La Brega: The Many Flags of Alberto Mercado — Episode Transcript
Alana: This episode starts with a remarkable photograph.
The snapshot is in black and white. It’s of a packed stadium with an athletic track, and there are three Black men dressed in white sweaters in the center of the frame. Your eyes go right to them.
They’re walking behind a woman holding a sign that reads “Porto Rico,” along with the same name in Russian. They’re at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
La Brega producer Ezequiel Rodríguez Andino showed it to me. He actually has a copy at home. Because there’s a mystery behind this image, this moment when three afro-Boricua men represented Puerto Rico in the Soviet Union.
Ezequiel: And what has always grabbed my attention with this specific photo are their somber expressions.
Alana: Of course, we’d expect to see these athletes proud to be at the Olympics, a big smile on their faces.
Ezequiel: Exactly. And every Olympic delegation has an appointed flagbearer, whose supposed to carry the flag from the country they’re representing. It’s a huge honor, but our guy in the photo isn’t carrying the Puerto Rican flag. He’s holding an Olympic one.
Alberto Mercado: Yo lamentablemente desfilé con mi bandera Olímpica.
Ezequiel: This is the flag bearer from the photograph. Alberto Mercado. He and the other two athletes were boxers.
Alberto Mercado: Serio, serio y serio.
Ezequiel: When he looks at the photo, he also notices how serious the three of them are. And according to Alberto, his participation at these Olympics preserved something critical for Puerto Rico:
Alberto Mercado: Soberanía deportiva.
Ezequiel: Soberania deportiva. Sports sovereignty.
So, national teams are separate from their governments, and in Puerto Rico that means that we get to play as our own country in international sporting events.
Alana: And, in 1980, Puerto Rico is there in Moscow competing as an independent nation, while also existing as a US colony. But the Cold War is going on. And there are these tensions between the US and the Soviet Union.
Ezequiel: Yes. And precisely that detail is what leads to questions I’ve always had about this photograph: how did these three afro-Boricua boxers come to be in Moscow representing Puerto Rico, but without the Puerto Rican flag? You know, what led to this moment? What really happened that day?
Alberto Mercado: Este día pasaron muchas cosas. Diablo. ¿Las digo o no las digo?
Alana: For Futuro Studios, I’m Alana Casanova Burgess
Ezequiel: And I am Ezequiel Rodriguez Andino, and this is La Brega.
Alana: In this episode –
Ezequiel: – the many flags of Alberto Mercado.
BREAK
Alana: Alberto Mercado lives in a shrine. Well, he actually lives above a small museum that honors his remarkable life. But the shrine isn’t for him, it’s for Puerto Rico.
Ezequiel and I visited this museum (along with our editor Laura Pérez), that’s in a two-story building on a corner of a street in Cayey, Puerto Rico. And if you visit – and you really should – you’ll find Alberto, an afro-Boricua with a clean buzz cut.
Alana: Hola, Alana Casanova…
Alberto Mercado: Alberto Mercado…
Alana: He’s my height, around 5‘5. And the day we met he was wearing a crisp white button-down shirt, and he smelled lightly of aftershave. He’s 64 years old, and he’s got a mischievous sense of humor, he’s always setting you up.
Alberto Mercado: ¿Qué pasa?
Ezequiel: [laughing]
Ezequiel: The museum is actually two rooms, covered wall-to-wall with photos, mementos, and newspaper articles about Alberto’s career as a boxer representing Puerto Rico.
Alberto Mercado: Fui campeón centroamericano 1977 en la ciudad de Panamá….
Ezequiel: And after a while, you start to wonder, who collected all this?
Alberto Mercado: Buena pregunta. Mi mamá.
Ezequiel: Mira, Alberto used to see his mother with a pair of scissors, carefully snipping away at newspaper articles that Alberto was featured in. He used to tell her to stop collecting the newspaper clips.
Alberto Mercado: Mami, bota eso.
Ezequiel: But his mother would tell him: “You do your thing and I’ll do mine.” And when she passed away, he started to add to her collection – in her honor.
Alberto Mercado: Empecé a guardar. Empecé a guardar, y mire.
Ezequiel: Alberto’s road to Moscow began in Cayey, Puerto Rico, where he was born in 1961. His dad was a street vendor. And his mother left a job in a textile factory to take care of nine kids. They lived in a public housing complex, they grew up in poverty: if there was food, they’d eat.
