He walked through Havana. He walked along the central road of Reina, which was, in times, one of the stately avenues of the city.
I was interested, above all, the shape of the old neon ads, and unusable, the tiles of the facades and the structure of the great and beautiful buildings, that time had deteriorated until they were made a rest of what once were .
On the ground floor of one of those buildings - which had been in its best time premiere - and taking advantage of its current disuse, someone had mounted a boxing gym.
I asked for permission to enter and they granted it to me. A man, small and strong, received me, who identified himself as former amateur world champion in the fly weight category. He told me that the boxing school had mounted it and that he was in charge.
His work was to train children who wanted to emulate the great glories of Cuban boxing, such as Stevenson or Sabón. To do this, - apart from very little budget - of its enthusiastic dedication and an improvised quadrilateral in what was the plate of the room.
Canvas for the floor, strings for the sides and wooden tacos to save the slope of the ground. And an almost complete darkness barely broken by the weak light of some bulb hanging at one or another angle of the quadrilateral.
Most children were poor. There were very few who could afford to train with gloves. And some of them trained barefoot because they had no sports shoes.
But his enthusiasm was, clearly, very big. To a voice of their coach, they moved, they fed, they hit the air, they struggled to perfect each of their movements. I had the feeling of being in front of a group of dancers unable to stop until they are exhausted or until they reach perfection.
I told them that I wanted to photograph them. And, all to one, were planted in front of the camera, looked at me very serious and raised their arms in a combat position.
Given the darkness of the place, it was almost a miracle that the image was registered.
Pepe Navarro
