one time to talk politics
with Ruíz Guevara, no. With no one," Chávez said. He was, he said,
"a normal boy . . . I didn't have any political motivation."
Chávez added that it was false that he entered the military academy
with a copy of Che Guevera's diary, and that the assertion was part of
black legends sprouting up to try to discredit him. "It's a lie," he said,
laughing. "I had never read almost anything political."
He said it was true Ruíz Guevara may have indirectly influenced
him politically early on through some general commentaries, but that
the real influence occurred later when he was in his early twenties,
after he graduated from the military academy and was stationed back in
Barinas. "Then there was an intense exchange with Ruíz Guevara," he
said. "He was a great moral, political, and ideological reference." Many
of their talks focused on Bolívar, Zamora, Maisanta, and other historical
Venezuelan figures.
Ruíz Guevara's son Wladimir concurred with Chávez's contention
that his father was hardly out to convert them into adolescent
communists. "My father didn't sit us down like a priest and give us
classes in communism," he stated, noting that he himself did not read
the Communist Manifesto until he was twenty-three, not thirteen as Hugo Chávez Sin Uniforme contends. "My father didn't set as a task
converting Hugo Chávez to communism." At O'Leary High School,
another one of Chávez's friends was the head of the Communist Youth
Party, but Chávez never joined.
His mind wasn't on revolution. It was on his studies, girls . . .and baseball.
He spent hours at night listening to the radio as longtime rivals
Los Leones and the Magallanes faced off in Venezuela's professional
winter league, which attracted many of Venezuela's top stars, including
players from the US major leagues. During the day Chávez played baseball
with friends or practiced pitching by throwing rocks against a can
he set up in Rosa Inés's backyard. He jogged, lifted weights, and studied
pitching techniques.
He was a talented left-hander. His hero wasIsaías "Latigo" (Whip)
Chávez. He picked him for several reasons. They shared the same last
name, for one — although they were not related. Latigo was also on
Hugo's favorite team, the Magallanes. And he was a pitcher, too. Hugo
never actually saw his idol on the mound because televisions were scarce
in rural, impoverished Barinas. Instead, he imagined him in action as
he listened to the radio. Hugo was so good himself that locals called
him "Latigo" and "Golden Lefty."
One Sunday morning in March 1969, Chávez received some devastating
news about his hero. Rosa Inés was preparing breakfast in the
kitchen when a radio announcer broke in with an urgent bulletin: Latigo
Chávez had been killed the night before in an airplane crash. Chávez,
who was fourteen, was shocked. He was so depressed he stayed home
from school that Monday and Tuesday. In his mourning, he wrote a
poem that he started repeating every night, swearing he would be like
Latigo Chávez someday — a pitcher in the major leagues.
The problem was how to get there. No scout was going to discover
him in the backwaters of Barinas and Sabaneta. He needed to be in a
place with professional baseball. As he neared the end of his high school
years, he contemplated joining his brother Adán at the University of the
Andes in Mérida. He thought about studying mathematics and physics.
But when he learned that Mérida had no professional baseball team, he
dropped the idea.
Then one day a recruiter from the military academy visited O'Leary
High School to give a talk. Chávez wasn't very interested in joining the
military . . . but the location of the academy did attract his attention:
Caracas, where the Magallanes often played. He started thinking that
he could enter the academy, spend a year or so training, and then drop
out to pursue his real passion. The academy would be "like a transit
point," he later remarked, "a
with Ruíz Guevara, no. With no one," Chávez said. He was, he said,
"a normal boy . . . I didn't have any political motivation."
Chávez added that it was false that he entered the military academy
with a copy of Che Guevera's diary, and that the assertion was part of
black legends sprouting up to try to discredit him. "It's a lie," he said,
laughing. "I had never read almost anything political."
He said it was true Ruíz Guevara may have indirectly influenced
him politically early on through some general commentaries, but that
the real influence occurred later when he was in his early twenties,
after he graduated from the military academy and was stationed back in
Barinas. "Then there was an intense exchange with Ruíz Guevara," he
said. "He was a great moral, political, and ideological reference." Many
of their talks focused on Bolívar, Zamora, Maisanta, and other historical
Venezuelan figures.
Ruíz Guevara's son Wladimir concurred with Chávez's contention
that his father was hardly out to convert them into adolescent
communists. "My father didn't sit us down like a priest and give us
classes in communism," he stated, noting that he himself did not read
the Communist Manifesto until he was twenty-three, not thirteen as Hugo Chávez Sin Uniforme contends. "My father didn't set as a task
converting Hugo Chávez to communism." At O'Leary High School,
another one of Chávez's friends was the head of the Communist Youth
Party, but Chávez never joined.
His mind wasn't on revolution. It was on his studies, girls . . .and baseball.
He spent hours at night listening to the radio as longtime rivals
Los Leones and the Magallanes faced off in Venezuela's professional
winter league, which attracted many of Venezuela's top stars, including
players from the US major leagues. During the day Chávez played baseball
with friends or practiced pitching by throwing rocks against a can
he set up in Rosa Inés's backyard. He jogged, lifted weights, and studied
pitching techniques.
He was a talented left-hander. His hero wasIsaías "Latigo" (Whip)
Chávez. He picked him for several reasons. They shared the same last
name, for one — although they were not related. Latigo was also on
Hugo's favorite team, the Magallanes. And he was a pitcher, too. Hugo
never actually saw his idol on the mound because televisions were scarce
in rural, impoverished Barinas. Instead, he imagined him in action as
he listened to the radio. Hugo was so good himself that locals called
him "Latigo" and "Golden Lefty."
One Sunday morning in March 1969, Chávez received some devastating
news about his hero. Rosa Inés was preparing breakfast in the
kitchen when a radio announcer broke in with an urgent bulletin: Latigo
Chávez had been killed the night before in an airplane crash. Chávez,
who was fourteen, was shocked. He was so depressed he stayed home
from school that Monday and Tuesday. In his mourning, he wrote a
poem that he started repeating every night, swearing he would be like
Latigo Chávez someday — a pitcher in the major leagues.
The problem was how to get there. No scout was going to discover
him in the backwaters of Barinas and Sabaneta. He needed to be in a
place with professional baseball. As he neared the end of his high school
years, he contemplated joining his brother Adán at the University of the
Andes in Mérida. He thought about studying mathematics and physics.
But when he learned that Mérida had no professional baseball team, he
dropped the idea.
Then one day a recruiter from the military academy visited O'Leary
High School to give a talk. Chávez wasn't very interested in joining the
military . . . but the location of the academy did attract his attention:
Caracas, where the Magallanes often played. He started thinking that
he could enter the academy, spend a year or so training, and then drop
out to pursue his real passion. The academy would be "like a transit
point," he later remarked, "a
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