by Santino Castillo
BELIZE CITY, Wed. Dec. 7, 2022
Some stories are harder to write than others. This is one such story. I am sure by now everyone knows of the misfortune of Marlon Castillo on Monday morning, December 5, when he got his hand stuck in a meat grinder at his meat shop.
First, let me give you a brief history of my life with Marlon Castillo.
Chapter 1 – How I met Marlon
Around 2001 at the age of 14, Marlon used to follow Team Santino’s on our training rides on an old iron bike. His enthusiasm and brute strength amazed me, and so I nurtured and offered him a good bike and a spot on Team Santino’s, who had some of Belize’s best riders at the time. Santino’s captain and perennial champion, Ernest “JawMeighan” Meighan had just won his second Cross Country. These two immediately bonded, and JawMeighan became Marlon’s role model. In a short period of time, Marlon became Belize’s best rider with Team Santino’s. He won every single race on the calendar except Cross Country, including his first Krem Classic at the tender age of 16 in 2004 while still a Junior. Two years later in the 2006 Krem Classic, he was in a 2-man breakaway with American Scottie Weiss, and in a close nail-biting sprint, Scottie Weiss was declared the winner. Nonetheless, in 2009 Marlon prevailed once again as the undisputed champion.
Chapter 2 – Victory & Tragedy
As Marlon matured he kept racking up victories for Team Santino’s both in Belize and abroad, including the prestigious UNDER 23 Championship at the Tour of Merida in 2008, while still coming in 2nd overall in the Elite Category to the great Mexican professional, Manolo Hernandez. Having lost his mother at a tender age, he then lost his father to murder during a robbery in Belize City. This was followed by a fatal car accident in which he was the driver. The result was horrific as he lost his best friend, Ariel Rosado, who was also a member of Team Santino’s.
Chapter 3 – The Elusive Cross Country
In 2013 he was Team Santino’s Plan-A to win Cross Country, and on the return from Cayo passing through Camalote, Marlon had a bad crash and was badly hurt, ending up in the ambulance, and his dream shattered for another year. That year, Darnell Barrow was our Plan-B rider and ended up winning Cross Country for Team Santino’s in a 19-man sprint which many cycling pundits have labeled as the best Cross Country finish to date.
Chapter 4 – The First Finale
In 2015, while being in probably the best cycling condition and shape of his life, he simply quit the race when they got to Cayo, riding straight to his grandmother’s house and throwing the towel in. His excuse was bad Chinese food he ate the night before; but I believe it was the frustration of having so many cyclists sucking his wheel including some foreigners. After Cross Country he quit cycling and took the lead at the meat shop his father had left behind for him and his twin brother. Yes, he has a fraternal twin brother which many do not know off.
Chapter 5 – The comeback
After 7 years off the bike, Marlon trained for a little over 3 months beginning in January of this year and came in 4th and was the 2nd Belizean in the 2022 Holy Saturday Cross Country. This motivated him and he sought my coaching advice. However, having been off the bike for so long, and now in business, he no longer had the same drive and desire to train the long daily hours needed in such a demanding sport like cycling and more so, a grueling race like Cross Country. I think he felt that with the abundance of talent given to him by God, he could start training this January and still do well come Cross Country 2023.
Chapter 6 – Tragedy of December 5th 2022
However, God had other plans, as early on the morning of December 5, I got the first call from Quinton Hamilton at 9:28 a.m. telling me Marlon had somehow gotten his right hand caught in his meat grinder at his meat shop, and that they could not get the grinder detached from his hand. In fact, he was transported by ambulance to KHMH with the meat grinder still attached to his hand. By the time the doctors got it off, and wheeled him into the operating theatre, there was no doubt his hand would have to be amputated. The question was how high, since a lot of time had passed and infection had set in killing a lot of tendons, ligaments, nerves, veins, you name it. The operation was successful; but he had to be cut almost at the elbow.
Chapter 7 – A spiritual visit with Marlon today Dec. 6
I visited Marlon today and he told me he was feeding the grinder with his right hand while picking up meat from a basin with his left hand, and in a split second, the grinder caught one of his fingers and just sucked in the rest of his right hand. Luckily, Marlon is left handed. He said that doctors told him the meat grinder being attached to his hand actually helped him from bleeding out as it served as a semi-tourniquet. I told him we can’t question God’s will for us, and that God has a special purpose for him in life with the one good hand. We spoke about the past, future, life and God. I know Marlon will triumph once again, especially being the lion he is and having been able to conquer so much adversity in his short lifetime. As I told him, at 35 he is also relatively young, and with the new technology of prosthetics, I know he will be okay. In the meantime, let us keep praying for Marlon Castillo, a true Belizean champion in every way.
Chapter 8 – Marlon’s future, yet to be written…