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Image / Boxer standing with fists up, San Basilio de Palenque, ca. 1978

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Title
Boxer standing with fists up, San Basilio de Palenque, ca. 1978
Creator
Cross, Richard, 1950-1983
Date Created and/or Issued
1978
Publication Information
California State University, Northridge
Contributing Institution
California State University, Northridge
Collection
Richard Cross Photographs (Bradley Center)
Rights Information
Use of images from the collections of the Tom & Ethel Bradley Center is strictly prohibited by law without prior written consent from the copyright holders. The responsibility for the use of these materials rests exclusively with the user.
The Bradley Center may assist in obtaining copyright/licensing permission to use images from the Richard Cross collection. http://www.csun.edu/bradley-center/contact
Description
A young boxer is in the left upper-cut position. San Basilio de Palenque produced three boxing champions: Antonio Cervantes aka Kid Pambelé, a boxing world champion in 1973 and 1976 (welterweight class), Ricardo Cardona (world champion in 1978) and Rodrigo Valdez (world champion in 1977). For the village's residents boxing was part of the socialization since childhood. At four or five, the young boys would convert the cattle corrals into boxing rings and practice punching. They would usually fight within their age groups, but one age group could challenge another to a match. The girls would learn to fist-fight as well by holding each other's body and fight with belly kicks, bites, and rolling on the floor, usually near the "casimba" (the creek bed) where they would go to collect water with older women. The boys instead would punch directly to the face and chest, in the street, or in the cattle pens behind the houses. When Pambelé won the world boxing championship, the Colombian government asked him what he wanted and he asked for electricity to be installed in Palenque. Piped water followed in 1978. Colombian anthropologist Nina S. de Friedemann had been studying the Afro-Colombian community of San Basilio de Palenque for the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and Richard Cross joined her to do work as a visual anthropologist in June 1975. This image illustrates Cross's anthropological category: Social organization.
Un joven boxeador está en la posición de golpe de upper-cut izquierdo. San Basilio de Palenque produjo tres campeones de boxeo: Antonio Cervantes, alias Kid Pambelé, campeón mundial de boxeo en 1973 y 1976 (categoría welter), Ricardo Cardona (campeón mundial en 1978) y Rodrigo Valdez (campeón mundial en 1977). Para los residentes de San Basilio de Palenque, el boxeo fue parte de la socialización desde que eran niños. A los cuatro o cinco años, los jóvenes convertían los corrales de ganado en arenas de boxeo y practicaban tirar golpes. Por lo general, peleaban dentro de sus grupos de edad, pero un grupo de edad podría desafiar a otro a un encuentro. Las chicas también aprendían a pelear a golpes, abrazándose unas a otras y dando patadas en el vientre, mordiscos y rodando por el suelo, generalmente cerca de la "casimba" (la cama del arroyo) donde iban a recoger agua con mujeres mayores. En cambio, los chicos se daban golpes directamente en la cara y el pecho, peleando en la calle o en los corrales de ganado detrás de las casas. Cuando Pambelé ganó el campeonato mundial de boxeo, el gobierno colombiano le preguntó qué quería hacer por su comunidad, y él pidió que llevaran la electricidad a San Basilio de Palenque. La electricidad se instaló de inmediato en 1974 y el agua entubada en 1978. La antropóloga colombiana Nina S. de Friedemann había estado estudiando la comunidad afrocolombiana de San Basilio de Palenque desde 1973 para el Instituto Colombiano de Antropología y Richard Cross se unió a ella para trabajar como antropólogo visual en junio de 1975. Esta imagen ilustra la categoría antropológica de Cross: Organización Social.
Type
image
Format
Photographs
image/jpeg
Black-and-white negatives
Extent
35 mm
Identifier
99.01.RCr.N35.B6.124.26
http://digital-collections.csun.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p17169coll1/id/11659
Subject
Portraits
Boxers (Sports)
Men, Black--Colombia--San Basilio del Palenque
Place
San Basilio del Palenque (Colombia)
Relation
99.01.RCr.N35.B6.124.26.tif
Richard Cross Photographs
California State University Northridge. University Library. Special Collections & Archives. Tom & Ethel Bradley Center

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