“My name is Marlon. I was born in San Salvador, El Salvador. It’s crazy because I remember everything as a child over there, and then up to fourteen, I don’t. We were poor but the community and the love was there. My grandparents would do well sometimes. We’d go out to eat, but there were times where we didn’t have any money, so my grandpa would have to climb the avocado tree. Then my grandma would go through the cupboards and find salt packets, and our neighbor would bring us tortillas. We’d get an avocado, spray a little salt on it, and eat it with the tortillas.

“It’s amazing going from one part of El Salvador that was just rich . . . you go to the bathroom over there, and they have gloves on, and dry you . . . and then you cross a couple of blocks, and it’s just super poor. That’s what the family knows, that’s what you’re going to react to, and it’s a vicious cycle there.

“Growing up in a war, growing up in that chaotic lifestyle of, “All right, my kids are seventeen, sixteen, and they’ve got to go up North, to America . . . ” Crossing the border, that’s crazy. That’s what they know. Even when I was a little kid, I mean like a baby, I remember being held really tight by my grandma, and my grandpa putting mattresses over the door and on the windows, you could hear gunshots.

“The reason he would do that is for the mattress to catch the bullets. And then, there’s a knock on the door. It’s just so clear, my grandpa peeked out the window, and it’s a young kid in a military outfit, with a big gun looking for young boys to recruit for the war.

“I don’t know how many days later, we’re going out there, and I just remember being held by my grandma. We’re walking and my sister’s holding either my grandma’s hand, or my grandpa’s hand, and then I just remember feeling my grandma pushing my head down into her shoulder, and hearing my grandpa say, “I think that’s the kid who knocked on the door.” It was like the dead body in front of our pasaje there.

And now as an adult, I realize
. . . I mean, I can’t imagine living everyday like that, of war. That’s all these gang members are, man. They’re these abandoned kids from the war whose parents were murdered, parents disappeared over to the North, and it’s them trying to find their belonging; them trying to find their boxing.”

“They’re trying to find that hope to grasp to. At times, it [the gang] does provide that; that sense of belonging and love. I mean, we’re humans; everyone loves to hear positive things. I love to hear someone say, “I got you. Just know, I’m there for you.” Just to hear that genuinely from everyone, that’s going to be special.

“When I came to Minnesota— it was from El Salvador, straight to Minnesota—there was a layover in New Orleans, and that was the first time I saw white people, which was hilarious, because they were huge. They were giants. I’m there, just looking at these people, “Wow, they’re huge,” and also, I looked out the window, and it was my first time seeing highways. That was very overwhelming. Then we actually drove from the airport, and lived a couple of years in Little Falls.

“Coming to America was a bit traumatic, just because I didn’t grow up with my mom. When she went back to El Salvador and brought me over here, she was a woman completely unknown to me. Then it was just like, “This is your mom.” I remember hearing her voice, too, on the plane. She would say, “You’re going to have to be the man. You can’t be playing with toys and everything.” I’m thinking like, “Oh, this is a part of this culture,” and immediately from the plane, I knew things were going to be different.

“Immediately, I started school over there [Minnesota]. I wanted to make friends, but I didn’t know the language. It was a struggle because every day, we’d color. We’d draw a picture, and every day I would draw a picture of a green house, with myself, my sister, and my grandparents. I remember the moment where I felt comfortable, and I remember the teachers saying something about it . . . even though I didn’t know the language, but they noticed, and they said something because I drew the house red.

There must have been like twenty drawings of the same house, of the same people, of the same color . . . but this day I was feeling more comfortable. Things started to go well. At that time my mother was getting a divorce from my brother’s dad—I have a brother and a sister, and both of them are from different dads. My sister lived with me in El Salvador, my brother was born here in the States. There was that dynamic, too, of ‘we’re just getting the feel for each other.’

“As a single mother, it did become overwhelming for her. There was once—and this story I share, I find the more I share it, the more therapeutic it is for me—there once I came home with a note from the teacher, in first grade, and she just wrote, “Marlon, blah, blah, blah, his day went like this: he was being goofy. Please talk to him and just make sure . . . ” I’ve always had high energy, ADD, you know what I mean? I always knew I had this, but my mom was like, “You can’t be on medication, because that’s not for . . . you’re weak if you take it.” Things like that.

“She read this note, and I could tell she was very agitated about something. Something must have happened at work, or with her husband . . . she went and crumpled it up, threw it, and started lecturing me. In my head, I was like, “All right, here it comes.” Because she was abusive. She did hit us. She grabbed my head, grabbed me by the shirt, and then grabbed my head, and just threw me. I remember flying, and I hit the corner of the wall. You see this scar here? I just hit it, and it was black. You know that star that you see on cartoons, where it goes, “Pow,” and it goes black? That’s what I saw.

