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  • 6 hours ago
Never Be A Punching Bag For Nobody 2023
Transcript
00:00:29Transcribed by ESO, translated by —
00:00:58Transcribed by ESO, translated by —
00:01:28Transcribed by ESO, translated by —
00:01:59Transcribed by —
00:02:00A mix of small businesses, long-time residents, and new immigration.
00:02:08I was struck by the views out onto Boston Harbor.
00:02:11The sky, the ocean, the islands.
00:02:17In contrast was the relentless sound of airplanes.
00:02:21Up to 120 takeoffs and landings per hour.
00:02:25This juxtaposition somehow made the natural beauty of the landscape.
00:02:29All the more poignant.
00:02:36I wandered over to Winthrop, a town on the peninsula jutting out into Massachusetts Bay
00:02:42on the northern edge of East Boston.
00:03:06I realized that for years, flying in and out of Boston, I had seen these neighborhoods from above.
00:03:12I had marveled at how we barely skimmed over the houses and backyards.
00:03:28You enter Winthrop by crossing a bridge over the Belle Isle Reservation.
00:03:35It is the last salt marsh in Boston city limits.
00:03:39All the others were filled in and built on long ago.
00:03:47Old houses hug the water.
00:03:50There are dramatic views of Logan across the harbor.
00:03:53Downtown Boston is often the distance.
00:03:56And the plains.
00:03:58Constantly the plains.
00:04:07I learned that the poet Sylvia Plath had spent her early childhood in Winthrop in the late 1930s.
00:04:15She once wrote,
00:04:17I lived on the bay side of town, on Johnson Avenue, opposite the Logan Airport.
00:04:24And before I went to bed each night, I used to kneel by the west window of my room
00:04:29and look over to the lights of Boston that blazed and blinked far off across the darkening water.
00:04:38The sunset flaunted its pink flag above the airport,
00:04:41and the sound of waves was lost in the perpetual droning of the plains.
00:04:47I marveled at the moving beacons on the runway and watched until it grew completely dark,
00:04:53the flashing red and green lights that rose and set in the sky like shooting stars.
00:04:59The airport was my Mecca, my Jerusalem.
00:05:03All night, I dreamed of flying.
00:05:13Driving through Winthrop, a storefront caught my eye.
00:05:17Bartolo's Boxing Club.
00:05:20From the street, I could see inside.
00:05:23The walls were covered in old framed photographs of boxers.
00:05:28I hesitated before going inside,
00:05:30but the old photographs intrigued me, and so I went in.
00:05:36There I met Sal Bartolo Jr.
00:05:41He was gruff, but cordial.
00:05:43He became less cordial, though, when I asked if I might film a fashion video at his gym.
00:05:50No, no, no, he said.
00:05:51No filming, no photo shoots.
00:05:55He had a bad experience once before with a fashion shoot,
00:05:58where models in bikinis and high heels went parading around his gym
00:06:03and ruined the floors in the boxing ring.
00:06:06No, this was a serious place, only for boxing.
00:06:10No, no, no.
00:06:12Never again.
00:06:13No, no, no, no, no.
00:06:19No, no, no.
00:06:43the gym right now and get a closer look at those photos? That was fine, he said. And then he
00:06:49started
00:06:49showing me the photographs. A photograph of his father, Sal Bartolo Sr., was centered over the
00:06:57ring. Well, my father was a fighter. He was a world champion. My uncles did some fighting,
00:07:04and I just kept on doing it. I liked it. Sal Sr. had been the National Boxing Association
00:07:10Featherweight Champion from 1944 to 1946. He was known as the Pride of East Boston.
00:07:33To his left was a portrait of Phil Terranova, whom Sal Sr. had beaten to win the title
00:07:39in 1944. And to his right was Willie Pepp, who had taken the title away from Sal Sr. in 1946.
00:07:55Pepp won that fight in a 12th round knockout that landed Sal Sr. in the hospital with a broken jaw.
00:08:02There was a photograph of that, too.
00:08:21I asked Sal about boxing training. What was it like? Were there any women training at his gym?
00:08:27He said, yes, there were. His gym had women, men, kids, people of all ages and abilities.
00:08:37Anyone could box. It was just a matter of putting in the work, the cardio, the strength training,
00:08:43things like push-ups. I said I had been trying to do a push-up for years and still couldn't
00:08:48do a single
00:08:49one.
00:08:55He said, of course you can. And before I knew it, he had ordered me down on the floor to
00:09:00show
00:09:00him my push-up. I was amused, so I obeyed. Then he started barking instructions at me like an army
00:09:08sergeant, which, as I found out later, he was.
00:09:17Even with Sal's instructions, I still couldn't manage a decent push-up. But Sal offered me a free
00:09:23boxing class and said if I worked at it, eventually I would be able to do one.
00:09:28But it's all mental. It's a mental game. Relax your mind. There isn't anything you can't do.
00:09:44I thought, no way. Even if it is free, I can't even bear to watch violence in films. I had
00:09:54my
00:09:54eyes covered for half of Raging Bull. There's no way I would ever do boxing. I thanked him and left.
00:10:03But I couldn't stop thinking about the gym.
00:10:06I want five. Go!
00:10:07Sal's description of the rigors of boxing training and his stories about the photographs had intrigued
00:10:13me. So I decided to take that free class, even though I couldn't imagine punching someone,
00:10:19and I certainly knew that I did not want to be punched.
00:10:24And, in the back of my mind, I hoped that maybe if I attended one of his classes,
00:10:30Sal might trust me a little more, and change his mind about letting me use the gym as a location.
00:10:38Turn around!
00:10:41I asked Laura, who was going to be the model in the video, to join me for the class.
00:10:46I thought it would be a good idea if Sal met her and saw she wasn't going to prance around
00:10:51his gym in a bikini and heels.
00:10:57Sal showed us no mercy, and at the end of class, after a brutal two hours,
00:11:02Laura and I were dripping with sweat. We'd each lost three pounds.
