Public Employee Press

Everyday Heroes
Giving kids a fighting chance

By ALFREDO ALVARADO

Keisha Smith scoured her South Bronx neighborhood, determined to find a self-defense class to enroll her 11-year-old son Kevin. She wants Kevin to be ready when he starts the seventh grade in his new school.

Smith found exactly what she was looking for along Southern Boulevard at El Maestro Cultural and Education Center. The center features a boxing program that offers training to everyone from novices like Kevin to Eddie Gomez, a professional boxer who has more than a dozen bouts under his belt and has fought at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

The center's founder and director is SSEU Local 371 member Fernando "Ponce" Laspina. After working a full day at New York City Housing Authority's Soundview Senior Center, he heads to the El Maestro center to join four volunteer trainers and a dozen boxers, who are pounding away at the heavy bag while other young men skip rope and wait their turn to step into the ring for a sparring session.

Laspina also had to adjust to a new school and a new culture when he moved with his family from Ponce, Puerto Rico, as a 15-year-old to the South Bronx.

He was getting jumped and robbed of the little money he had, so for protection he joined the notorious Savage Skulls. During the 1970s, gangs were as ubiquitous in the neighborhood as the rhythms of salsa music coming from the corner bodegas. But gang banging landed him in Rikers Island for a year.

When he was released, he promised his mother he would straighten out his life. He earned his high school equivalency diploma and later a master's degree in Latin American studies from Buffalo State University.

Laspina's center offers a lot more than boxing. On the weekends, neighborhood bands rehearse traditional Puerto Rican music on the small stage next to the ring. They sponsor softball and little league tournaments and during the summer there are festive barbecues in the center's backyard.

Throughout the years, Laspina organizes fundraising events to help keep the center, open since 2003, from closing its doors. Laspina has dug into his own pocket to pay the bills and keep the doors open on several occasions.

"It's been a sacrifice," said Laspina, without sounding exasperated. "But having a place like this is a dream of mine."

Keisha Smith is ready to take her son home after his first session. The trainer unlaces Kevin's gloves and encourages him to keep working on his jab. The happy mom thanks the trainer and says they'll be back.

When they return, the doors to El Maestro will be open and the trainers will be waiting for Kevin. Laspina will make sure of that.