Alberto Mercado: Cuando había comida, pues comía.
Ezequiel: And if there wasn’t, then they wouldn’t.
Alberto Mercado: Y cuando no había comida, pues ya, tú sabes, ¡pues no comía!
Ezequiel: Alberto went to public school, where he’d get bullied. But one day, he decided to fight back.
Alberto Mercado: Alberto, no, Alberto, pelea. Alberto. Pelea. Porque yo empecé peleando en la calle y de la calle me fui al gimnasio.
Ezequiel: So he found a gym in his public housing complex where he started to release all this pent up anger.
Alberto Mercado: Alberto, tres round de shadow boxing, pa pa. Estoy entregando.
Ezequiel: Today, at 64, Alberto’s still got it. When he shows us how he used to fight, he cuts through the air, shadow boxing with an imaginary enemy.
Alberto Mercado: Pa Pa Pa.
Ezequiel: And then, he shares what he used to think inside the ring.
Alberto Mercado: Quiero hacer lo peor. Quiero hacer daño, romperle la cara, cortarlo.
Ezequiel: He’s thinking about breaking his opponent’s face.
Alberto Mercado: Partirle los dientes.
Ezequiel: Knocking their teeth out.
Alberto Mercado: Esto es lo que yo quiero. 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4.
Ezequiel: He explained that the bullying he faced fueled his will to fight.
When he was 14, he joined “las Olimpiadas Jíbaras”. These were sporting competitions organized by the government for youth from housing projects all over Puerto Rico. There, Alberto knocked out two of his rivals and was crowned as champion.
But, Alana, his mother was not very happy though.
Alana: Right, he wasn’t the only boxer in the family.
Ezequiel: Mhmm, she had two other sons, plus now Alberto! She told him:
Alberto Mercado: Si vas a boxear haz las cosas bien o no las hagas.
Alana: If he’s going to do this, he has to do it right, or not at all.
Ezequiel: Alberto started to win in the ring more and more, and his mother ended up supporting his boxing dream.
And she wasn’t the only one on Alberto’s side. At 17, he had gotten the gold for Puerto Rico in the Caribbean and Central American games. The President of the Puerto Rican Olympic committee, Germán Rieckehoff Sampayo soon noticed him.
Alberto Mercado: Don German era un hombre firme y fuerte, estaba bien claro lo que le decía.
Ezequiel: Alberto remembers Don German as a man with an iron resolve.
So much resolve, that he secluded Alberto and other boxers to train in solitude on the island of Vieques ahead of the Pan-American games, the most important sports event in the Americas. Puerto Rico was actually hosting it.
Alberto Mercado: Porque allí Alberto Mercado no conoce a nadie y nadie me conoce.
Ezequiel: With Don German’s help, Alberto became focused, disciplined, hungry. A major newspaper predicted that he was Puerto Rico’s best bet for the gold.
Alberto Mercado: La única medalla que va a ganar el Puerto Rico de oro va a ser la de Alberto Mercado. Eah diantre.
Ezequiel: And they were right. Alberto did it, he won one of Puerto Rico’s two gold medals at the games. It was big news.
ARCHIVAL – CBS Sports
Announcer: Those two gold medals are the first ever won by Puerto Rico in Pan-American Games history.
Ezequiel: By the way, all of this mattered so much that the Puerto Rican beer Medalla is named as a tribute to all the Boricua medalists in the games that year.
Alberto had won gold at home. So the next step was to try to get Olympic gold in Moscow.
Alberto Mercado: Pues yo tenía una real oportunidad de hacerlo. Estaba, estaba en el “top”, como decimos nosotros, ¿verdad?
Ezequiel: But, there was a huge obstacle he didn’t see coming.
December 27, 1979, thousands of miles away from Puerto Rico, Soviet troops invaded Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan.
ARCHIVAL – CBS Evening News
News Anchor: Even though most analysts knew there were thousands of Soviet troops in Afghanistan, last week’s coup d’etat caught most of them by surprise.
Ezequiel: From the Soviets point of view, they were defending the communist Afghan government from insurrection. While the United States saw it as the Soviets invading a country in crisis. This heightened the already tense relationship between the Soviet Union and the United States.
ARCHIVAL – C-SPAN
President Jimmy Carter: And I have notified the Olympic Committee that with Soviet invading forces in Afghanistan…
Ezequiel: President Jimmy Carter in his January 1980 state of the union.