00:11:10I asked Sal again whether he would let me film at the gym.
00:11:19Slide the balls up, pump the press, get up, get some water, even though we didn't earn
00:11:22it.
00:11:26This time, he said yes.
00:11:38Sal was helpful during the video shoot, even appearing in it, and he seemed pleased with
00:11:43the result. But what surprised me is that by the time we finished making the video, I
00:11:49was fascinated with boxing.
00:11:51See how the hand is down here? You stopped at the arm. Where's the bag? He's still standing
00:11:57there. You want to go through it.
00:11:59I kept returning to the gym to take Sal's classes. First once a week, then twice a week, until
00:12:06I was going five nights a week.
00:12:08Because I didn't push.
00:12:09You can hear the difference. See how it's going all different ways? You're not controlling it.
00:12:15Again, what do you see in here? At the right hand, you're in an orthodox position. Right
00:12:19hand's coming out. But what about the rest of your body?
00:12:24Because I'm not, it's square.
00:12:25You're square, exactly. I'm square. Now, what do you get your legs doing? Absolutely
00:12:30nothing.
00:12:37I would head down towards the gym an hour or two before class and poke around the neighborhood
00:12:42with my camera. I liked exploring the edges, where the city met the ocean, where the domestic
00:12:49met the industrial.
00:13:15So you're fighting like you're afraid of it.
00:13:17Yeah.
00:13:20Yeah.
00:13:27Yeah.
00:13:28Thank you, thank you.
00:13:31Yeah.
00:14:02People would come out of their houses and ask me what I was doing.
00:14:05And then they would start talking to me.
00:14:08Hi, my name is Larry Venezia.
00:14:12I've been living in this house for 65 years.
00:14:15Telling me stories about the neighborhood and about the airport.
00:14:19You got it. So there was actually hangers.
00:14:20We used to play it.
00:14:22We used to go on.
00:14:23We used to drive our bikes.
00:14:25Like Sal, many of them had lived in East Boston or Winthrop their entire lives.
00:14:30Underneath the plane wings.
00:14:33Not anymore.
00:14:34The only thing that you could grab in a hang of those days was salt tablets.
00:14:40And so we'd grab a salt tablet from a dispenser thing.
00:14:44And that was like all it was ever in a hang of those days.
00:14:48It would just hang.
00:14:48East Boston was originally a group of islands.
00:14:53Since the 1830s, the water between them had gradually been filled in.
00:15:01Jeffrey Field, the predecessor of Logan Airport, opened in 1923 on the Tidal Flats.
00:15:12In the early years, the airport was a novelty and a point of pride for the neighborhood.
00:15:41During World War II, any inconveniences from living next to an airport.
00:15:46were set aside for patriotic reasons.
00:15:50But after the war, in the late 1940s, tension between Logan and the surrounding communities started to grow.
00:15:59Politicians and the business community saw Logan's expansion as necessary for Boston's economic growth.
00:16:06But the only direction it could grow was into East Boston.
00:16:27And it was a big one.
00:16:28And if you could possibly have been defeated and treat.
00:16:28In the late 1960s, Scotland was set aside for the first year.
00:16:28And then, Alexi was, he was going to be first.
00:16:28And has managed to reach out as well as the last year before.
00:16:28And it was a better place for the day.
00:16:28And there was a better place for that.
00:16:28We were at the same time for the first year.
00:16:29And the city of Hope for a moment is that the downtown town is about what the home of this
00:16:31town has been working.
00:16:31And then, then you have to bring more people into the town.
00:16:36That was a better place for the city of the city of the city that was about.
00:16:54Noise from the airport had been steadily increasing.
00:16:58But in 1959, with the introduction of jet engines, the noise levels suddenly became extreme.
00:17:08The new jets were more than twice as loud as the older piston engine planes.
00:17:20They also needed longer runways.
00:17:27So in the 1960s, Massport, the Logan Authority, started exploring further expansion.
00:17:33In particular, they needed a way to extend runway 1533.
00:17:45About those mysterious runway numbers, have you ever stared out the window of a plane while
00:17:51stuck waiting for takeoff and wondered what all those numbers mean?
00:17:561533.
00:17:58422.
00:17:59927.
00:18:01They seem so arbitrary, but of course they aren't.
00:18:05Each runway has two numbers, indicating the runway's orientation on the compass.
00:18:10One is used when the plane is traveling in one direction, and one is used when it is traveling
00:18:16the opposite way.
00:18:18The numbers go from 10 degrees to 360.
00:18:21But, for efficiency, the final zero of the number on the compass is dropped.
00:18:26So, runways are numbered 1 to 36.
00:18:30Runway 1533 pointed straight towards an East Boston Street called Neptune Road.
00:19:02If you think, if you think of the older industrial city, the city of railroads and ports, the
00:19:07buildings, and factories, and low-rise workers' housing in that city.
00:19:12The boxing gym was one of the institutions that formed the backbone of the neighborhood.
00:19:17So, the union hall, and the saloon, and the church, and the synagogue, and the boxing gym
00:19:21was one of those institutions.
00:19:22Every neighborhood had at least one.
00:19:24It was woven into the fabric of everyday life.
00:19:32Carlo Rotella is a professor of English and Urban Studies at Boston College.
00:19:37But he has also spent a lot of time at ringside, and has written extensively on boxing.
00:19:44If you think about the boxing gym in the post-industrial city, that is the city organized around handling
00:19:50information.
00:19:51It's the city of, you know, airport, high-rise buildings, big suburban surround, expressways
00:19:59so people can drive in and out.
00:20:00That city, the boxing gym, was a kind of esoteric leftover, sort of a way that the neighborhood
00:20:06was that doesn't really exist anymore.
00:20:08But the gym's still left.
00:20:14I was reading Katherine Dunn's writing on boxing, and this passage resonated with me.
00:20:20If home and streets are fraught with chaos, order still prevails in the gym.
