Cocoa Kid -A Mystery No More.

There are an awful lot of references to Cocoa Kid as a Puerto Rican that begin as far as I can tell in 1932. He was also called "the Georgia Negro" all over the place early on. He seems to have made no bones about telling reporters that he was Puerto Rican during this time.

To be sure, I did find references to him as Cuban but these were often very brief fight reports. The detailed ones (in several states) refer to him as Puerto Rican if they discuss his ethnicity at all.

As to his age and birthdate, he was stated as 18 years old when he faced Kid Kaplan in February 1933 -and from the streets of Georgia. Cepero would have been 26. There are several references in CT newspapers in the early 30s that report that he was brought to New Haven from the "southland" or from "Florida" by Durant.

 

I think it is all set now.

 

The pleasure is mine, Senya. I don't have the slightest idea if the audience reading this series is any larger than ESB Classic and a few other interested parties, but that's okay. Your regard for them counts for much.

 

Remember though, I gave you something damn near as good -a ship's manifest from 1930 when he was returning from Puerto Rico. And in part 8 you'll see something even better -that is, where he is now.

As to who you know who said what and when it was said, I'll give you an example. The guy pictured in the current segment of the series beside Cocoa Kid is a manager out of NYC I'm sure you knew or knew of -George Sheppard. He was another one who had a stint managing Cocoa Kid. In 1961, he said that they had everyone duped into believing that Cocoa Kid was actually a Puerto Rican who couldn't speak a lick of English. This must have been when Cocoa Kid came out to Baltimore to face Jack Portney (whom Sheppard managed) in 1936. He said that Cocoa Kid was actually "as much an American Negro as Joe Louis." (See the Introduction to "Just Watch Mah Smoke.")

Now, when I first saw that, I declared to myself "HEY! I GOT IT ALL FIGURED OUT! HE AIN'T A PR OR A CUBAN!" But then I had to corroborate that story ...and that's when the problem arose. See, if Sheppard was being accurate about his devising this PR scheme to make a foreigner out of this fighter, then it would make sense that there would have been no reference to his being a Puerto Rican before 1936. But there are actually several going as far back as 1933.

See what I'm saying? Sheppard, who managed him during his prime was quoted in a respectable newspaper (The Sun 4/16/61) sent me on a wild goose chase. I was hoping he was right because the whole project would have been a helluva lot easier.

The newspapers weren't much help. It turned out that the Boston Globe calls him a Puerto Rican in March of '35 and then two months later, they're calling him a cuban. I don't think most reporters knew the difference. Either that or they were just lazy.

Now, it is possible that when he was campaigning in Florida, a manager suggested that he be billed as a Cuban. Why not? It would make sense! He could speak Spanish and Florida is only what -90 miles from Cuba- so there was a large Cuban population down there.

Long story short --no one was right. Cocoa Kid wasn't Cuban. But he wasn't a Puerto Rican or a black American either --he was a Puerto Rican and a black American. He was born in Mayaguez to a Puerto Rican named Myrtice Arroyo who was impregnated by an African American father who moved them both to Atlanta when he was still an infant. And this is why he is, again and again, assumed to have been born in Georgia.

 

Will do. And thanks.

 

Bos's theory as to Cocoa Kid's origin is discussed on a link from the boxrec forum provided early in the thread. It is an interesting read involving several well-respected boxing historians.

Listen, this kind of murky history is very difficult to illuminate. Bos defended what he believes (or believed) very well and with evidence. I went on a different track and managed to find new information, looked at it objectively, filled in holes with additional evidence -be it material or circumstantial, and made what I believe is a very compelling case, but no researcher or historian has a monopoly on the Truth.

 

Well, "truth" is on a continuum. If someone asked me who has the "Truth," I point up.

There are opinions backed by speculation, and then you have opinions backed by evidence. I am pretty confident that what you're reading in this series is heavily backed by a lot of evidence and is conclusive. You can decide for yourself what's what.