“It was a shelter for everything negative in my life, and to this day it still is.”
17:24, 02 Mar 2026
Horacio Chavez, 50, from Georgia U.S.(Image: Horacio Chavez)
When Horacio Chavez thinks about Liverpool, he doesn’t think first of the waterfront or the ferry across the Mersey; he thinks of hiding with a mattress pushed up against a bedroom wall to stop bullets and the escapism of four men’s voices. Growing up in El Salvador during the civil war between 1980 and 1992, Horacio was just five years old when violence became a daily backdrop to childhood.
Some nights, his parents would turn double mattresses upright against the wall, and with them, Horacio and his two sisters would gather underneath the bed, for protection as bullets were fired.
Horacio told the ECHO: “In those days, there were a lot of attacks where I used to live. There would always be outbursts of people fighting in the streets and daily shootings.
“During the war, it was only bad news on the TV, and in the news, it was always shooting and killing. When I’d go into the capital, I’d see burnt bodies on the street. It was really depressing.”
A young Haracio wearing a The Beatles jumper.(Image: Horacio Chavez)
To help combat the fear, Horacio’s father, a music lover, gave him his first tape, a Beatles cassette, which became Horacio’s refuge. During gunfire, Horacio would put on his Walkman, something he described as being a luxury at the time, and press play.
He said: “I remember hearing She Loves You and I Want to Hold Your Hand, and I was mesmerised. The harmonies and their voices were like nothing I’d ever heard before.
“I didn’t speak English at the time, so I didn’t understand the lyrics to all of these love songs, so I used to sing along to them phonetically, but it blocked everything out. It became my comfort every day. It spoke to me.”
Without MTV or easy access to videos in 1980s El Salvador, Horacio hunted down whatever cassettes he could find, eventually finding a copy of A Hard Day’s Night, where he saw the band for the first time.
Horacio Chavez has been a lifelong Beatles fan.(Image: Horacio Chavez)
He said: “I had only heard them at this point, so when I saw the video of them, I remember just thinking, ‘wow’. They were so synchronised. From that point on, that was it.”
In 1993, aged 17, Horacio emigrated to Miami with his mother, Bertha, where the culture shock was immense.
He said: “Coming from a third-world country where I was dodging bullets just a year before, to starting a new American high school was the biggest culture shock. Everything was big – the buildings, the cars, the food. I felt like I was on another planet. It was completely alien. I was lost and lonely in a new city with new customs and no friends.
“I remember people in class would talk to me in English, and I would just nod along. I didn’t get discouraged, though.”
Horacio Chavez with some of his Beatles collection.(Image: Horacio Chavez)
Horacio once again turned to his comfort and would listen to The Beatles when he got home from school every day. Now, determined to understand the songs that had carried him through war, he decided to learn English.
He said: “I said to myself, I need to learn English, so my mum bought me an English Beatles book.”
With no Google Translate, he painstakingly translated the entire book word by word.
He said: “I tried to translate every word. I wrote it all out on 20 pages of paper, front and back. It took me months to finish.”
Horacio Chavez in his “Beatles basement”.(Image: Horacio Chavez)
Within six months, Horacio had taught himself to speak English, and his understanding of his favourite band quickly deepened.
He said: “I began to understand the lyrics better, and their songs helped me through those first few years of Miami.”
He worked as a hotel waiter while attending business school, where he earned his degree, and whenever loneliness hit, he pressed play.
He said: “It was my constant for everything. It was a shelter for everything negative in my life, and to this day it still is.”
Years later, settled in Georgia U.S. and now 50, Horacio is married to his wife, Patricia, and has twin daughters, 11-year-olds Sadie and Eleanor, named after Horacio’s lifelong devotion to the Fab Four.
Horacio Chavez with his wife Patricia and their two daughters Sadie and Eleanor.(Image: Horacio Chavez)
Downstairs in their home is what the family affectionately call “The Beatles basement”, a collection Horacio has built over decades.
It was his daughter, Eleanor, who finally pushed him to finish his memoir, which he had first tried writing in 2007. At 10 years old, she surprised him with a handmade book about the band.
He said: “Eleanor came to my basement one day and gave me this book she had handmade. I was in shock, and I thought, ‘This is my sign, I need to finish my book’.”
The result is Finding Shelter in Sound: A Beatles Memoir, Horacio’s story that begins in a war zone but is anchored in Liverpool.
Despite never having visited Liverpool, Horacio says visiting the birthplace of his favourite band is a lifelong goal.
Horacio Chavez with his book, Finding Shelter in Sound: A Beatles Memoir.(Image: Horacio Chavez)
He said: “Every Beatles fan who truly loves the music has to visit Liverpool, so it is my goal.”
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