, “Are there still Puerto Ricans in New York?”
“Plenty, but the Dominicans are taking over?”
“Everyone gets their time in the sun, even chocha Dominicans.”
Johnny had a temper, but was tough.
He had survived a fall from an airplane.
His parachute had failed to open.
He hit the ground from 2500 feet.
One night he told me, “Landing felt like I got hit by King Kong.”
Johnny had run a New York club on Minetta Lane catering to white women hanging out with colored men. He left the city because of the Mafia.
“They were tougher than a fall from an airplane.”
Johnny was rough around the edges of cool, mais ‘un vrai mec’ and they don’t make them like that anymore.