00:20:26The violence is ritualized and contained in the ring, where there are rules and bells,
00:20:32protective helmets, and a coach in the corner, watching carefully.
00:20:37Her observation helped explain my surprising comfort with boxing.
00:20:42In the boxing gym, there are rules to the violence.
00:20:46You choose to enter the fight.
00:20:47It doesn't just happen to you.
00:20:50I also came to appreciate that boxing is not just about offense, about hitting, but just
00:20:56as much, if not more, about defense.
00:20:59So there are different kinds of defensive fighters.
00:21:01There are defensive fighters who build a fortress out of their arms, and it's just hard to get through.
00:21:08But then there's, to me, there's the even higher art of someone like Bernard Hopkins,
00:21:12whose defensive genius lies more in arranging so it's never a good time to hit him.
00:21:19Or, as Sal often tells us, never be a punching bag for nobody.
00:21:25Well, this is all inside fighting.
00:21:30Now, see how I'm using the ropes, bouncing off the rope every time he hits.
00:21:37See?
00:21:39Now, look how fast his hand's on him.
00:21:41He still can't get any punches in him.
00:21:46See what I mean? Watch my hands.
00:21:50Nothing's getting in.
00:21:53A large part of being in the gym is listening to Sal's stories.
00:21:59Sal makes no mystery of the fact that he comes from a background populated by wise guys.
00:22:05All these guys was getting ready for the drugs.
00:22:10That's Anthony, and that's Gary.
00:22:14Both of them I got ready for the Marines.
00:22:17He's in jail now.
00:22:23He's in jail for attempted murder.
00:22:25He used to be a wise guy.
00:22:27And he went to make a collection.
00:22:30And the guy screwed with him, so he shot him in the ass.
00:22:36Then he went to court.
00:22:38And the judge gave him like 90 million years.
00:22:41He picked up the chair and threw the chair with the judge.
00:22:44And he gave him another 10 million years.
00:22:49Two tough kids.
00:22:53I love these stories.
00:22:55I know the wise guys are no laughing matter.
00:22:58But they're intertwined with boxing and with East Boston.
00:23:02Sal will point to a photo of a boxer on the wall.
00:23:05Say something about his technique.
00:23:08And inevitably, which wise guy owned him or his bleak end.
00:23:15Sal comes from a time when being a bookie was just another job.
00:23:23In 1959, there was a widely reported FBI raid of the Ringside Cafe, the bar that Sal Sr. owned after
00:23:31he retired from boxing.
00:23:33Sal Jr. was just a child at the time and doesn't really remember it.
00:23:38But he does have all the newspaper clippings.
00:23:46As a teenager, Mary Ellen Welch worked in the drugstore next to the Ringside Cafe.
00:23:52But they had a big, let's call it a booking industry there.
00:23:58And they would come in the drugstore and they'd use our telephone, we had telephone books.
00:24:05They would use our phones to place their bets because it couldn't be traced on a public phone or at
00:24:13least they thought it wouldn't.
00:24:15Along with boxing, Sal passes on other wisdom such as, hang your pants with the betting money in them on
00:24:22the wall.
00:24:23That way, when you are raided, the money is not on you and can't be used as evidence.
00:24:28This is why bookies often worked in their underwear.
00:24:42One wall of the gym is covered with photographs from Sal Sr.'s life.
00:24:47Including photos of Sal Sr. with John F. Kennedy, who was a family friend.
00:24:53Family lore is that Sal's uncle in East Boston had been a bootlegger with JFK's father Joseph.
00:24:59And that when JFK and Jackie Kennedy would come to Boston, JFK would ask that Sal Sr. be his personal
00:25:07driver rather than his usual secret service chauffeur.
00:25:15On the opposite wall of the gym is Sal Jr.'s life story.
00:25:19His amateur and professional boxing career.
00:25:22His medals and souvenirs from his years in the U.S. Army and with NATO peacekeeping troops in Bosnia.
00:25:28Where he opened a boxing gym for fellow soldiers.
00:25:32Sal's house of pain.
00:25:43This gym here. That was in Bosnia.
00:25:58So I'd play Army in the daytime, do missions, and then nighttime I'd train fighters.
00:26:12The last and longest wall in the gym is covered with snapshots of Sal's students over the years.
00:26:19Each dated with their first names written in marker on their image.
00:26:23And if you look over there, it's all past students.
00:26:26I got 40 years over, over 40 years worth of students on that wall.
00:26:31Since I've been at the gym, Sal's students have included an Army officer on leave, an events planner at a
00:26:38hotel, an airline pilot, a welder, a tattoo artist, a grave digger, a secret service agent, a guy just out
00:26:48of prison, a seven-year-old boy that had to stand on a box.
00:26:52To reach up to the speed bag, and a middle school girl who had wanted to be a fighter ever
00:26:58since she was three.
00:27:10In the gym, everyone had to spar with everyone else.
00:27:15When there was a huge mismatch, Sal would insist that the stronger, bigger person had to adjust their fighting style
00:27:22so no one would get hurt.
00:27:32That meant I had to crouch way down to gently tap the seven-year-old.
00:27:38And so did the secret service agent when he sparred with me.
00:27:53Inside the gym, we formed a community, like a team or members of a band, or sometimes, I thought, like
00:28:00members of a cult.
00:28:04Many of the institutions that have shaped my life, libraries, schools, honky-tonks, you know, blues clubs, are all like
00:28:12that.
00:28:13Where you come in and you say, this is a very specific and unique place, it's like all the other
00:28:17places in its category that are distributed throughout the world,
00:28:21but each one is sort of like the mystical body of honky-tonks.
00:28:23And anywhere you're in a honky-tonk, you're like, hey, it's a honky-tonk, I know how this works, right?
00:28:27And boxing gyms are really like that.
00:28:29And they have that real feel, and as soon as you're in one, you feel at home.
00:28:33If you feel at home in any boxing gym, you feel at home in them all to some extent.
