By Héctor Becerra
José Rafael Bello Ugueto was born in Río Caribe, cozy coastal town of the Venezuelan East, where she learned since childhood to play baseball under the teachings of her father, a player of one of the most popular novenas of the town. Between 1934, the year of his birth, and 1944 the New York Yankees played the world Series seven times and won it six times. That is why it is not surprising that during his childhood in the native Lar, the Success Boy became fervent fan of the most famous baseball currency in the world.
Years later, moved to the capital of the country, Bello felt in person the festive atmosphere lived in 1947 with the visit of the Yankees and the Dodgers of Brooklyn, who played a series at the Caracas beer stadium in San Agustín as part of their spring training. Entrance in the 50s, the idea of publishing a book about his favorite team was put in his head. He visited libraries and newspaper libraries, compiled data, statistics and anecdotes. He kept newspaper cuts. He wrote dozens of machine quarters, year after year.
He confessed on one occasion that the time came when he did not know what to do with so much role, since his profession was not that of a writer or journalist, but that of architect. But a visit to the newspaper of the newspaper As is In the nascent 21st century it gave him lights. He spoke with the director Teodoro Petkoff, his friend, and with Freddy Núñez, circulation manager, former director of the Open Space Foundation, producer of the weekly program Coffee with farticulist and political analyst, two passionate about the ball game that were involved with the project and encouraged Bello to move on.
The idea began to curdle, after the group was folded by the graphic designer Iván Márquez, the sports narrator and commentator Fernando Arreaza and Javier González, historian specialized in sports. This team gave order to the infinity of original writings collected. He edited the texts, reviewed images, compared numerites. Despite the economic difficulties he was going through and still crosses the country, the book dream by its author became a reality under the title of New York Yankees, 101 years of history 1903-2004, volume I.
Library record
The work was baptized on November 14, 2015 during a modest act in the Kalathos bookstore of the Los Galpones Art Center in the jets, so this year a decade of that great effort specified will be fulfilled. “I had a great accumulation of varied information and tried to shape it, something very difficult for me, because writing is not my trade. I touched several doors without finding reception. So see this book about the Yankees published, the team that I became a fan because I was the one who always won, has given my life a great happiness,” said Bello in that opportunity.
Núñez, in charge of the book edition, defined it as “a beautiful collection copy” with a combined prologue of Arreaza and González. They are more than 300 pages, illustrated with photographs. For its preparation about 30 bibliographic and audiovisual sources were consulted. The content covers since the franchise was called Highlanders in 1903 until the season that marked the end of the “curse of the bambino” in 2004 with the triumph of the Boston Red Sox in the World Series. “The sports bibliography is enriched with this collectible book for followers or not of the Yankees,” says the editor.
What Bello never suspected, ”he said in peace more than five years ago – is that his book would be registered one day with a card in the United States Congress Library in Washington, as has happened now, 10 years after that baptism. This verified fact was notified a few days ago to Núñez, who gave details of the efforts undertaken to achieve such achievement. “We started the procedure long during a trip fulfilled to the United States. The procedure included presenting some very specific collections,” he says.
Among the collections, an explanation was requested by arguing why the request for registration was made. An argument of weight was the original condition of the book, because it is the only one of its written in Spanish that exists about the history of the most winner in the major leagues of American baseball. “We were also asked for two copies. After a waiting time we received a message from the US Congress Library, warning that the application had been approved, so users on any part of the planet can consult the book when they want. Having arrived so far, from the Caribbean River to Washington, exalts Venezuelans,” said Núñez.
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