About

Ferdie Pacheco was born in Tampa, Florida on December 8, 1927 with deep ancestral roots in Spain . As a painter, his imaginative use of color and design along with his aggressive use of vivid, slashing, colorful patterns exude a sense of strength expressing the bold, gutsy, personal statements of a man who has immersed himself fully in life. Pacheco has the rare ability to transfer these experiences onto canvas through intense color and brushstrokes. His skills earned him the Gold Medal and First Prize in Tonneins, France : the First Prize, Best Colorist at Musee Du Luxembourg.

Ferdie Pacheco, MD has been called a Renaissance man because of his productive careers. He has been successful as a pharmacist, medical doctor, with a practice in the poor section of Liberty City and Calle Ocho in Miami. He is known as The Fight Doctor in boxing, including working as a corner man for twelve world champions, including Muhammad Ali for seventeen years. He also served as a boxing commentator for NBC, Showtime and Univision, winning two Emmys. During this time he was the Boxing Consultant for NBC for ten years and worked for boxing safety by demanding that ambulances be present at every fight and made the change of 4 ropes in the ring to prevent deaths, plus the idea of thumb less gloves to prevent eye-injury.

Like other exceptionally creative individuals, Pacheco showed precocity in childhood where he began drawing and painting at the age of five. His creative abilities continued through adolescence. At the age of fourteen, Pacheco realized that he wanted to become a doctor and began assisting in surgery. His passion for the arts continued through his health care training as his cartooning financed his medical education. Through medicine, he studied the human form, which in return gave his art anatomical integrity. His motifs were affected by art-historical influences-specifically Vincent Van Gogh; Mexican artists: Tamayo and Diego Rivera and Rufino Tamayo; German artists: George Grosz and Oscar Kokoscka, and American artists: Thomas Hart Benton and Fletcher Martin.

Pacheco’s deftly designed, intensely colored pieces are abstract conceptions reflective of rich life experiences and profound academic curiosity. Pacheco knew little Havana way before the retro-Cuban wave. As a young doctor, transplanted from his native Ybor City in Tampa , he set up his practice on South West Eighth Street the year the early Cuban exiles began streaming into the city. In their stories, he found echoes of his own family’s immigrant roots, as his father was the Cuban-born son of a Spanish consul on the island. These are stories that would stock his repertoire of detail-laden, human anecdotes and inspire splashes of colors that he would transfer onto canvas.

Pacheco was commissioned by Verizon to do major work to illustrate the cover of Tampa’s Yellow Pages, 2000-2001 edition. Joe Morrissey of St Louis commissioned Ferdie to paint four large epic battle sequences each twelve feet by six feet and sold for a five-figure price. They included “Picket’s Charge”, “The Alamo”, “Custer’s Last Stand” and Marshall Ney’s Charge at Waterloo” Another commission for the West Tampa library was installed early 2005. His paintings are in the collections of many leading personalities and celebrities such as Andy Garcia, Evander Holyfield, Shirley MacLaine, Petula Clark, and Dan Duva to name a few.

His painting of Gandhi is a U.N. Postage Stamp. It was unveiled on October 2, 2009 at the United Nations on the International Nonviolence Day which is Gandhi’s birthday.

A documentary on his life Ferdie Pacheco “The World of the Fight Doctor” was shown in two film festivals.

Twenty of his books have been published. His novels are being considered: The Making of a Don, The Lector and Lucy Jay and the Medal a story about woman doctor in the Civil War.

In bookstores now “Tales from the 5th Street Gym” just released.

Ferdie Pacheco has been happily married for 42 years to Luisita Sevilla, noted Flamenco artist and photographer. She also manages his art plus, types and edits his manuscripts. They live in Miami and have a daughter, Tina, who is a movie editor.