00:28:45Sometimes, after class, some of us would go for a drink at Kelly's Square Pub, John Mastrangelo's bar in East
00:28:53Boston.
00:28:54John was a former boxer himself.
00:28:57His career was in the 1960s.
00:29:00There are photos of boxers and local celebrities covering the walls of his pub,
00:29:05and a large signed photo of Sal Sr. right over the bar.
00:29:13One night, Sal Jr. joined us at Kelly's,
00:29:16and at the end of the evening, we discovered he had secretly picked up the tab.
00:29:21What?
00:29:42Driving to the gym each night, I passed the Wood Island Park train station.
00:29:47But where was Wood Island Park?
00:29:50I didn't see anything like a park anywhere around.
00:29:55Just the T-station, the highway overpass, and the edges of the airport.
00:30:08It turned out that the park was long gone.
00:30:19Wood Island Park opened in 1898.
00:30:22Wood Island Park was what I would consider a smaller version of Central Park.
00:30:29An Oceanside Park, overlooking Boston Harbor, and adjacent to the tidal flats that would become Jeffrey Field and later Logan
00:30:37Airport.
00:30:41It had, when I say rolling hills, I mean rolling hills surrounded by beach.
00:30:48We used to sled.
00:30:50Brave people would actually try to ski with the old leather bindings and wooden skis.
00:30:57It was 70 acres, as large as the Boston Common and Public Garden downtown,
00:31:03and was designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted,
00:31:08the same designer of Central Park in New York, in Boston's emerald necklace.
00:31:13It had ball fields, all kinds, baseball fields, football fields.
00:31:19Wood Island Park had paths for strolling.
00:31:22Every single day after school, we would get together.
00:31:26Beaches, running tracks, a tennis court, and picnic areas.
00:31:31And, you know, take a blanket off, whatever, and get a space.
00:31:35So it was very well populated all the time.
00:31:51In 1963, Massport announced plans to expand Runway 1533 by demolishing Wood Island Park.
00:31:59They went, like, after midnight one night in the state legislature.
00:32:04And under the guise of a bill to address mental health issues,
00:32:09they snuck in the taking of Wood Island Park with eminent domain.
00:32:15The neighborhood responded with protests and lawsuits.
00:32:19Yet in April 1967, despite the public protest, Massport took Wood Island Park.
00:32:25And according to one historian, in one day,
00:32:30Wood Island Park was graded to the level of the existing runway.
00:32:36Olmsted also designed Neptune Road,
00:32:39a wide residential avenue lined with elm trees,
00:32:43as a grand entrance to Wood Island Park.
00:32:47After the park was leveled, the houses on Neptune Road were less than 2,000 feet from the new runway
00:32:541533.
00:32:57Residents were subject to even more noise and vibration,
00:33:00as the planes took off and landed directly over their houses.
00:33:07One day, I was filming the airport from Coleridge Street,
00:33:10a small, dead-end street where there is a row of houses with backyards overlooking Logan.
00:33:19I was peering into one of these backyards, holding my camera,
00:33:23when Donnie, who lives in that house, came up and asked what I was doing.
00:33:27I told him about my interest in Wood Island Park and Neptune Road.
00:33:32Donnie told me that these five houses were originally located on Neptune Road.
00:33:38And it was moved back in 1978, 1979.
00:33:45Larry Venetia, Donnie's next-door neighbor, still lives in the same house he grew up in.
00:33:52The planes that came in a little too low used to knock our TV antenna down.
00:34:00Oh, my God.
00:34:01You can actually still see a broken TV antenna up on this house.
00:34:06Really? From one of the planes?
00:34:08Yeah.
00:34:09It's been there forever.
00:34:15I can remember my dad, especially on a Sunday,
00:34:18they were having the spaghetti and meatballs, big Sunday dinner,
00:34:23and the planes would come.
00:34:25So every four minutes, a plane would either take off or land,
00:34:29depending on the wind.
00:34:31And he'd call up the airport tower
00:34:36and tell them that he's going to go up on the roof,
00:34:41and he's going to punch a time card
00:34:44and sweep the bottoms of the planes with room.
00:34:49That's how low they were.
00:34:52And everybody would laugh, but it was serious.
00:34:55I mean, I swear I'm half deaf because of the planes going over so close.
00:35:01I always slept on this side.
00:35:04And that's my only good idea.
00:35:07I don't know.
00:35:35I don't know.
00:35:35on Wood Island Park,
00:35:3735 workmen with 35 chainsaws
00:35:40up on Neptune Road
00:35:41and cut down 35 for 35 Elm trees.
00:35:45They also seized 720 feet of the road
00:35:49and four houses by eminent domain, evicting eight families.
00:35:55Over the next few years, the remaining residents tried to hold out and fight back against Massport.
00:36:02Well, Massport gave us a couple of choices.
00:36:08Pay us market value and knock down the house and you're on your own.
00:36:13Massport gave residents on Neptune Road a choice.
00:36:16Or this option.
00:36:18Sell their homes to Massport or have their houses moved.
00:36:22And so they gave us, they didn't give us, they gave us a deal on this property, on the land,
00:36:28and we had the house moved.
00:36:31Yeah.
00:36:56No, no, no, no, no.
00:37:21No, no, no, no.
00:37:22No, no, no, no, no.
00:37:23No, no, no, no.
00:38:03Of the original elm trees, a few survivors can still be found at the outer edge of Logan, on the
00:38:10remnant of Neptune Road, which dead ends into the wall surrounding the airport.
00:38:16The people, part of it, was not even considered.
00:38:19They said, oh, these people, we'll give them money for their homes.
00:38:24But it was a minuscule amount.
00:38:26And they didn't value all of the things that a truly diverse neighborhood can offer you.
00:38:32How close families were, how you brought up each other's kids.
00:38:37If somebody was working, they'd watch the kids next door.
