Hands of Stone - Christian Giudice [174]
Jairo Ivan Garcia is another who sounds a critical note. Tears come down his face, the tears of a man who felt spurned by a member of his own family, of a man who wants to be part of something again and not be treated as a stranger. Garcia lives on 4th Street in Guarare, next to the green house where Ceferina lived. He says that he is Duran’s uncle, though that is disputed amongst family members. In the tangled genealogies of Panama, anything is possible. Certainly he is related to the boxer and did play a role in raising Roberto.
“Roberto used to come here when he was little. That boy would eat anything,” said Garcia. “He would even eat iguanas. My brother Socrates was very good with him and taught him how to box. Socrates was a very big man and was always with Roberto. That is where Roberto inherited his power from. My brother challenged Ali to a fight one time but he said no.”
Garcia was at La Cantina Choco Choco when Roberto flattened the horse. Choco Choco is still in Guarare across from the park. “When he used to come to stay here, I would get out of my bed and sleep on the floor,” said Garcia. “I would give Roberto my bed to sleep in. He loved to watch cartoons and wrestling. Even back then he would fight anyone in the streets.” Although Garcia claims to never have seen Duran lose his temper, there was always the threat. “He talks very loud and strong when he got mad.”
One time, when Duran was famous, Garcia went to his house to drop off something, and some money disappeared. “He accused me of stealing five thousand dollars,” said Garcia, “and he wouldn’t talk to me after that. We haven’t spoken in twenty-two years. When he comes here to Guarare, he never stops here.” Garcia uses the back of his hand to dry his tears and looks next door for more evidence of Duran’s hard-heartedness. There is a huge crack in the concrete and the house looks abandoned, a small toy car the only hint that anyone has been there in years. Decades ago, Ceferina ruled that same house with a strong fist.
“Look at that house,” said Garcia. “He never even helped repair that broken down house. That is the house that he grew up in. I would have liked that house to be open for people to see the help Duran would give his family. Duran used to help strangers but not his own family. When people would ask him about the needs of his family in Panama, he would always pride himself on the help he would offer. But that was a lie. He only helps his friends, not his family. Please write this because it is the truth about Roberto. He did not help his family to live.”
To stress his own generosity, Garcia points to the floor, “This is where I slept when Roberto came to stay, right here.”
“All families have differences,” shrugged Mireya Samaniego, Clara’s sister and Roberto’s aunt, “Jairo says that he is Roberto’s uncle, but he is only a cousin because he isn’t a brother to Margarito or Clara. No one in the family talks to Jairo because he talked rudely to my mother. Also, Roberto bought a lot of things for Jairo to help him at his house.”
Jairo did spend some time with Roberto during his career. Like always, the money flowed. “He had seven cars, seven. But he only needed one. Why seven?” The sadness turned to anger.
Mireya Samaniego is unlike many of her relatives. She is married to a doctor and lives in a well-kept, one-story home in Guarare, across from the Escuela Juana Vernaza school where young Roberto and his sister Marina were briefly enrolled nearly four decades ago. Mireya has two sons, one named after Roberto, and quickly shows her fist and recalls the time when her mother, Ceferina, knocked out husband Chavelo with one punch and then helped deliver Duran hours later. She also recalls a time when Duran argued in the street with Ceferina and threw a $100 bill at her.
Mireya has a round face and an engaging laugh. “Many people became rich taking advantage of Duran. Many indeed,” she said. “And Roberto knows it. But he says, ‘I owe to God all I have.’ He has not been an ambitious person. I believe this is because he knew what it is