ARCHIVAL – C-SPAN
President Jimmy Carter: …neither the American people nor I will support sending an Olympic team to Moscow. [applause]
Alana: So what did this mean for Alberto, then? Because in the Olympics, as we’ve been talking about, Puerto Rico has sports sovereignty and competes as an independent state. But these Puerto Rican athletes are also US citizens, and the US is leading this boycott.
Ezequiel: Well, Alana, that was the crux and nothing was clear. Because Puerto Rican athletes have US citizenship, it would follow that they’d be subject to any ban on their participation. But, at the same time, the Olympic committees are independent from their country’s governments (hence the idea of sports sovereignty).
And then, there’s the added wrench: the Puerto Rican government was openly in favor of the USA boycott.
Carlos Romero Barceló, one of the most pro statehood governors in Puerto Rico’s history, waged a very public campaign insisting that Puerto Ricans had to join the US in their efforts against the Soviet Union.
Alana: So how did that go?
Ezequiel: As you and I know, Puerto Ricans love seeing their athletes win competitions. We had a fever, the Pan-American games had just finished, we did very good, and that itch for the gold was alive and well.
And not only that. A lot of Puerto Ricans didn’t necessarily care about the conflict in far away Afghanistan.
Antonio “Fas” Alzamora : Afganistán. La gente no sabe ni donde era.
Ezequiel: This is Antonio “Fas” Alzamora. He was a rookie representative in the Puerto Rican legislature in 1979.
Antonio “Fas” Alzamora : Si tal vez la invasión hubiera sido a República Dominicana, o algún país cercano.
Ezequiel: If the invasion had been closer like in the Dominican Republic, maybe Puerto Ricans would have reacted differently.
But even if the people of Puerto Rico weren’t too invested in the conflict in Afghanistan, the government of Puerto Rico wanted to signal support for the US. The governor pressured the legislature to pass a resolution in support of the boycott.
And then they cut funding for the Olympic Committee and that created pressure amongst the individual sports federations.
Alana: And these months before the games are usually the time when athletes who have qualified know that they’re heading to the Olympics, and they’re preparing day and night, day and night, day and night. But at that moment, in Puerto Rico, nobody knew if we were going to have representation in Moscow. Which is worrying.
Ezequiel: Yeah, and Alberto was certainly worried as well, and he definitely wanted to go. He was 19, and still in high school. With fewer than five months to go before the competition, he decided to keep training.
He was already a celebrity, and he was quoted in the newspaper saying (and I’m translating here), “winning a gold medal is an opportunity that Puerto Rico should not throw away.”
In the middle of all this political heat, the Puerto Rican Olympic Committee took a stand. Its president, Don German Rieckhof, insisted their sports sovereignty must be upheld.
He declared that no government could impose a boycott. Instead, each sports federation would vote on whether they would send their athletes.
For Alberto, this meant that his chance for the gold would really depend on the delegates of the Puerto Rican Boxing Federation.
Alberto Mercado: Todas las federaciones, le cogieron miedo al cuco.
Ezequiel: Alberto still feels that the federations were afraid of the boogeyman. And the boogeyman was of course the Carlos Romero Barceló government, pressuring them and showing they meant business by cutting funding.
And so, from April to May 1980, decisions started pouring in: Swimming federation, no. Shooting federation: nope. Sailing federation, no again.
Then, with only 47 days before Moscow, there was only one Federation left to announce their decision.
Alana: Mmm, let me guess. It was boxing.
Ezequiel: It was boxing, of course it was boxing.
ARCHIVAL – El Mundo
Mario: Por votación de 9-5 , no asistir a las Olimpiadas. Mercado le pidió a los delegados de boxeo que le concedieran un turno para hablar y él mismo le fue concedido unánimemente.
Ezequiel: And in a 9 to 5 vote, the boxing federation decided they would NOT attend the Olympics.
The pro-boycott people felt like they won. A columnist wrote this the day after the vote:
ARCHIVAL – El Mundo
Mario: “Our Boxing Federation proudly exercised their sports autonomy, standing up and facing the sun. They decided for the interest of Puerto Rico over an Olympic obsession and the individual interest of one sole athlete…” El Mundo Newspaper, June 5th 1980.
Alana: One sole athlete, they’re talking about Alberto? They’re singling him out?
Ezequiel: They’re singling him out, Yes, and Alberto still wasn’t ready to give up. He was at his peak. Tearfully, he declared to the press that his federation had betrayed him. He was trying to do something positive, he thought, by representing Puerto Rico. And the powers that be were stopping him.