00:38:48One day, I met Nelson, a little boy who lives in one of these houses that had been moved from
00:38:53Neptune Road.
00:38:55He shyly watched me filming, circling around me with his bike.
00:39:00I know a great idea for a movie, he said.
00:39:03What is it, I asked.
00:39:05Me, on my bike, chasing you.
00:39:09So, we filmed this great movie.
00:39:49My thoughts after sparring for the first time.
00:39:52I need to stay calmer, not be frantic.
00:39:56Sparring, I had felt completely overwhelmed.
00:40:00Half frozen and unable to move.
00:40:03And half wildly pawing at the air, trying to box.
00:40:10That night, after class, I thought about all the time that I spent as a child, unable to defend myself.
00:40:18My father, who I adored, frequently would fly into rages, screaming and repeatedly hitting me and my brother.
00:40:27It always happened after he and my mother had been fighting.
00:40:30He never hit her.
00:40:32But in the aftermath of their arguments, he would come to the back of the house, where we were hiding,
00:40:38and hit us.
00:40:41Then he would abruptly stop and go away.
00:40:45Later, we would all pretend nothing had happened.
00:40:50I also thought about my mother.
00:40:53Either I was the perfect daughter, or I was the enemy.
00:40:57It depended on her shifting reality.
00:41:02Often, she wandered around the house at night, unable to sleep.
00:41:06If I angered her, she would complain to my father, and that would set him off.
00:41:16I clung to my father's affection for those other times with him.
00:41:20The times when he was in a good mood, and would let me sit in the darkroom while he printed
00:41:25his pictures.
00:41:26If I upset her, that would be lost to me.
00:41:32It wasn't until well into my adulthood that she was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder.
00:41:38She was hospitalized during episodes of psychotic depression later in life.
00:41:44I was afraid of the dark for so many years.
00:41:47Only after I learned to say to myself,
00:41:50It's not the dark you are afraid of.
00:41:52It's your mother.
00:41:53Could I walk down the hall at night without turning on the light?
00:42:00As a child, I had learned to be inert.
00:42:02To be stone cold.
00:42:04To be non-reactive.
00:42:06To be as if I were dead.
00:42:08To be as if I had no feelings.
00:42:11To be as if I did not notice the craziness or the cruelty of it all.
00:42:16I tried to disappear.
00:42:18The only way I thought I could be with you.
00:42:21When a lyric I wrote years later.
00:42:26It was a survival technique.
00:42:29I hope that if I didn't respond, didn't exacerbate the situation, my father's mood might pass more quickly.
00:42:37That he would finish hitting us sooner.
00:42:40I hope that if I didn't react to her erratic behavior, that my mother would not become angry or hurt.
00:42:46That night, after my first sparring session, I realized that I had been trained not to fight back.
00:43:08I think about the first time Sal did pad work, a boxing drill, with me.
00:43:14It was early on, maybe the second class I took.
00:43:18He was holding out the pads, telling me to punch them with my gloved hands.
00:43:23I couldn't.
00:43:25I could only give his outstretched hands a half-hearted tap.
00:43:29Come on, he said.
00:43:30Punch it like you mean it.
00:43:32Like you were really angry.
00:43:34I could only giggle and laugh nervously, and barely punch the pads.
00:43:39I wanted so desperately to punch them hard, but I couldn't bring myself to do it.
00:43:45I felt like I was outside my own body, looking down from the ceiling.
00:43:50I watched myself unable to control my uncomfortable, stupid giggling, unable to punch his hands.
00:43:58As I watched myself, I was thinking, if I can't even pretend to conjure up anger without embarrassment or shame,
00:44:05if I can't hit back even when I want to, even when I am being told to do so,
00:44:11I really need to learn this.
00:44:20Boxing training is repetitive, muscle memory as well as conditioning.
00:44:25What else is held in muscle memory?
00:44:28The flinch as the hand comes towards you,
00:44:31when as a child you cower in the furthermost corner of the closet or in the backseat of the car?
00:44:37Can you learn not to flinch as a hand comes towards you?
00:44:43Catch and counter, says Sal.
00:44:45You catch the hand coming out, stop it from hitting you,
00:44:49and then, with split-second timing,
00:44:51almost at the very same moment as you block that hand coming towards you,
00:44:55you hit back.
00:45:13I was introduced to Mary Ellen Welch by Regina Markey,
00:45:16a fourth-generation East Bostonian,
00:45:19and author of a book about East Boston history.
00:45:23Regina told me that if I wanted to speak with someone
00:45:26who had been a defender of East Boston,
00:45:28I should meet her godmother.
00:45:31She's the most dynamic, strong, you know,
00:45:34she was a feminist before people were feminists,
00:45:36before my own mother was on board with that.
00:45:38But long story short, I said to her yesterday,
00:45:40told her about you and said,
00:45:41would you ever feel up to doing an interview?
00:45:47When I met Mary Ellen, she was in the hospital.
00:45:50Frail, but her passion undiminished.
00:45:55I've been involved in East Boston politics and community action
00:46:01since about 1965.
00:46:09Mary Ellen Welch was a schoolteacher and lifelong activist.
00:46:14In her second-grade classroom,
00:46:16she wrote the number to call with airport noise complaints
00:46:19on one corner of the blackboard.
00:46:22One of her students wrote to the head of Massport,
00:46:26Dear Mr. Davis,
00:46:28the planes hurt my ears.
00:46:29When I do my work, I get disturbed.
00:46:32Miss Welch is getting mad.
00:46:34Can you make the planes quieter?
00:46:36I hope so.
00:46:39Please make the planes stop.
00:46:41The end.
00:46:45In 1968,
00:46:47Mary Ellen Welch
00:46:48was part of the Maverick Street Mother's protest.
00:46:51Dump trucks carrying landfill
00:46:53for Logan expansion,
00:46:54up to 600 trucks per day,
00:46:57had been speeding down Maverick Street,
00:46:59a residential street
00:47:01on the other side of the airport
00:47:02from Neptune Road.