“I woke up again, and [there was] blood all over. I touched it, and there was a huge gash there. My sister was like, “Why are you hitting my brother?” She pushed my sister, and she almost fell out of the door, because we had steps there. Me, being bloody and holding myself, I’m thinking, “My sister, my sister.”

“Finally, things settle in, and I’m there crying. Everyone’s crying. My brother’s in shock because he’s so little, and the ambulance was called, but she said, “Tell them that you fell, from reaching up for something from the chair, and then you fell on the wall. If you don’t tell them this, if you tell them that I did this, you will never see your grandparents again. You won’t see your sister again, and you won’t see your brother again.”

“I was seven. Seven. Yeah.
“Fast forward to when I’m fourteen. I get sent to El Salvador to spend time with my grandparents, and I mentioned to my grandmother that I’d like to meet my father. I did and it was nice. He’s well-off over there. That was cool. I started to expand my mind that the world’s a little bit bigger than what I thought it would be. Came back to the States, and there was more conflict between my mom and I because I had met my father, and I did get into some trouble, unfortunately, as a juvenile.
“There was a lot of . . . how do I say . . . there’s a lot of conflict between my mom and I, and which now, even as I have an attorney working on the case, looking back at it, it was unfair. But who’s going to listen to a fourteen-year-old kid? Yeah, it sucked. It was terrible, a bad experience to go through. And when the call was made to 911, my mom runs with the phone, and in Spanish she said, “We got him.”

“Like, “Lo tenemos.” That rings in my head. That she just says like, “We got him.” Me. Like a trap . . .
like a trap. There’s an animal that’s in the gutters, and you set a trap, and then you’ve got him, you know what I mean? I just remember just being in shock, there.

“My mother ended up getting a job, and we ended up moving into Northeast Minneapolis. That was good because there’s parks there, so I started meeting friends. I got into baseball, and American football. That transition was good.

“Fifteen, sixteen, she kicked me out, and there went school. I ended up working for a factory from four a.m. to two p.m., and since I spoke Spanish and English, I was put in a management position. I saved up money somehow. I don’t remember how I did it, but I bought a car. No license, no anything. I was just working to get that permit. But time passed, and I’m hopping from place to place, and I did live in my car for a while.

“I was homeless, which was a bummer. Family took me in, but then family charged rent. Grandpa got word of it, that I was just kinda lost. He comes over to the States, and he put a stop to that. He’s like, “Hey, I’m going to support you.” For the first time since El Salvador I felt like I had a parent to support me. That’s actually when I found MTS, as a young kid.

MTS: that’s Minnesota Transitions Charter School. I ended up going there, and I just put my head down. I did eight-to-seven Saturdays, ten- to-two of online school, and anything you could do for extra credit. And the people there were amazing. For what they lacked in resources, they had in passion. It was so pure and authentic.

“Going from, “I don’t want you here, get out of here,” to, “We want you here. We’re going to take care of you. Are you good? Do you have everything that you need to be successful here?” Every other school would tell me, “Hey, you’re going to age out. You won’t get your GED.”

“It was Todd, who I’m friends with now, who said, “Hey, you know what? You could do this.” He just said, “Here’s what you’ve got to do. Here’s how many hours you’ve got to do. It’s a lot, but you could do it.” I don’t know how I did it, but I completed two-and-a-half years in six months. Yeah, they elected me to speak at graduation, and that rose me up, and just got everything started.

“I was on a high. I was like, “I got my high school diploma. I gave the graduation speech. I’m in college now, you know? I’m a cool kid.”

“I met Tegan when I registered at MCTC, Minneapolis Community Technical College. This is pretty special. I added this class, it was like a last minute add: Strategies for College. It said, “Recommended for those new to college,” and I added it. I felt it might be good.

“First day of school, I get there early and I take the seat in the front and center of the class, and I noticed her on the first day, but she sat in the back. The next day when we had that class, I got there early, and she was there, and she sat next to me, so we started talking. Before class ended she had her notebook open, and I wrote my number down. I wrote my name and my number, and I’m like, “Hey, I don’t know if you’re taking Spanish, but I’m bilingual. You should definitely give me a call if you need help.” She’s like, “Oh, totally.” She’s like, “I think I’m going to take it next semester.” I knew what I was doing, you know what I mean?

“I liked her. Super pretty. She’s gorgeous. And she called me that day, and we started hanging out every day. It wasn’t easy when we first started, getting to know each other as friends, and my style, and everything. But she’s been supportive; she took that stern, supportive role, Just like, “I’m going to support you, but I’m not going to take bullshit.”

