I especially like this week’s reading because “Rico” by Peter Bacho is mainly talking about a Filipino kid in the US and his talents, behaviors, characteristics, and plans. One reason why I like this very much is because I am from the Philippines. On top of it many Filipinos are good fighters. In old days, when we talked about boxing, we will automatically refer to Muhammad Ali. However, in recent years, Manny Pacquiao is the rising star in boxing. His full name is Emmanuel Dapidran Pacquiao. He is a Filipino professional boxer. He is a seven-division world champion, and the first boxer to win nine world titles in seven different weight divisions. He is also the first boxer in the history to win the lineal championship in four different weight classes. (Wikipedia) One interesting thing about Manny Pacquiao is people created a nickname for him. “Money” Pacquiao is a more common nickname to be called. Manny is similar to money” and Pacquiao in Filipino means grab all of them. And one reason why this is more of a common nickname is because he won most of the fighting and took all the money.
I have personally met Manny Paquiao in several awarding ceremonies in the Philippines. We both were selected to be the Top 10 outstanding sportsman of the year in the Philippines. On top of it, he had visited our training venue for couple times. Now that I read the story “Rico” I found some interesting common traits from Filipino fighters. “Rico was short and wiry, but he made up for it by being strong, fast, and clever.” (Bacho 18) This is what exactly reporters and people praise Manny Pacquiao in the news. He is about my height, but his fists are so powerful that I can almost compare him to Bruce Lee. He has a very good sense of fighting. His moves are sharp, neat, and effective. He is definitely a gifted boxer.
Philippines is called as the Pearl of the East. It is the country of music and art. Actually my first impression to Manny Pacquiao the first time we met was his fancy music sunglass. The music was a little big loud. He was listening to rap songs. I think the reason why athletes like rap songs is because of its rhythms. It is fast and strong which fits for many athletes. However, I can sense some discrimination or racism in the story. “Filipinos always hired black bands: this was black music, not white, and the horns make it raw and powerful, something white bands could never do.” (Bacho 19) It is more of between black people and white people. I think the author was sort of separating Blacks from Whites, and he also mentioned that Blacks are more masculine and Whites are more feminine.
Manny Pacquiao was poor when he was young, yet he became rich from winning many games. Millions of dollars then flow into his pocket. Since he is the center of the media, he has to be responsible of his behaviors and characteristics. While in the story, Rico Divina was from a poor family and he has nothing else to lose. But people want to be given attention and become popular. So, he chose to be the baddest which worked well. People scared of him and girls wanted to follow him. He even got a collection of many girls’ contact information. This maybe is not the best way, but it worked for him at that time.
I think Rico treated Buddy as his brother. In fact, at some point, I thought that Buddy is the imaginary friend created by Rico. Just like having dual personality. I watched a movie about a tough nut having dual personality where his friend always advised him to hold his tempered and avoid him to be impulsive. Buddy is another side of Rico where he wants to stay for another year, goes to college, and receives education. Buddy is a good listener to Rico and someone that he can talk to. The main reason why I have this weird thought was because of the movie I watched. Also, Rico became somehow sentimental when talking to Buddy which I think a touch guy like him would never do because he doesn’t want to look WEAK?!
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