Alberto Mercado: No me, no me querían dejar a, a mí hacer lo que yo quería hacer. Y era positivo.
Ezequiel: Alberto’s weight class is known as the flyweight class, and during those days after the decision Alberto behaved just like a pesky fly, buzzing around the pro-boycott’s celebration cake.
And Alberto was not the only Boricua that kept fighting. Don German was also battling from his seat on the Olympic Committee. He approached Alberto, he wanted to know if he really wanted to go?
Alberto Mercado: Y le dije que con mucho gusto, que yo voy a representar a todos los puertorriqueños.
Ezequiel: And he very much did.
Alana: What was Don German cooking up then? What did he have in mind?
Ezequiel: First: that Puerto Rico would send a “symbolic” delegation that would defend our sports sovereignty by just showing up to compete.
And secondly: that Puerto Rico would protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan by flying the Olympic flag, instead of the Puerto Rican flag. Some other countries were also going to do this – like Ireland, Australia and Denmark.
And so, on a Sunday in June 1980, with only 41 days left for the Olympics, the Boxing Federation met again and decided to accept Don German’s proposal.
Alberto was designated as flag bearer. Two other boxers who qualified would also go, they were Jose A. Molina and Luis Pizarro.
Alberto still feels this was the ultimate act of defiance, challenging the idea that the US “owns” Puerto Ricans and Puerto Rico. For Alberto it has always been clear who he belongs to.
Alberto Mercado: Yo le dije que yo soy propiedad de mi mamá y mi papá
Ezequiel: His mom and his dad.
Alberto Mercado: Y yo voy para Rusia pase lo que pase.
Ezequiel: Alberto was determined to go to Russia to compete, but the fight wasn’t over. And the question of the flag would come up one more time…
Alana: That’s when we return. This is La Brega.
BREAK
Alana: Despite the Puerto Rican government’s efforts to support a total boycott of the Moscow Olympics, the boxing federation had voted to send a symbolic delegation to represent Puerto Rico.
Ezequiel: And this was surprising to the administration of Governor Romero Barceló – they really thought that the fight had been called. So, they escalated. And now Alberto – the designated flagbearer – was in their bullseye.
First they played “nice”: Alberto recalls the administration offering him things like a house, a brand new car, and even a pension for life if he didn’t go to Moscow.
Alberto Mercado: Me ofrecieron una casa, un carro y una pensión, por el resto de mi vida.
Ezequiel: But Alberto said no. Then one day, a line was crossed.
Alberto’s mother received a surprise visit from a government official with a message.
Alberto Mercado: Que le van a quitar los cupones de alimento, que posiblemente lo van a sacar de residencial público.
Ezequiel: The official suggested to Alberto’s mother that she might lose her food stamps or perhaps even her public housing if her son insisted on going to Moscow.
Alana: I remember I saw a newspaper article in the museum about these allegations, because the press was reporting on it at the time, this was all public.
Ezequiel: Mhmm. That’s why I asked Fas Alzamora, the rookie representative in the Puerto Rican legislature, if he had heard about these tactics. He said, yes.
Ezequiel: So eso sí pasó, eso estaba pasando.
Antonio “Fas” Alzamora : Si…
Ezequiel: No es que la gente se lo inventó.
Antonio “Fas” Alzamora : No, no. Había presión.
Ezequiel: ¿Y venía de de fortaleza?
Antonio “Fas” Alzamora : ¡Claro!
Alana: That “Claro” – meaning, of course. And that the pressure was coming from the governor.
Ezequiel: Then, someone else joined the debate around Alberto’s Olympic participation. Luis A. Ferré, another pro-statehood former governor, was the President of the Puerto Rican Senate during that period. He published an open letter addressed to Alberto in a newspaper owned by his family.
While the letter itself is very long, I want to share the parts that make my stomach turn. I’m translating here, of course:
ARCHIVAL – Luis A. Ferré Letter
Letter: Many are the athletes over many many continents that will not participate in the Olympics…like Puerto Rico. But you abandon them, and you refuse to participate in their sacrifice. Instead, you have let yourself be blinded by your ambition, while others have put their morals and their values before themselves. You have no anthem, and you have no flag, so who are you representing? Not your people, but your senseless ego.