“I thought I wanted to be a police officer, and I applied for this program, but that ended because of the economy back in 2007 or 2008. I got a call from one of the principals at MTS asking me to be a gym assistant, which was cool, but I really wanted to help out the kids. Just to be there for someone, because when I was in high school, that’s what got me over here [the boxing gym], that nudge, people believing in you.

“Then, slowly, that job evolved from making copies, to making copies and helping the kids, to making copies, helping the kids, and advising them. It went from hourly, twenty hours, to twenty-five, to thirty, to salary, which was amazing.

“My wife is an amazing person. You met Tegan. She’s a wonderful, wonderful person. I am so lucky to have her. Five years ago, that’s when she started saying, “I want you to get into boxing.” It seems like something that will be good for you, because of everything that you’ve been through. She saw me being passionate about my job, and helping out, but there was just . . . she could tell that there was something not right there.

“Finally, two or three years ago, she found Upper Cut Boxing Gym, in Northeast Minneapolis. They have an intro course for free. She called them up, put my name on it, came home and said, “Marlon, next Wednesday, you’ll be doing the intro course at Upper Cut.” I was a nervous wreck. I told her, “I have no business boxing. I’m going to get beat up. I’m not good. People are going to laugh at me. I’m not that strong of a person. It takes a very disciplined, strong person to do that.”

“I was nervous, and I remember I did research on the gym, and the owner, Lisa, is an amazing woman. It’s the only boxing gym in the entire country owned and operated by a woman. She talked about the struggles, too, of opening the gym as a woman, and how she was turned down. Her way of communicating, you respect it. There’s authority there, but also you know that it’s genuine. Not just, “I’m the boss.” It’s like, “Nope, I’ve been through all this to get here, and this is my treasure.”

“Immediately, I signed up for three months. I called Tegan. I said, “Hey, do we have the money for this? I need to do this.” From there, I started attending. By my second week there, I went open gym and I was just hitting the bag. I had no idea what I was doing, and she [Lisa] comes over, and she goes, “Hey, let me show you something.”

“She showed me how to use the bell—the boxing bell—so it rings three times. It’s green, yellow, or red. Green means you’re on go, you’re working. It rings, and then it’s yellow. That means you have thirty seconds. You pick it up, all-out, and then it rings again, and that means you’re done. Rest time. So you rest for a minute. To me, that was revolutionizing working out, because it’s like, “Oh, work three minutes, rest a minute, cool. All right.”

“It went from me being nervous, to me doing the sport two times a week, to increasing it to three times a week, to me being there every day for four hours . . .
which was amazing. It was like this family, right? Another place that I moved where I’ve created this family, and it became like my happy place, and that led to getting permission from one of the trainers to register with USA Boxing—getting your papers, it’s called—to be able to spar, to fight.

“I did, and that was a very proud moment, because I never . . . I didn’t think that would happen. That was very cool. I started sparring, and my trainer, Alex, he became a brother to me. He took me under his wing, him and Jack. Jack is older. He’s in his sixties, but they became like a father figure, and like a brother.

“From there we got to sparring. To get that first fight was very difficult—finding someone to match, because I had no fights. You don’t want to put me in with someone that has five or more, two or more, they say. You want someone that has one, maybe two. It was very difficult. November I thought I had one, and I trained, even the week of the fight, then midweek I hear, “No, it’s a no go.” December, there was a fight on my birthday.

“I’m thinking, “It has to be it. It’s going to happen,” and on my birthday, I find out, no it’s not going to happen. Then I started getting a little frustrated, and at that time I was training with another trainer, and my trainer Alex, he said, “Be patient. It comes with time.”

“February there was another fight, and this one was for sure. The owner said, “Yup, you’ve got it. He has no fights. You have no fights. This is good. They’re coming from North Dakota.” There was like ten of them coming from North Dakota, so I’m thinking like, “It’s finally here.” Training. They cancel.

“They cancel. The day of . . . I was super bummed but they told me, “You’re looking good; it’s going to happen. Don’t worry.”
“Another one of the trainers in the gym organized this event called United Fight. It’s a fundraiser for police, fire, and EMT workers who are injured on the job. We’ve been to them. I love it. We always go, and we get the ringside seats there. Awesome event. And this trainer, who’s also named Alex, asked me, “What’s going on, man? Are you bummed out?” I tell him. He goes, “How would you feel about fighting United Fight?”

“Never in my wildest dreams would I think of fighting that, just because it’s quite an event. It’s covered by the news, and everything. I go, “Are you serious?” He’s like, “Yeah, man, you’re a great guy. You’ve been training really hard. I could put you on the card.” I go, “Whoa.” I ask him again, and I’m like, “Are you serious?” He’s like, “Yeah, man.” He’s like, “Let me talk to Lisa and work things out. I need some fighters.” He did, and we’re given the green light, and we picked up training. I received an email, it said, “What song do you want when you come out?”

