Feliks Garcia may not always have wanted to be a reporter, even if from a modest age he was concerned about social justice.

In truth, the gifted classical guitarist’s career of choice would have been that of professional musician. For several years, he planned to study at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

As it was, he was led instead to journalism, something into which he threw himself with energy and empathy, working for several years in his native Texas, before moving to New York. He joined the US staff of The Independent and quickly thrived, writing about politics, the arts, immigration and a feverish presidential election that took Donald Trump to the White House.

Last week, Feliks passed away after suffering a heart attack at a gym in Brooklyn. Efforts to revive him failed, and he was declared dead at the Wyckoff Heights Medical Centre. Post-mortem tests found he was suffering from asymptomatic coronary artery disease. He was 33.

Feliks had many interests, from current affairs and cinema, to live music and Maker’s Mark bourbon. He loved dogs and cats, and was a champion of the Austin Animal Centre. He was crazy for karaoke and enjoyed twice or thrice-weekly workouts at the Bushwick CrossFit gym.

He was also a huge fan of the wrestler-turned actor Dwayne Johnson, better known as The Rock, to whom he frequently sent jovial messages on Twitter.

Johnson was among those to pay tribute to Feliks, once he learned of his death. In a video message posted online, he said he was shocked and saddened to learn of the journalist’s passing.

“Clearly, he was loved by his family and friends,” said Johnson. “I hope right now he is smiling down on this. I know we had a real fun relationship over Twitter. Sorry to hear the news guys, and, rest in peace Feliks.”

Feliks grew up in Fort Worth, and at high school had excelled at maths rather than writing. And yet he chose to attend Hampshire College, a liberal fine arts institution in Amherst, Massachusetts, where he was able to construct his own degree course. His final dissertation was on immigration reform.

From Massachusetts, he moved briefly to New York and then to the West Coast, where he tried to crack it as a musician – one of his bands was called Hey Three Eyes – and supported himself working in a guitar store and at the Academy of Art University.

“He was very energetic, but also very focussed, when he was playing,” said one San Francisco friend, Nick Carpenter. “Yet, he still had a lot of fun.”

After a few years working his way up and down a variety of fretboards, Feliks moved back to Texas, and entered a two-year Masters Programme in Media Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. There, he was able to dedicate himself not only to studying journalism, but also make the most of the city’s celebrated live music scene.

“He took me to see shows two or three times a week,” said an Austin friend, Joan Flores. “And he knew all the bands.”

After completing his course, Feliks embarked on the life of a freelance journalist. He wrote articles for The Daily Dot, set up a literary magazine named CAP Magazine, wrote for the Los Angeles Times’ The Offing, and helped out with social media for the Bullock Texas State History Museum.

Yet after two years, Feliks felt he needed to move beyond the confines of Texas. Friends and relatives said his heart was set on New York, where he believed he would find opportunities and challenges that matched his own ambitions.

He hit the ground running. Within a month, he had collected a series of regular freelance assignments, and in February 2016 he joined The Independent’s US team.

“He was a very promising journalist, with a joyous, positive energy,” said Christian Broughton, Editor of The Independent.

Very soon, he had found his footing and established himself as both an enterprising and principled reporter, and a generous, well-liked colleague. He thought deeply about the role and responsibilities of journalists from minority communities, especially as Mr Trump’s often toxic election rhetoric took hold.

“As members of just a small number of people of colour on the staff, there was a bond between us,” said fellow reporter Justin Carissimo. “I’d point out stuff to him, and say ‘Is that right, is that normal?’ And he’d say ‘No, that’s not. Call that out’. He always had your back.”

Another New York-based reporter, Rachael Revesz, recalled a colleague who was finely attuned to many injustices – gender, sexual orientation or racial – and generous with contact numbers, a quality not always common in the profession.

“There’d be times I’d be working in story about immigration, say, and he’d overhear me trying to get hold of someone and he’d say ‘Oh, I have that person’s number. I spoke to them the other day. Here it is’. He seemed to have a huge number of contacts.”

Feliks also liked to enjoy himself, and would lead colleagues to karaoke bars – which were another of his passions. “He had an incredible knack for gathering a room of perfect strangers at a karaoke bar – and you’d often leave the evening having made several new friends,” said Ibrahim Salha, another friend. “Springsteen’s ‘Thunder Road’ or ‘My Love’ by Justin Timberlake were his songs, and he’d always nail them.”

Politically, Feliks was progressive on many issues. But he did not allow his feelings to take over his work. During the 2016 presidential contest, he covered both the Republican and Democratic primaries, and sought to hold Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton to the same standards that he did Jeb Bush and Mr Trump.

On election night, Feliks was one of a handful of reporters from a British-based news organisation to secure entry to Mr Trump’s election night rally in New York city.

Like many, he had gone that evening expecting Mr Trump would likely lose the contest; as it was, Feliks was at the centre of a whirlwind of action on a dramatic night in US politics, something he captured not only in his reports for The Independent, but in a subsequent podcast – a medium for which he also had a remarkable gift. As was his way, it was not something he boasted about.

Ahead of the inauguration of Mr Trump, Feliks wrote a rich and considered essay about the two terms of Barack Obama, reflecting on the impact America’s first black president had both on the nation, and on him personally.

Feliks is survived by a younger sister, Felicia, and his mother, Hortencia. He was estranged from his father, and he wrote a moving personal essay about their relationship. He was hugely fond of his two cats, Humphrey and Pickles.