once Upon a time a girl with ricitos that most wanted to switch from boxer to boxer… this is Not story
they call Him ‘Peanut’ and the Saturday the 8 had his first fight as a man. Won
He himself tells us their successes and scars, beyond the left, where before she had her breasts
IN PICTURES: The long journey of a Peanut
Pure muscle, every fiber, with a frizzled beard that runs around the perimeter of the face and an afro that looks from a while ago. The look intimidating and lifting the hands, the more. It takes the knuckles tattooed with a message of war, Bash back, that is to say that will return the hit if necessary.
Saturday, jumped in the ring for the first time as a professional boxer at the age of 33 and won by points at the mexican fighter Hugo Aguilar. Many of those present at the casino in Indio in the californian desert, attended the evening without knowing that Pat Manuel Peanut was for years a woman, also a boxer, the first transgender to sign such a feat in the history of american sports.
“It’s something I’d always dreamed of,” says the boxer, christened as Patricia Manuel, few minutes before the battle. “Be a man transgender competing professionally is a demonstration that we can do anything we decide to, anyone we can limit”.
The fight is the culmination of six years of struggle, of a young man who never wanted to wear a skirt in school or who told her how beautiful she looked in the family events. A warrior who decided to take the step of submitting to an operation face to remove the breasts, and accompany your treatment of hormones. Now there is no turning back. Is a man from the head to the feet.
Three days after the battle, more shaken by the tide of media that blows Aguilar, Manuel Peanut -he was nicknamed so by having the small head-may be found with Chronic in a park a few meters from his home in East Los Angeles. From these streets came out one of the legends of the boxing world, Oscar de la Hoya. The story of Pat, by examining at least the outside and inside of the quadrangles, is almost as impressive.
“I feel very good,” admits sitting on a park bench, dressed in a sweatshirt and shorts. “I have not had time to reflect on the meaning of all this, on the tremendous response of the media at the international level. I’m adjusting to this new situation.”
The hope is that the noise arise, new battles, from the hand of Golden Boy, if it can be, precisely, the promoter of De la Hoya. “And also that generate discussion about the lgbt, especially around the boxing, because it has always been associated with masculinity”. Manuel contends that his entry into the “territory of men” as the woman at the beginning, and then as a man, has done people are impressed. “You have realized what we are capable of. I was told that I was going to do damage (your opponent), and I have tried that has not been the case,” he says with modesty.
class=”icon-foto_16_g”> Pat, on your fourth birthday, when it was called Patricia Manuel. PERSONAL ALBUM
Manuel will not bare a grudge. Want to more than ever. Butler was beside him all the way, from the hospital in Utah until his debut as a professional in Indio. “The good thing is that I had the opportunity to change what I did and for that I am grateful every day.”
His mother knew how to rectify and understand you. Others, not so much. Lost some friends along the way and in the gym in which I used to train, they did not accept his transformation and asked him to keep silence in return for allowing her to stay. “That gym is part of a church, and although not all are tránsfobas, it was,” says Manuel. “When I walked out of there, I never returned to enter. I don’t have to live my life in silence in order to please anyone.”
comments toxic, even so, they are easy to find. “I have had to endure a lot of rejection, on the part of opponents who did not want to box with me, or the trolling of the networks, people making fun of my chest, they said that they were boobs and not pecs. There are people who refuse to call me with a masculine pronoun,” explains no anger in the voice. “There is still much violence and much hatred out there, but luckily there are a lot of people who are willing to meet me and hear me, even in scenarios such as boxing gyms, where these conversations before had no place.”
Manuel admits that during his youth he knew how to dodge the rejection, and find love and acceptance. The girls, he acknowledges with a shy smile without blushing, always gave well. “There’s a good gay community in Los Angeles. I started going out with women they are attracted to other women and that was not a problem.”
The intimacy after was a different matter. “I wasn’t ready until I went through the process of transformation”. After, the fear of being rejected by some tránsfobo or not to have “the package” was needed to meet the tastes of the staff. Now all of that drama has been left behind. From four years ago out with a girl tailor-made. “Luckily my partner is pansexual, and has dated a trans before, so I’m not anything new for her in that regard.”
“I Am at peace with me”
The goal now is to continue fighting. “I feel wonderful, as the person I should be”, she continues. “When you’ve been tagged in a way since childhood and have been fighting against it, you suddenly feel at peace with yourself. I’m ready to climb, in the best moment.”
Acknowledge, that yes, at 33 years of age is late to take the first steps in a discipline as demanding as boxing. It comes a little late. “I’m a boxer older than I would like to be,” he admitted, “but I’m ready for the next combat. Some thought that this was an act of publicity, but not at all. I want to continue in this sport.”
Determination and dreams of a boxer who, despite the noise awakened around your story, not even able to cover the expenses of the fight with what he was paid last Saturday. Yours will, however, far beyond the sport. “I hope that my story will help other transgender,” he says. “And I think it is very appropriate that my battle has passed while we have Trump in the White House. I’m sure that the fact that we have been able to make the transition and win in the ring is like a good punch in the face of the president.”
More than throwing fists, Manuel has covered mouths. He has shown he can beat a man in the ring, having been a woman before, dismantles prejudices and aprgoing doors for others like him that come up from behind with dreams similar. “I’m not here for the medals. I just want to win”, he finishes while rising from the bench in the park. Outside the ring, he has already achieved.
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