Renata Fernandez
speaker
32 appearances
2 recordings
2 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard Jan 2025
Renata Fernandez’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
Well, obviously, my purpose in life at that time, it was Keiko and Keiko only.
Before having kids, he was my kid. He was my baby. He was, I mean, I had boyfriends back then, but they were not that important as Keiko. I had to break up with two boyfriends because I spent most of my time with him. I mean, it was, I worked there for seven years and it was the best seven years of my life.
His best friend was a dolphin named Richie, and they would just play nonstop. And between shows, he would just have Richie on top of him, just kind of like giving him a ride.
Keiko would choose who to play with. I mean, we had this very young girl, she was 16 or 17, and she would come into the water and he was like a magnet for Keiko. He would love her, love to be with her. And why? Nobody knows. I mean, it's just, you know, it's like chemistry.
We had this little boat and there was a rope tied to the front, like a long rope. But we would put it in the water and like three girls would get, you know, hop in it and he would pull us all over the pool and then he would pull it down and just to make us fall from the boat. And that was over and over. And obviously we would laugh and then get on top of the little boat again.
He would give us a ride again. So, I mean, he would have a blast.
He was like the pet, Mexico's pet.
So the people would just go crazy, obviously. So that was the show. And after that, all the trainers would come out, go greet people and take pictures with people.
Of course.
Oh, of course. She's like, yeah, we have to always, you know, help the little brother because he does everything wrong. I'm not saying, I don't want to say that this is the best place for an animal, obviously. But I'm trying to say that when he was there, he got a lot of attention. I mean, he got all the attention. We would all the time play and, you know, and he would love that.
Absolutely love that. We did the best we could. We hired the best people. We wanted the best for Keiko and we donated Keiko without receiving nothing, not one cent in return.
So we were like 30 people in this place and in the Delphine room, we made a big luncheon and we all got into the water together. And we all played with Keiko and there was a lot of crying and it was fun. And Keiko was so happy and he would play with all of them.
Yes. Yeah. I mean, you would never get this in SeaWorld or Marineland or any other aquarium in the world. If you tell this to a veterinarian from these, you know, huge aquariums, they would tell you that, I mean, that's not a good idea because he would, I mean, the animal gets stressed. I mean, I don't know what would they say, but he was so happy. He was so happy.
You need his skin to be protected. So we were rubbing thick, thick cream all over his body. And we would be talking to him the whole time, the whole time. But I was just thinking about him and how nervous he was getting. He started, you know, like crying a little bit because he was nervous. And everybody was so nervous. And you can transfer that to Keiko, obviously.
So there are, you know, moments where you're just hoping that he just relaxes.
We would see all these people on the street with signs. I just wanted to cry just to remember about it. And people waving and crying and screaming like, goodbye. It was so, so emotional. I was sad and happy at the same time because we're all doing this because we hope he's going to be okay. But But it was for Mexicans to say goodbye to the only, obviously, orca that they would ever have.
This American Life · 847: The Truly Incredible Story of Keiko the Killer Whale · 17 Nov 2024
podcast
Well, obviously, my purpose in life at that time, it was Keiko and Keiko only.
Before having kids, he was my kid. He was my baby. I mean, I had boyfriends back then, but they were not that important as Keiko. I had to break up with two boyfriends because I spent most of my time with him. I mean, I worked there for seven years, and it was the best seven years of my life.
His best friend was a dolphin named Richie, and they would just play nonstop. And between shows, he would just have Richie on top of him, just kind of like giving him a ride.
Keiko would choose who to play with. I mean, we had this very young girl, she was 16 or 17, and she would come into the water and he was like a magnet for Keiko. He would love her, love to be with her. And why? Nobody knows. I mean, it's just, you know, it's like chemistry.
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