Ezequiel: Mira, I have to stop here because I want to make it clear that this letter was written by a 76-year-old white Puerto Rican millionaire to an Afro-Puerto Rican teenager living in a public housing project in Cayey.
Alana: Well put.
Ezequiel: Ferré actually sent a copy of this letter to Alberto’s training facility in Mexico. And when a government official called him about it at the time. Alberto admits his response was brash.
Alberto: Con la misma carta que acabo de dejar civil. Tal día yo me acabo de limpiarme el C-U-L-O.
Ezequiel: Alberto told him that he was gonna take that letter, and use it to wipe his A-S-S.
Alberto Mercado: Nos vemos, bye.
Ezequiel: And then, he hung up.
Alana: I remember that you told Alberto…
Ezequiel: Cuando yo leo la carta…
Alana: …you felt that the worst part of the letter was the condescending tone and the implication that Alberto did not care about the Afghans. And what he told you surprised me.
Alberto Mercado: No importa lo que están sufriendo en Afganistán. Pues mira, este, no sé, se lo digo, no lo digo. No, no me importa.
Ezequiel: He said, you know that part of the letter is true. He didn’t care about Afghanistan. At that moment, he was just thinking about himself and Puerto Rico.
Alberto Mercado: Yo pienso en mí, en ese momento. Yo pensé en mí porque yo soy lo único que me han permitido ser puertorriqueño. Yo amo a mi patria, yo amo a mi gente.
Ezequiel: A nineteen year old Puerto Rican kid who worked his ass off all his life to get to this point. A kid who loved his country and wanted to make his family proud. Thinking about himself in that particular moment. Is that really a bad thing?
Alana: Did anyone else support Alberto during all this? Were there Puerto Ricans in his corner?
Ezequiel: Yes, there was a public conversation about it, and Lucy Molinari was one of the people who defended Alberto. At the time, Lucy was leading a university athletic program. To her, it just felt like the government was extorting these young athletes.
Lucy Molinari: Una palabra fea: extorsionar, ah.
Ezequiel: So she wrote her own letter about Alberto and sent it to El Mundo newspaper.
Luz Molinari: No se encuentra en los anales de la historia deportiva de nuestro país…
Ezequiel: Lucy wrote that she had never witnessed in Puerto Rico’s sports history a situation where one athlete had to face so much political pressure NOT to represent his country.
Luz Molinari: Cuando yo escribo eso, yo estaba indignada.
Ezequiel: She wanted to point to Alberto’s courage in persisting.
Luz Molinari: Que también quería darle el valor a Mercado, a Alberto.
Ezequiel: Unknown to Lucy, while she was penning that letter, Alberto’s resolve was about to be challenged while he was training in Mexico.
Alberto Mercado: Hicieron que mis padres me llamaran a México donde yo estaba entrenando.
Ezequiel: A surprise call from his mother, who had actually once voted for Romero Barceló.
His government tried to persuade Alberto’s mom and told her she’d be a national hero if she could convince her son to come back to Puerto Rico instead of going to the Olympics. They also said they could not guarantee Alberto’s safe return home if he did go to Moscow.
Alberto Mercado: Y que posiblemente a lo mejor yo no regrese de Rusia, pues a lo mejor me va a dejar por allá, me van a secuestrar.
Ezequiel: In the middle of the Cold War, the Puerto Rican government was fear mongering, manipulating Alberto’s parents for their own benefit. It still gets to Alberto. Almost 50 years later, when he is telling us this story, you can really feel his anger. Alberto told his mother not to be afraid.
Alberto Mercado: Que no coja miedo. Yo lo que necesito que tú me de mucha fuerza a mí porque con tus palabras me vas a dar fuerza y ánimo.
Ezequiel: He needed her strength and support now, more than ever, because he was going to Moscow, to finish what he started.
Alberto Mercado: Mami. Yo voy para Puerto Rico después de los juegos olímpicos. Mañana salgo para Rusia. No vas a poder llamarme. Lo siento, mami.
[music]
Ezequiel: Lenin Central Stadium, Moscow, July 19th, 1980. Alberto Mercado is getting ready alongside the other two boxers. One by one, the delegations are marching through the stadium. It’s about to be Puerto Rico’s turn. Alberto would lead them, carrying the flag. The historic photo is about to be taken.
Alberto Mercado: Este día pasaron muchas cosas. Diablo. ¿Te las digo o no las digo?