00:47:04The airport at the time
00:47:06was leveling
00:47:07what was then called Bird Island Flats.
00:47:09It had a hill
00:47:10and they were leveling the dirt
00:47:12and taking the dirt away
00:47:13in these great big dump trucks.
00:47:15And they were using Maverick Street
00:47:17as their way to get back and forth
00:47:19to take the dirt away.
00:47:20And those trucks were massive.
00:47:23The protest was organized
00:47:24around the kitchen table
00:47:26of Anna DeFranzo.
00:47:28Anna DeFranzo
00:47:29was very much a respected matriarch
00:47:32in the community.
00:47:33She was a woman
00:47:34of the neighborhood
00:47:35that everyone looked up to.
00:47:36And so her kitchen
00:47:37kind of was a natural
00:47:39place for organizing
00:47:40around this issue.
00:47:42She was joined there
00:47:43by Mary Ellen Welch
00:47:44and other neighborhood women.
00:47:47People saw
00:47:49what was going on
00:47:50in the South
00:47:52on civil rights issues.
00:47:53They saw people,
00:47:55young and old,
00:47:56going into the street
00:47:57and subconsciously,
00:47:59in my opinion,
00:48:01people formed ideas
00:48:03that said,
00:48:05hey,
00:48:05if that's a way to fight,
00:48:07we're getting nowhere
00:48:08writing letters
00:48:09and going to one meeting
00:48:11a year.
00:48:12Maybe we should take matters
00:48:13into our own hands.
00:48:16They decided it should be
00:48:18a women-only demonstration.
00:48:20We didn't want
00:48:21the men
00:48:22to, you know,
00:48:24be macho
00:48:25and go against
00:48:26the truck drivers
00:48:27or the police
00:48:28or whatever.
00:48:29So mothers
00:48:30with daily carriages,
00:48:31if you had kids,
00:48:34we went into the street.
00:48:39The Maverick Street Mothers
00:48:40showed up
00:48:41on the morning
00:48:41of September 28,
00:48:431968,
00:48:44and blocked the street.
00:48:49And so,
00:48:51when the first truck came,
00:48:54they threatened,
00:48:55they were screaming
00:48:56and hollering at us,
00:48:57get out of the way,
00:48:58we'll run you over,
00:48:59they were tooting,
00:49:00you know,
00:49:00the horns,
00:49:01it was scary.
00:49:03But the women
00:49:04didn't move.
00:49:05We just stayed there.
00:49:07And then,
00:49:08so they called
00:49:09the cops.
00:49:11When they came,
00:49:12they got very rough
00:49:13with the women,
00:49:15and they would
00:49:16like take you
00:49:16by the shoulders
00:49:17and shove you
00:49:18from the street
00:49:19into like the steps
00:49:22of somebody's house
00:49:23or the fence,
00:49:24very rough
00:49:24because the women
00:49:25wouldn't eat.
00:49:26And so when they saw
00:49:27the TV films
00:49:29went right on
00:49:30the evening news
00:49:31at supper time.
00:49:32So a lot of people
00:49:33saw it
00:49:34and got all up in arms.
00:49:36As a matter of fact,
00:49:37they use this alternate route
00:49:39in the wee hours
00:49:40of the morning
00:49:41so that if they can do it then,
00:49:43they certainly can do it
00:49:43during the daytime.
00:49:44And the politicians
00:49:46and the business people,
00:49:47they said,
00:49:48we can't have that going on.
00:49:49Women and children
00:49:50getting on the street.
00:49:53And they were,
00:49:54they went crazy
00:49:55when they heard it.
00:49:57Simply stated,
00:49:58it's this.
00:49:59The protests continued
00:50:01over the next few days,
00:50:02prompting Mayor Kevin White
00:50:04to come down
00:50:05to East Boston
00:50:06and speak directly
00:50:07with the protesters.
00:50:08Freddie Langone,
00:50:09John Stoltz,
00:50:11to try and provide
00:50:16for the people
00:50:17of this area
00:50:18free access
00:50:19on this street
00:50:20without worry
00:50:21of getting hit
00:50:22by trucks.
00:50:24That's right.
00:50:39And by the end
00:50:41of the week,
00:50:42Massport had found
00:50:43an alternate route
00:50:44for the trucks.
00:50:46When that happened,
00:50:48that was,
00:50:49and the trucks
00:50:50went home,
00:50:51we counted that
00:50:52as a significant victory.
00:50:59When I first
00:51:00screened this footage,
00:51:01I caught a glimpse
00:51:02of a familiar face
00:51:04at the right edge
00:51:05of the frame.
00:51:06I realized
00:51:07it was Mary Ellen Welch.
00:51:14There she was
00:51:16in 1968
00:51:18watching
00:51:19with satisfaction
00:51:20as the trucks
00:51:22backed down
00:51:23Maverick Street.
00:51:24And so
00:51:25it spread
00:51:27from that
00:51:28small group
00:51:29of mothers
00:51:29on Maverick Street.
00:51:32From that
00:51:33emanated,
00:51:34you know,
00:51:35a lot of
00:51:36community action
00:51:37to right the wrong.
00:51:39things that were
00:51:40going on.
00:51:47In the subsequent
00:51:48decades,
00:51:49Mary Ellen Welch
00:51:50and other activists
00:51:51have lobbied tirelessly
00:51:53to bring more
00:51:53green space
00:51:54back to the community.
00:51:57They worked
00:51:58to establish
00:51:58the East Boston
00:52:00Greenway,
00:52:00a linear park
00:52:02along the path
00:52:03of abandoned
00:52:03railroad tracks.
00:52:05And they were
00:52:06able to turn
00:52:07East Boston
00:52:08from a neighborhood
00:52:08that had
00:52:09the second lowest
00:52:11level of green space
00:52:12in the city
00:52:12in the 1970s.
