When I was a young man in Argentina I was involved with Judo. I might now be interested in the cane and the umbrella as an art. I came to Baltimore in 1974, to the seven-hundred block of Harford Road and it was a good place to live. Now, not so good… To see such a great country come to this is cause for sadness.

Of course, Monzon , Carlos Monzon, was the hero of Argentina, world Middleweight Champion. He did come into trouble, unfortunately. Another highly regarded boxer of the time was Nicolino Locche. We wondered at him. The other fighters could not hit him. They say it was the way he used his back foot, always up on the balls of his back foot. He did not train regularly and he smoked, claiming that his art was protection enough in the ring.

Nicolino Locche

There was a large facility in Buenos Aires where various events were held, Judo, boxing, karate, gymnastics and other sports. We loved to attend these events sometimes as athletes and often as observers. One friend of mine, who boxed all his life used to let people punch him in the face and it would not bruise. He claimed that he had killed the capillaries in his face so they would not bleed.

I worked in silver with a man who purchased scraps from those who collected it. He was a Rosicrucian from California, a strong, commanding man, but not unusual or exceedingly large. We travelled often by bus. Once there was an accident and he was hurt. His forearm bone was protruding through the skin behind his elbow—terrible looking injury. He seemed to not even be upset and walked to the hospital.

When I asked him how he could do such a thing he said it was his Rosicrucian training, that he had mastered his mind through the Rosicrucian disciplines. While in Argentina he received correspondence from the Order along with written mental exercises that he must practice.

One time, we were among the poor, purchasing silver from those who gather it and a number of dogs, four dogs, some of them large, surrounded us, menacing us, snarling and I was concerned. He said to me, “Do you want them to go away?”

I said, “Of course. I have no desire to be bitten by dogs.”

He then looked, one at a time, at each dog, and one at a time, they shrank back and then left us alone. I asked him what he had done and he told me that he had thought in his mind as he looked at each dog, “I’m about to beat you,”

I was skeptical. I thought, perhaps that he knew these dogs from a previous encounter. He can tell I am skeptical at this. So when we were on the bus, he pointed to a young woman seated five seats ahead of us and said, “Within one minute, she will look back here.”

I observed the young woman as he sat next to me, seeming kind of dark. and the woman, who did not appear to have seen us when she boarded, she became agitated and within thirty seconds she began looking nervously in our direction, not so much interested in us, but seeming to be disturbed by something in our direction.

There was some trouble in my country and I came here not long after that. This summer I return to my country to visit. Over the years it has interested me that this country has become so much troubled, so dangerous…so full of anger. Good luck in your travels.