Felipe Staiti died: what is the autoimmune disease that the founder of the Green Enanitos had?

With a very low profile, a tall figure and a calm walk, Felipe Staiti He went unnoticed at festivals until he took the stage with his electric guitar and dazzled.

His death on Monday evening shocked his fans and friends, because Felipe Staiti, at 64 years old, was full of projects.

He had decided to move forward with Los Enanitos Verdes, after the departure of Marciano Cantero (who died in September 2022), the lead voice and his friend with whom they founded the Latin American rock band.. He had just signed with the Sony record label to make three new albums, with a series of tours already scheduled throughout Latin America, Mexico and the United States.

Together with his eldest son, Natalio, he founded a winery in northern Italy, a passion for winemaking that emerged in the last decade and that Felipe enjoyed.

I had just received the news that the hit Lamento Boliviano, composed by another Mendoza band, Alcohol Etilico, but made famous by Enanitos Verdes, surpassed one billion views on Spotify and became the first Argentine rock song to reach that record..

Felipe Staiti lived in Mendoza, his native province and to which he always returned. He was residing in the Palmares Valley neighborhood, in Godoy Cruz, and for a week, he had been admitted to the Italiano hospital, a few blocks from the entrance to the city of Mendoza.

“He returned from a tour of Colombia and Costa Rica, with fever and very low,” he told Clarion one of his friends. It is suspected that a bacteria had attacked his digestive system.

Staiti He suffered from an autoimmune disease, derived from celiac disease, it had been difficult for him to find an adequate diet and he had lost a lot of weight.. In December 2024, the musician was hospitalized for a month, also in the Italian hospital, due to profound dehydration, an episode related to his illness.

That same Monday morning, the family had decided to transfer him to a high-complexity hospital in Buenos Aires. Due to the seriousness of his health, they were not able to take him, and he died in the afternoon.

Two days before his death, his youngest son, Juan Pablo, also a prominent guitarist, uploaded a clipping of an interview with radio Nihuil to his networks where he remembered the day he realized that he had a father with unmatched talent.

“I was 14 years old, I accompanied him on a tour of the United States, we were at a show in Las Vegas, when he started playing the final solo of Bolivian Lament and the people exploded. There I discovered him as a guitarist and the flame was awakened in me to dedicate myself to music. I don’t know if I ever told him. Thanks, dad,” he closed excitedly.

The musician’s family communicated through Enanitos Verdes’ social networks that there will be no wake or open ceremony for his farewell. They are awaiting the arrival of their son Natalio, from Italy, and possibly on Wednesday they will say goodbye in an intimate and familiar setting, as has been the reserved behavior and way of life that Felipe has had.

“Felipe’s family appreciates the enormous number of calls and messages of support they are receiving at this time,” the band’s official statement mentions. And he anticipates that the musician’s remains “will be cremated, in a ceremony reserved exclusively for the family.”

In an interview with Clarionin February 2023, when Staiti decided to continue with the band and return to tours, he spoke of the pain of losing his friend and his relationship with the idea of ​​death: “At first I was lost: I thought about the pain and the unexpectedness of death. We had never talked to Marciano about our deaths. We talked about the death of our parents, always about the death of others. I was almost paralyzed for a year, but the driving force to continue is always music.“.

The Fender guitar factory, one of the most famous in the world, chose the Mendoza musician to dedicate its own model to him. Felipe was a great lover of Fender guitars, his beginnings were with the Stratocaster model. In recognition of his great talent, the brand launched a limited model of guitars called Staiticaster on the world market.

His last public performance was with the hit Bolivian Lament. Last March 14, at the GNP Seguros stadium in Mexico City, the Enanitos Verdes were at the Vive Latino festival. It was a one-hour show, in front of about 50 thousand people, where some of their classics were played: The green wall, My first day without you and your jail.

He returned to Mendoza to rest for a few days with his family, and prepare for the series of concerts that he had planned for the end of April in Bogotá and Medellín, together with the Spanish band Hombres G. And to participate, on May 30, in the festival at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California, together with Miguel Mateos and the Colombians Aterciopelados.

The musician and composer Coti Sorokinwho had a long relationship of friendship and work with Enanitos Verdes, said goodbye to him lovingly: “Dear Negro. Soul brother. I’m going to miss you. Why? I found out you left. I still don’t believe it.”