00:52:14Aside from Chinatown,
00:52:16East Boston
00:52:17was the neighborhood
00:52:17of Boston
00:52:18with the least
00:52:19amount of green space.
00:52:20And today
00:52:21it is one of the
00:52:22neighborhoods
00:52:22with the most
00:52:23amount of green space.
00:52:27One of those
00:52:28green spaces
00:52:28named Neptune Road
00:52:30Edge Buffer Park
00:52:32is a sliver wedge
00:52:33is a sliver wedged
00:52:33between the highway,
00:52:34the Wood Island
00:52:35T-Station
00:52:36and the airport.
00:52:40In homage
00:52:41to the Neptune Road
00:52:42homes that were destroyed,
00:52:43there is a ghostly
00:52:44footprint in stone
00:52:45outlining the floor plan
00:52:47of one of the houses.
00:53:02For many years,
00:53:04having an airport
00:53:05in their backyard
00:53:05kept housing prices
00:53:07down in East Boston
00:53:08and the neighboring towns.
00:53:17recently this has begun
00:53:19to change
00:53:19and now these communities
00:53:21face a new challenge
00:53:23of how to remain affordable
00:53:25amidst a real estate boom.
00:53:33And that's what
00:53:34residents here
00:53:35who had their
00:53:36grandparents living here,
00:53:38their parents,
00:53:39they lived here,
00:53:39they want their kids
00:53:40to live here.
00:53:41These types of
00:53:42long-term community
00:53:43residents
00:53:43made all the difference
00:53:45in getting East Boston
00:53:47to become this
00:53:47desirable place
00:53:48that now so many people
00:53:49want to move to
00:53:50and there are still
00:53:52a lot of
00:53:52long-term activists
00:53:54still here
00:53:55who are hoping
00:53:56that some of the
00:53:57newcomer populations
00:53:59will want to join
00:54:00some of these
00:54:01organizations
00:54:02and they need
00:54:03some new blood
00:54:04to keep the fight going.
00:54:14I guess I will just,
00:54:17I guess I have one more
00:54:17question for today
00:54:18which is just
00:54:21the thing that struck me
00:54:23when I,
00:54:24because I didn't intend
00:54:25to start
00:54:27boxing.
00:54:28I went there
00:54:29to use it
00:54:29as a video location.
00:54:31Right, you said that.
00:54:32And then I was
00:54:33really struck
00:54:34by this
00:54:35idea
00:54:35of having
00:54:37to
00:54:38defend myself,
00:54:39having to
00:54:40hit back
00:54:41and how hard
00:54:42it was to do.
00:54:43Right.
00:54:43How it was just like,
00:54:44I was like,
00:54:45no, like...
00:54:46Oh, because you were
00:54:47brought up
00:54:48not to do that.
00:54:49But that action,
00:54:51it felt to me
00:54:52at that moment
00:54:52like, oh,
00:54:53that's a really important
00:54:53thing to be able
00:54:54to do.
00:54:55You were hesitant
00:54:56to strike back
00:54:57and as some people
00:55:00in the neighborhoods
00:55:01might be afraid
00:55:02to go on the street
00:55:03or confront the police
00:55:05or speak up
00:55:06on a so-called
00:55:09controversial idea.
00:55:10They might be
00:55:11derided by their neighbors
00:55:13or their family
00:55:14or, you know,
00:55:15whatever.
00:55:16That's all part of life
00:55:17and that's how
00:55:18why some people
00:55:21hesitate
00:55:21to speak
00:55:23out
00:55:24or participate
00:55:26openly
00:55:27in something.
00:55:28But it gets easier.
00:55:56One night,
00:55:57another gym
00:55:57came to our gym
00:55:58to spar with us.
00:56:01It was a massacre.
00:56:06Our guys didn't
00:56:07crumble or collapse.
00:56:08They fought back.
00:56:10But they were
00:56:11overwhelmed
00:56:11with the brawling
00:56:12techniques
00:56:13of the other gym
00:56:14and they didn't
00:56:15manage to muster up
00:56:16all they knew
00:56:17about defending
00:56:18themselves,
00:56:19about parrying
00:56:20the punches,
00:56:21stepping around,
00:56:22moving their heads.
00:56:24Since there were
00:56:25no women
00:56:26from the other gym
00:56:26to spar with,
00:56:27I was spared.
00:56:32Sal was dispirited
00:56:33in the days
00:56:34that followed,
00:56:36alternately blaming
00:56:37himself for not
00:56:38teaching us well
00:56:39enough
00:56:39and blaming the guys
00:56:41for not listening
00:56:42to his instructions.
00:56:51Sal is teaching us
00:56:53to defend ourselves,
00:56:54but that doesn't mean
00:56:56it always works.
00:57:01We're boxers.
00:57:02They're brawlers.
00:57:04It's a totally different
00:57:05animal altogether.
00:57:06Don't get them
00:57:06confused.
00:57:09A brawler, all you're doing
00:57:10is standing in front of
00:57:11punches.
00:57:12Still, we should have
00:57:14beaten every one of those
00:57:15fighters.
00:57:17It is easier to get
00:57:20to a level
00:57:21of minimum effectiveness
00:57:23as a brawler,
00:57:24and so a brawler
00:57:26with rudimentary skills
00:57:27will almost certainly
00:57:28overwhelm a boxer
00:57:29with rudimentary skills,
00:57:30right?
00:57:31Even if they're at
00:57:32the same stage
00:57:33of development,
00:57:34because a boxer's
00:57:34going to have to
00:57:35take longer
00:57:36to develop
00:57:36into what they're
00:57:37going to become.
00:57:39Don't be a punching bag
00:57:40for anybody.
00:57:41Why should you be
00:57:42a punching bag?
00:57:43What are you getting
00:57:44out of being
00:57:44a punching bag?
00:57:46Here, go back
00:57:47to this fight.
00:57:50It's so hard
00:57:50in the moment, though.
00:57:51It doesn't make
00:57:52any difference.
