IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 2 ENGLISH | Page 70

ously training. In his opinion, his loss was conditioned by factors such as his smoking, which affected his breathing, and bad nights filled with all
possible temptations. Both issues were detrimental to his conduct as a great sportsman.”14
In the second article, Martin analzyed the match
with Christopher (Bat) Battalino, the Hartford
Italian who won by a decision (made by the
judges and referee). Part of the audience (among
them stellar boxers like Abe Attell, Benny Leonard and John Dundee) did not agree with it. Yet,
according to Martin, this fight revealed that Chocolate—also known in Cuba as the “Havana Special” and “Relámpago del Cerro” [Cerro Thunderbolt]—needed at least six months rest, and that
Bat, the Featherweight champion, was more resistant and better all around, according to critics:
he could give and take, which made him a tough
contendor to fight. Chocolate needed to stay
within the Featherweight limit of 126 pounds to
recover his boxing weight, since he would lose
fights at a lighter weight. Nevertheless, he was
sure that Cuba would give its great idol and
Pincho “a great welcome.”15 He wasn’t wrong.
William Pickens was an African American civil
rights activist who openly expressed his devotion
to this Cuban boxing star, which led him to write
an article: “Chocolate el grande” [Chocolate the
Great] (December 28, 1930). He offered his view
of the match between Battalino and Chocolate at
Madison Square Garden, and expressed his anger
at the New York World because a sports columnist
excessively praised Battalino and barely spoke
about Chocolate,16 known in the United States as
The Cuban Bon Bon.17
Pickens understood that Chócolo didn’t require so
much praise, because the whole world knew of
his greatness as a boxer. It was an honor for Battalino to match gloves with him. Pickens wrote:
“Limited praise is not always harmful [to the person who doesn’t directly receive it].”18 In fact,
Marco considered Chocolate “a legitimate source
of pride for Cuba because he was great at this art
Yankee civilization had imposed there,” which
reveals he pretty much agreed with Pickens.

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Pickens had a right to complain—with some
irony—because of the little consideration the
New York specialists had given his idol. Yet, his
passion prevented him from seeing that Chocolate
was not able to inspire confidence for these
Norther sports writers because he had not taken
sufficient care of himself, despite Pincho’s repeated warnings. He got out of shape as a result
of insisting on having a careless lifestyle plagued
by sexual adventures with all sorts of women and
constantly drinking.
It was the weight of that reputation that his shoulders had to bear with such difficulty, given there
was a time when he had nothing, but now had it
all. The world was at his feet and he lived life with
intensity. He really knew no other way to do it.
Martin was more objective than Pickens in talking about Chocolate’s work during the second
half of 1930, but it is noteworthy and contradictory that no Cuban (Marco, Roche Guillén or
Urrutia) wrote about this in Ideales de una Raza.
They hid behind Martin and Pickens’s work in order to avoid having to chop up an already felled
oak. Neither did they offer words of consolation
to their favorite idol, who they saw more as a
black man than a Cuban. Thus, the iconoclastic
image of this publication faded.
Chocolate was the most talented boxer in
Pincho’s stable (cuadra, as a group of pupils like
this is called),20 but he was also a highly admired
public figure. His charisma, elegance and good
taste in dressing made such an impression that his
presence on Broadway was enough to stop traffic
after his shutout with Berg.21
Thanks to his athletic physique, he was able to
pose nude for artistic photos that are now a legacy. Carlos Gardel, the criollo songbird, dedicated his songs to him; the Cuban Trío Matamoros also went out of its way to congratulate him.
In Cuba, he threw out the first ball at a game. This
is why the non-white population in Cuba and the
United States expressed so much pride in the kid
from the Cerro. Some of them went over the top,
because they thought themselves like him, due to
the similarity in their skin color.