Gilberto was like a ray of sunshine, Gary Shaw
“Wanderer, your footprints are the path, and nothing else.
Wanderer, there is no path. A path is made by walking.
A path is made by walking, and in looking back one sees the trodden road where never again a foot will be set upon.
Wanderer, there is no path, but wakes in the sea.”
The beautiful verses of the Andalucian poet Antonio Machado sounded quiet, almost inaudible in the voice of catalan singer Joan Manuel Serrat, when the religious ceremony concluded at the Imperial Chapel of the Vallés funeral home as family and friends ridden with sorrow dispersed, waiting for the coffin to be driven to the crematory.
It was two Sundays ago. Three days before Gilberto Mandoza, (the man who for 33 year ruled the World Boxing Association with firm and strong hands, the oldest of organizations that control the sport of the fists) hung his gloves for the first time in his life. Now for good. He endured an arduous and titanic combat for over seven years with an adversary that in the long run stood unbeatable.
Since very early, many saddened Venezuelan boxers, both active and retired with some female fighters among them, wandered around the place where Gilberto Mendoza was laying. The man who in solidarity lent his shoulder to elevate them to a world title, which 25 of them achieved during his presidency. Among others were Antonio Esparragoza, Kike Rojas, Alexander Muñoz, Leo Gámez, Ernesto España, Liborio Solís and Alfonso Blanco.
During the farewell ceremony, Antonio Esparragoza uttered moving words. “We did not lose him. Today we are going to sow his seed and we will forever have him in our minds and hearts”.
A while later, sports journalist José Visconti evoked the names of Venezuelan fighters who brought glory to the country, led by the hands of Gilbeto Mendoza. Boxing Promoter Gary Shaw said: “Gilberto was like a ray of sunshine, and when you are a ray of sunshine you can cast a great shadow in which many of us walk…”
Finally, his son and successor in the WBA presidency Gilberto Jesús Mendoza Alvarado, accompanied by his mother Elena, his sister Marielena and his wife Andrea, said: “ My dad leaves us with a great legacy: Understanding one another, knowing the needs of others, get upset but then later hug the other and try to find a point of equilibrium”.
While I heard them, the circumstances in which we first met came to my mind. It was in Puerto Rico, in October of 1982, just hours after his inauguration. I was a professional boxing commissioner and traveled to the “Island of Enchantment” to formally ratify that Mendoza was part of a local boxing commission, in this case the one that represented the Aragua State, a sine qua non requisite for his election.
Gilberto, my unforgettable friend was then a young Industrial engineer, a native of Barquisimeto. He graduated from the Andrés Bello Catholic University and at the time he was a graduate student at the Toledo University in Ohio. I learned that during his adolescence he played soccer and practiced boxing, He was on the board of the Aragua boxing association and had authored the Fighter’s Classification Manual. Years later he fathered the “ KO to drugs ” Program, a social initiative of great projection among other contributions.
In over 3 decades of knowing him we had only one ¨mea culpa¨, a brief misunderstanding. When we made up, I did not receive any more reproaches from him, ever again. That episode only made my affection and sincere admiration grow stronger. He showed me irrefutable proof of having a noble heart, incapable of harboring resentment,
I say of him, in words which are not mine, that “ Gilberto Mendoza had a life of plenty, after forging himself a career against adversity and a difficult childhood. He had a fruitful life in which he gave unquestionable proof of being a man of goodwill and of serene clarity on the inside,”
IN TIPS:
33
Years and 2 months Gilberto Mendoza held the WBA presidency (October 1982-December 2015). Only surpassed in longevity by Mexican José Sulaimán, of the WBC, who presided for 39 years and 1 month. (December 15, 1975 until January 1, 2014).
94
Conventions has had the WBA since its foundation as the National Boxing Association in 1971. The last meeting of this kind took place in Panamá City last December.
39
Years old was the recently passed President Emeritus of the WBA when he was elected in October 7, 1982. Historically the youngest candidate ever to be elected president including all boxing organizations.