Ezequiel: Remember: the agreement for even being in Moscow was that the Puerto Ricans would carry the Olympic flag instead of their own, as part of a symbolic protest against the Soviet Union. But, someone from the organizing committee had actually brought a Puerto Rican flag and handed it to Alberto, the flag bearer in the group.
Alberto Mercado: Toma, vas a desfilar con esta bandera.
Ezequiel: And Don German, who had done so much to bring them to this point and broker this compromise, stopped him.
Alberto Mercado: Y Don Germán a 25 pies de distancia, me hace ¡Alberto! No, yo a usted ya le dije, esa no. Coge la Olímpica.
Ezequiel: Take the Olympic one, he said. Leave the Puerto Rican one. But Alberto begged and pleaded with him.
Alberto Mercado: Pero Don Germán tanto nadar para morir en la orilla.
Ezequiel: “But please, Don German”, he said — “So much swimming just to drown at the shore.”
Alberto Mercado: Déjeme llevar la bandera de Puerto Rico.
Ezequiel: “Let me carry the Puerto Rican one.”
Don German pleaded right back.
Alberto Mercado: No, Alberto, por favor. No, no…
Ezequiel: And Alberto listened, and he took the Olympic flag instead.
Alberto says the regret was immediate. After the parade, and the photograph, and the sad faces, Don German went up to him in tears, apologizing.
Alberto Mercado: Después del desfile, lamentablemente él viene llorando donde mí y se disculpa conmigo.
Ezequiel: He should have let Alberto carry the right flag.
Alberto Mercado: Si estábamos ahí, tanto trabajo que pasamos para después decirme que no, no. Se arrepintió.
Alana: Wow. Did Don German ever talk about that regret?
Ezequiel: Alana, he has since passed away, so we can’t directly confirm Alberto’s recollection with him. But a lot of people who knew him, including Lucy Molinari, recognize the Don German she knew in this story.
Luz Molinari: Cuando oigo a Alberto, yo digo, es que ese era Don German.
Ezequiel: And sports historian Carlos Uriarte, shared this in a book talk: that Don German did lament his decision, even expressing regret on his death bed.
ARCHIVAL – Libreria Candil
Carlos Uriarte: Una fue no desfilar con la bandera de Puerto Rico en Moscú. Eso lo dijo don German en su lecho de muerte.
Alana: And after all that, how did Alberto do in Moscow?
Ezequiel: Well, after the parade, Alberto got ready and eventually got into the ring with only one thing in mind: getting that first gold medal for Puerto Rico.
Alberto faced Mexican boxer Gilberto Roman, who came to box just as hungry as Alberto did.
Alberto Mercado: Chocamos cabezas [suenan sus manos] y el que salió partido, fui yo.
Ezequiel: In the first round of their fight, they butted heads and Alberto was injured.
Alberto Mercado: Para la pelea, el referí parar la pelea.
Ezequiel: There was a deep cut on his head, and nobody could stop his bleeding. So Alberto was disqualified, and that was it.
Alberto Mercado: Tuve la mala suerte por toda la brujería imperialista que iba de aquí para allá.
Ezequiel: Today, he chalks it up to bad luck from all the “imperialist witchcraft”.
After months of a very public battle to get there, Alberto’s Olympic dream ended with a head wound that required four deep stitches.
Alberto Mercado: Yo podía seguir peleando. [suspira] Me, me dañó mi futuro.
Ezequiel: But, Alberto has had time to realize something: that even when he failed at getting the gold, he has been immortalized as a proud boricua athlete who dared to disobey.
Alberto Mercado: Quedé por lo menos como un boxeador, un atleta puertorriqueño desobediente. Contra viento y marea.
Ezequiel: Pushing, he says, against the winds and the tides.
As we were winding down the conversation, Alberto started to turn off the museum lights, but he asked us to follow him behind a door that read “staff only.”
Alana: We went up a flight of stairs, and got to his apartment. And inside, was a sea of Puerto Rican flags, really, truly everywhere.
Alana: Nos ponemos a contar uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete, ocho…
Alana: On the wall, as coasters, as curtains, flags stacked on top of flags, way way more than 40 of them.
Alana: Sería como que 40 y algo, quizás más.
Laura: Más.
Alana: Más. Perdona.
Alana: It’s as though he’s been collecting all the Puerto Rican flags he didn’t get to fly in Moscow.
Ezequiel: Where does this allegiance come from? What did Puerto Rico give to Alberto that compelled him to sacrifice so much?
