Lightweight Champ, by Juan Villoro

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Recommended: Importance of sport psychology

Hard life Guilt

Born in 1956 in Mexico City, Juan Villoro is the author of many well known books such as “El Testigo” which was recognized and was honored with the Herralde Prize, and other books like “La Casa Pierde” and “Efectos Personales”. Juan Villoro stands out with his style of writing using impressive array of topics with insight, dark humor, irony, and the social and cultural functions of spectator sports like boxing and soccer. With his interest in sports, he enjoys writing about the deep passion that is represented in the sport, with his story “Lightweight Champ”, a short story about a professional Mexican boxer and his journalist/drug addicted childhood friend who came from poverty in the early years in Mexico. Juan becomes very interested in investigating why what happens in sports, giving people interest in what their reading, making them think about lets loose superstitions, systems of belief, hopes, disappointments and so on. The story “Lightweight Champ” talks about how guilt was the motivation to Ignacio Barrientos’s success in his career as a professional boxer, yet no one knew his past, that gave me that stride and edge in the ring other than a few people, including the speaker of the story. Guilt is a feeling where can last a moment or a lifetime, leaving an unphysical effect on yourself, and finding a way to deal with it, so it does not eat us up inside.

The culture in Mexico is very fond of soccer as it’s the country’s most popular sport, where males of all ages play anywhere they can and leaving the national team as cult heroes. Even though soccer is the main sport, following behind it is boxing, where Mexico has produced many world boxing champions as boxing remains popular among all socioeconomic ...

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Rodogno, Raffaele. "GUILT, ANGER, AND RETRIBUTION." Legal Theory 16.1 (2010): 59-76. ProQuest. Web. 13 May 2014.

Hoffer, Richard. "¡Viva MEXICO!." Sports Illustrated 97.1 (2002): 56.Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 May 2014.

Heimowitz, Daniel. "Guilt." Psychology and Mental Health. Ed. A. Piotrowski Nancy, 3d ed. 5 vols. Pasadena, Calif.: Salem Press, 2009. Salem Health Web. 13 May. 2014.

Long, Ryan F. "A Conversation With Juan Villoro." World Literature Today 85.1 (2011): 16-19.Literary Reference Center. Web. 13 May 2014.

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