Lovers of the iconic American motorcycle brand Harley Davidson, the same one that had an unmistakable image of ‘Viking’ and that with his thick beard and whitish mustache paraded through the streets of the Santander capital and throughout the country, have lost their greatest leader and representative: Orlando Prieto, better known as ‘Patabrava’.
He, who for years directed the local club of owners of this type of motorcycles, which carried the title of ‘Los Fariseos’, died at dawn today, after suffering serious health problems that kept him away from public shows since last december. He was a native of Bucaramanga and averaged 75 years old.
His caravans were famous for him, surrounded by a festive atmosphere, full of colors and the characteristic sound of the twin-cylinder engines of these great machines.
The most beautiful thing about ‘Patabrava’ was that he always paraded for a great social cause: he collected funds to help a non-profit organization in the city, in many cases for children suffering from cancer. He and the Family of the Willys Jeeps of Colombia, directed by Don Clemente Galvis, were protagonists during the last 25 years of the Bonita Fair of Bucaramanga: a fair without them, it was not a fair.
He always replied that in his ‘Harley World’, as he defined the life of these bikers, “we are all an example of life, service and healthy freedom.”
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And besides being supportive, our emblematic harlista always behaved at the height of and displayed civility and great road culture. He never allowed any of his teammates to “go for drinks at the wheel,” on pain of expelling them from the group.
He filled the tank of his motorcycle with a lot of gasoline and, of course, without the need for drinks or any other ‘amazing’ drink, he made us happy as his traditional caravan passed. How nice for the example of citizenship that he always demonstrated in Bucaramanga and everywhere he drove his motorcycles!
He was self-taught and lived in the Mutualidad neighborhood of Bucaramanga. There, on Carrera 18 and Calle 16, he had his own temple of Harley Davidsons. Two years ago he had changed headquarters, since he set up his motorcycle shelter at Calle 17 No. 31-78, in the San Alonso neighborhood. There he spent his time disarming, repairing, painting and generally decorating all the motorcycles that arrived at his premises.
He himself remembered that his father, Don Humberto Prieto Remolina, was a mechanic and that he learned his love for these rolling machines. What’s more, his father had a club made up of nine members and his passion for Harley Davidsons was born from there.
With the experience, his father joined the Bucaramanga Traffic Directorate as a mechanic in 1953. In the 1970s, ‘Patabrava’ continued the legacy and appealing to the then director of that entity at that time, Aquiles Torres, proposed buy a dozen of those fine machines for traffic control in Santander.
His first Harley came out of the scraps of an old motorcycle auction and he stayed with it until the end of his days.
“Harlismo is a great therapy that not only allows us to get to know the country’s roads and landscapes when going to a meeting; it is also a reason to help those who need us most ”, once said ‘Pata Brava’.
He married Doña Cecilia Niño and was the father of Luz Ángela, Diana Karina, Zulma and Martín Orlando, to whom we express our deepest voices of condolence.
The lifeless body is veiled today and tomorrow at the San Pedro Funeral Home and his funeral will be held on the afternoon of September 3, in the Holy Land.
A caravan with all of the law has been scheduled for 2:00 pm tomorrow, respecting biosecurity regulations. The members of the group of ‘Los Fariseos’ will accompany the coffin in the middle of a rigorous order, with road discipline, abiding by the official guidelines to fire, as it should be, the great ‘Patabrava’. They say that now the engines will roar in the sky. Peace in his grave.
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