‘Amigo Brothers’ written by Piri Thomas tells the story of two seventeen year old friends – Antonio Cruz and Felix Vargas - who are trying to qualify for the Golden Gloves Championship tournament. They are born and brought up in the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the United States. The two boys have grown up together and are such great friends that they feel like brothers. (The Spanish word ‘amigo’ means friend).
Antonio and Felix are skilled, enthusiastic and intensely passionate boxers. Antonio was fair, lean and lanky, while Felix was dark, short and husky. One day, Antonio and Felix learn that they are set to fight each other in an elimination bout that will determine which of them goes on to compete in the Golden Gloves—the first step towards a real professional fighting career. Since they have to fight it out among themselves to fulfil their dream of one day becoming the Light Weight Champion of the world, now they are facing one of the biggest challenges of their life. They have to select between their friendship and competition – two themes of the story ‘Amigo Brothers’ and decide which is more important to them.
What happens when they have to face each other in one of the
biggest challenges of their life?
Before going to that let’s see how they lived together as two amigos in the same neighbourhood, who live and breathe the sport of boxing. They train together whenever they can and share an encyclopaedic knowledge of the sport and its stars. Their passion for boxing is a positive element of their lives that has kept them away from gangs and drugs, which are prevalent in their New York City neighbourhood.
Let’s see an animation about their lives and the events that happened before the Division Finals in this first part of our video lesson on ‘Amigo Brothers’.
Amigo Brothers | Animation | Part 1 | Video Lesson 👇
Now, let's see the second part of the story.
The two face internal conflicts about the value of friendship as they prepare for the physical conflict. Though they have always been trained together, in the days leading up their bout the boys decide to separate till the day of their fight. They agree to treat each other like typical opponents in the ring, and they vow that, whatever happens, their friendship will remain intact.
On the appointed day, both fighters come out swinging. Both of them were so popular in their neighbourhood that the morning of the fight, Tompkins Square was a beehive of activity. As the two climbed into the ring the crowd exploded with a roar. Match started. They fought toe-to-toe. At the end of the final round, the boys were fighting so intensely that they did not hear the bell, and the referee and the two trainers pried them apart.
Do you think that the fight will affect their friendship?
Ok. Let’s see what happened there at the end of the match in this second part of our video lesson on Amigo Brothers.