00:57:53You've got to get
00:57:53your head out of your
00:57:54ass when you're fighting.
00:57:56Either fight
00:57:56or go home.
00:57:58What do you see?
00:58:01Left right, left right,
00:58:02left right.
00:58:03Now, one is coming
00:58:04from the shoulder.
00:58:06I've been boxing
00:58:07for two years now.
00:58:08It all started
00:58:09with me feeling
00:58:10I had to learn
00:58:11to punch back.
00:58:12But though Sal
00:58:13tells me
00:58:14many of the same
00:58:15things time
00:58:16and again,
00:58:16they're still
00:58:17not instinctive,
00:58:18not in my muscle memory.
00:58:23But they are
00:58:24more than they were,
00:58:25more than when
00:58:26I didn't even know
00:58:28I needed to do
00:58:28these things.
00:58:31I know now
00:58:32to keep my hands up,
00:58:33but sometimes
00:58:34they aren't
00:58:35even when I think
00:58:36that they are.
00:58:37And I am surprised
00:58:38when Sal reminds me
00:58:39by tapping me
00:58:40on the side of the head
00:58:41with his midded hand.
00:58:43Hey, you.
00:58:46Now,
00:58:47that's all you're
00:58:48going to do.
00:58:48Take it down
00:58:48and you pick up
00:58:49the point.
00:58:49He lost.
00:58:50Take your time.
00:58:52Take it before you
00:58:53execute.
00:58:54One step,
00:58:56one punch,
00:58:57culmination,
00:58:58one round.
00:59:01Most boxing films
00:59:03end the same way.
00:59:06Against all odds,
00:59:07the underdog wins
00:59:09the big fight.
00:59:12A neighbor,
00:59:13who is a boxing fan,
00:59:14advised me,
00:59:16you need to enter
00:59:17a boxing competition,
00:59:18and when you walk up
00:59:19those three steps
00:59:20to the ring,
00:59:21you will understand
00:59:22why you took up boxing.
00:59:37Cus D'Amato
00:59:38was a famous trainer
00:59:39known for his words
00:59:41of boxing wisdom.
00:59:42I like this quote of his
00:59:44about boxing and fear.
00:59:47The hero and the coward
00:59:48both feel the same thing,
00:59:50but the hero uses his fear,
00:59:52projects it onto his fear,
00:59:54his opponent,
00:59:55while the coward runs.
00:59:57It's the same thing, fear,
00:59:58but it's what you do
00:59:59with it that matters.
01:00:04I'll tell you right now
01:00:06that this film doesn't end
01:00:08with me winning
01:00:09the big fight.
01:00:11If you think about
01:00:12the contrast between
01:00:13hurting people
01:00:14and all the tenderness
01:00:15that you find in the gym,
01:00:16it doesn't strike me
01:00:17as weird, you know?
01:00:18Like, you raise your kids,
01:00:19you know,
01:00:20with great tenderness
01:00:20and love,
01:00:21but you also think, like,
01:00:22it's a big, terrible world
01:00:23out there,
01:00:23and you want them ready
01:00:24to do what they got to do.
01:00:28And, of course,
01:00:29it doesn't end
01:00:30with the airport disappearing.
01:00:34Because even if you can't win
01:00:36all the fights in the present,
01:00:38and even if you can't go back
01:00:40and win the fights of the past,
01:00:43you can find a way
01:00:44to use your fear.
01:00:47in my opinion,
01:00:49all of those ways of protest,
01:00:52they were used as vehicles
01:00:54to give people
01:00:55more integrity
01:00:56and more power
01:00:57to control their own destinies.
01:01:19very soon after I first started
01:01:21going to the gym regularly,
01:01:23I asked Sal
01:01:24if I could photograph him
01:01:25in the style
01:01:26of the large portraits
01:01:27of boxers on the wall.
01:01:29He was up for it.
01:01:33Hey, Sal,
01:01:34do you want to try
01:01:35just going standing there
01:01:36for a minute or two?
01:01:37My friend Allie,
01:01:38a cinematographer,
01:01:39wanted to come with me
01:01:41that day.
01:01:42She wanted to document
01:01:43me taking this photograph.
01:01:47Look in the lens.
01:01:48Look in the lens
01:01:49the way you look
01:01:49at the opponent.
01:01:53Yeah, great.
01:01:55Camera.
01:01:58One, two, three.
01:02:01One, two, three.
01:02:03I need you to step
01:02:03half a step that way.
01:02:05Your arm is going all the way.
01:02:07Make sure you can,
01:02:08if you can make sure
01:02:09that when you see on your head,
01:02:10you're still looking
01:02:11at the lens
01:02:12with both eyes.
01:02:13Can you do that for me?
01:02:18Yes, good.
01:02:20How about a right uppercut?
01:02:23Okay, but I need you
01:02:24to step back a little
01:02:25so that you're in the light.
01:02:27One, two, three.
01:02:29Great.
01:02:32Okay, great.
01:02:33I think we got it.
01:02:34We got lots of great ones.
01:02:35Sweet.
01:02:36All right.
01:02:49It now hangs
01:02:50on the wall of the gym
01:02:51with the photographs
01:02:52of the other fighters.
01:02:59All right, that's it.
01:03:00Time's up.
01:03:02We got lots of great ones.
01:03:04We got lots of great ones.
01:03:13We got lots of great ones.
01:03:14We got lots of great ones.
01:03:16We got lots of great ones.
01:03:17We got lots of great ones.
01:03:18We got lots of great ones.
01:03:19We got lots of great ones.
01:03:19We got lots of great ones.
01:03:20We got lots of great ones.
01:03:20We got lots of great ones.
01:03:21We got lots of great ones.
01:03:21We got lots of great ones.
01:03:21We got lots of great ones.
01:03:22We got lots of great ones.
01:03:23We got lots of great ones.
01:03:23We got lots of great ones.
01:03:25We got lots of great ones.
01:03:28We got lots of great ones.
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