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Courting a warrior

In the 1950s, Richard Gonzalez, a mexican American
from the wrong side of the tracks, ruled tennis’ elite courts.
By Marissa Rodriguez

Everything that 1950s tennis represened—wealth, blue blood and blond hair—its greatest star was not. The largely white tennis world was blown away by Richard “Pancho” Gonzalez, a Mexican American from Los Angeles who would later be one of the best known players of all time, besting legends such as Jimmy Connors, Rod Laver and Arthur Ashe.
At 6’3”, with a serve once clocked at 120 mph and an equally powerful court presence, Gonzalez earned a reputation as the bad boy of tennis and fought for a well deserved spot in the sport’s top 10, which he held on to for 20 years. But to get there he battled racism on and off the court.
This month, the PBS series VOCES, a 13-part series highlighting Hispanic culture, airs Pancho Gonzalez: Warrior of the Court, narrated by Benjamin Bratt and featuring Gonzalez fans Robert Redford, Andre Agassi and
Edward James Olmos among others.
Hispanic Magazine spoke with the film’s director Danny Haro, who co-executive produced it with Moctesuma Esparza, to discuss the controversial title, the man behind it and the film’s impact.
Hispanic Magazine: How did you come to this project?
Danny Haro: I personally saw Pancho Gonzalez play in 1968, when I was 13. I had grown up playing tennis, but everything I thought tennis was—he was anything but. I knew who he was, but I wanted to know his story.
Plus, I focused on a sport that people wouldn’t think of as having a Hispanic contribution even though the top players in the 50s and 60s were Latinos. Now, Latino representation is largely international. This film is truly about the first American Latino sports superstar. In 2000, HBO was considering a film starring Benjamin Bratt. It didn’t pan out. Soon after, Gonzalez’s brother, Ralph, contacted me, and we decided to do a documentary. We joined forces with Esparza and Spike TV, which had expressed interest in airing it as part of their series on Latino sports stories. From research to completion it took five to six years, but it premiered on Spike TV on September 16, 2005. Most networks do not cross, but PBS saw the film and wanted 10 more minutes to eliminate commercial breaks. This is the brand-new version.
HM: Why did you decide to call it
Pancho Gonzalez if in the film you make plain that he felt insulted by the nickname?
DH: Pancho was a racist term. Mexicans were called panchos at the time and in a city that had just come out of the Zoot Suit riots [months-long fighting between Mexican Americans and U.S. servicemen]. I originally liked the title Hey Pancho: Warrior of the Court. And because he was known as Pancho, I think his name takes on different meanings—from a kid’s racist label to a name for the sport’s greatest player. But if you notice, we don’t call him Pancho in the film; he is always spoken of as Richard.
HM: This film looks at Gonzalez’s life by examining his struggles, which is a device used in many Latino films. What makes this one different?
DH: It had a lot to do with his attitude. We chose to really focus and show that he wasn’t accepted, he didn’t fit the mold. He played in clubs that his peers wouldn’t even be let into. People did not necessarily embrace him. But how did he respond? You might not like me, but you are going to have to respect me.
HM: He had a reputation as a bad boy, but you chose to play that down. Why?
DH: I don’t think we played it down. His brother said that when most people are angry they lose focus, but when Richard was angry it fueled him. It made him a force of nature. A lot of people saw Gonzalez as difficult. I remember his brother telling me, “I want people to know why he became mean.” If you see him as young man he is happy. When tennis became a business is when he changed—he felt taken advantage of. Jack Kramer [tennis promoter] said amateurs made more money than the pros. So why is it that Gonzalez, as the top amateur of his time, didn’t make a bundle?
HM: You include an image of an Aztec warrior playing tennis. Were you worried that the image was stereotypical?
DH: To me Gonzalez represented the warrior spirit. The battle of tennis was ingrained in himself and in his battle against society. My thought was that it represented the indigenous part of Gonzalez. I would say 99.9 percent of viewers have said they loved that comparison.
HM: What was important to you to get across to the viewers?
DH: My hope is that young Latinos will see that here is a guy with no formal training who did something amazing. This film represents the three Ps: patience, practice and perseverance. I want young people to apply them to whatever they choose to do.
HM: How have viewers responded?
DH: We have received tremendous feedback from the U.S. Tennis Association, which has a Latino task force that hopes to utilize this film to attract more Hispanics to tennis. At a screening in Chicago there were 300 black and Latino kids and parents present. I knew we had something when one mother said tearfully that now she knew that her child could play this game. People should realize that our community has a glorious past in the development of this sport. If it wasn’t for Pancho Gonzalez this sport would not be what it is.

For more, visit: www.heypancho.com.