Alberto Mercado: Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico me dio a mí unos padres buenos y me dio la oportunidad de yo representarlos a ellos.
Ezequiel: He said: Puerto Rico had given him good parents and the opportunity to represent them.
There’s a framed picture on the walls of the museum downstairs. It was the back cover of El Nuevo Dia newspaper from July 31st, six days after Alberto was bloodied and disqualified in Moscow’s Olympic ring. The picture was taken by photojournalist Luis Ramos and its caption reads: “back home”.
Ezequiel: Esa es tu mamá.
Alberto Mercado: Ella es mi mamá.
Ezequiel: In this photo, Alberto is standing alongside his mother, Doña Benicia, in their small kitchen.
Alberto Mercado: Haciéndome café en un colador.
Ezequiel: She is serving him some freshly brewed coffee out of a fabric filter.
The picture is just beautiful. It tells the story of why Alberto fought so hard and for so long. Because Puerto Rico gave him his mother, his greatest supporter– a woman with a timid but comforting smile.
She can’t hide the happiness she feels that her son is back by her side. And in this photo, Alberto is smiling, too. It’s the smile that he was missing at the Olympics, the smile of knowing that you have a mother who saves every single one of your press clippings, because she loves you.
Doña Benicia brought Alberto to the world, but she also “made” this museum, helped him share his story of courage and pride of being Puerto Rican. That’s why this museum is an altar to Puerto Rico. And a dedication to his mother, where the picture is right there at the entrance.
Alberto Mercado: La tengo ahí en la entrada, la tengo en mi corazón y en mi mente, siempre.
Ezequiel: There’s that cliche that “a picture is worth more than a thousand words.” It never truly connected with me, but I learned from Alberto that it can be true.
And there’s that other saying, “so much swimming just to drown at the shore.” I also learned if you brave those waters with ferocious conviction, your actions will “survive” death. Especially when those actions protect things that appear ephemeral but are actually important, like the sports sovereignty of a country that, at the time of this recording, still has no actual sovereignty.
And, we know that to win over the hearts and the minds of their people, a real champion does not have to win all of their battles.
Alana: On the next episode of La Brega, immigration officials told Isabel González that she couldn’t enter the US from Puerto Rico. She said, I’ll see you in court. It was 1902.
This episode was reported and written by Ezequiel Rodriguez Andino. It was edited by Maria Garcia and Laura Perez, with additional support from Marlon Bishop. Our Senior Producer is Nicole Rothwell.
And, we have a bonus episode related to this story, in which Ezequiel digs into what was happening in Puerto Rican politics just before the 1980 Olympics, and how another fight broke out over the Puerto Rican flag. It’s available to listeners who sign up for Futuro Plus – Go to: [futuromediagroup.org/joinplus] to hear it.
Original art for this episode is by Pedro Lugo-Vázquez.
Special thanks this week to Vilma E. Bujosa Rosario, Carlos Quiles, Josefina López, Angel Gabriel Flores Rodriguez, Elga Castro and Mariela Fullana. Thank you also to Mario Roche for the voice over work, and José Ibañez from Monopolio Records for the hospitality.
The La Brega team includes Nicole Rothwell, Ezequiel Rodríguez Andino, Laura Pérez, Liliana Ruiz, Roxana Aguirre, Maria Garcia, and Marlon Bishop. Our production managers are Jessica Ellis and Victoria Estrada with support from Francis Poon. And our marketing team includes Anhelo Reyes and Luis Luna with support from Paloma Perez and Jackie Hill.
Fact checking this season is by Laura Moscoso and Tatiana Díaz Ramos.
Sound design by Jacob Rosati.
Mixing by Stephanie Lebow, Julia Caruso, Jacob Rosati and JJ Querubin
Scoring and musical curation by Jacob Rosati and Stephanie Lebow.
Our theme song is by IFÉ. Original music is by Balún.
Our executive producers are Marlon Bishop and Maria Garcia and me, Alana Casanova-Burgess.
Legal review by ProJourn and Clearance Counsel by Fisher Legal Arts; Jonathan Fisher.
Futuro Media was founded by Maria Hinojosa.
La Brega is a production of Futuro Studios. This season of La Brega was made possible by the Mellon Foundation.
Check out our website, labregapodcast.org, for transcripts and more information about this episode.
And if you want access to the entire season right now, ad-free, sign up to support us as a Futuro Plus member, at futuromediagroup.org/joinplus
Talk to you soon, bai.