“For your song, when you come out for your fight?”

“It was Murs, “Lookin’ Fly.” I picked it because Tegan and I, we’d listen to it a lot, so I was like, “She’s my gal, and going back . . . ”

“The guy I would spar with, who was a police officer in Brooklyn Park, ended up being my opponent. The year before, he knocked a guy out cold. I’m thinking I just have another opponent, but finally we start hearing, “You’re going to go against Jason.” We’re like, “Hey, it’s fine, man. We have that respect,” and I’m thinking my first fight is a bigger deal than I ever imagined it was going to be.

“I’m not sure if it was the day after, I opened up my phone and checked Facebook and I see a notification from the United Fight event. It just said, “We are proud to announce this year’s co-main event, Marlon Bachez and Jason Schwartz.” I go, “What?” I called Tegan up, and I go, “You’re not going to believe this.” Then she starts calling family and friends. It’s like, “Yo, get your ticket. He’s the co-main event.” That means it’s the second to the last fight.

“That week, we trained. I mean, the trainers at the gym are amazing, so I’d have all these different trainers, I trained really hard on Monday with Sarah. I hadn’t taken her class in a while, just because our schedules hadn’t matched up . . . she just looked at me and she’s like, “Actually, Marlon’s going to fight. Let me work him,” and she worked me. Worked me. I mean, to the point where I almost threw up. I’ve never almost thrown up, and she made little adjustments.

“It’s like, “Hey, change your footwork over there.” It made a difference, if felt amazing. I come back Tuesday, go a little light, spar a little, work with my trainer. Come Wednesday . . . all right, we’re feeling it. We go hard, right? Training, sparring. Come Thursday, they wanted me to rest, but the trainer called me over, “Do light padwork over there.” There’s only four people in the gym that day: myself, my trainer, my opponent, and his trainer.

“It’s like, “Are you kidding me?” It was awesome, though, because we have so much respect, and Jason is an amazing guy—amazing police officer, great family man, and just super nice.

“Friday was a rest day. It’s almost like that feeling when you’re a pitcher in baseball, and you’re throwing a no-hitter, and no one talks to you. I liked it that way. I did get a couple of messages of, “Hey, wish I could be there,” but I put my phone away and just concentrated on resting. Then, come Saturday I was feeling good, and I got there with my duffle bag. Tegan loaded me up with healthy food, and water. I got dressed up. I was relaxed, and I get there and the stage is set, the chairs are all set. We do the weigh-ins, and slowly people started coming.

“They had split the back room up between blue corner and red corner. I was the red corner, and so I just made my space there. The Anthem goes on, and I’m feeling good. I’m in the zone there, and decide to go and visit friends. Say “hi” to everyone. In and out, in and out. I had two rows for VIP that were bought for my fight. In total, we ended up raising $2500 in ticket sales, which was cool. My friends stepped up big time. My grandpa was there, my father-in-law, my wife’s grandparents, who aren’t into boxing. My mother-in-law, who hates boxing.

“Everyone was there, and I don’t get along with my siblings, but my brother ended up showing up, which was really cool. And all these people that I hadn’t seen in a long time, probably since my wedding, ended up showing up. Once intermission came out, that was my last time. I decided, it’s time to go and say “hi” to everyone. You find yourself having more space. You start finding yourself having more time to think, right?

“I’m thinking, all right, I’m in the zone. Do I put some music on? I don’t, because I love the gym. That’s my happy place. I just take off the earbuds and start listening to the bells, the fights, the people clapping. I wanted to go look, but I’m like, “Nope, I’m not going to look.”

“The fight before mine, or the fight before that, my trainer just put a seat right there and started massaging me, relaxing me. It was probably one of the best massages I’ve ever had, just because he really knew. He was like, “I need you to relax,” and finally, it’s down to two: myself and the guy who has the main event. I hear him, he’s like, “Alright, for our next match, we have representing Dakota County, Henry Sibley, and Marlon Bachez.” I hear my name and the music comes on.

“I stood there for five seconds. Everything was . . . how do I say . . . garbled. If you were to put your hands over your ears, and you could barely hear what people were saying, and then the vision, it was just tunnel . . . all I could hear was (makes breathing sounds) . . . and then the beat of the music, right? Just boom, boom, boom. I just kind of shook, and then I heard Alex say, “Let’s go, man, let’s go.”

“So I have this straight face on, and as soon as I turned the corner, everyone, all the familiar faces, friends, family—I could just point them out. Everything slowed down. I could seeing trainer Alfonso, he’s like, “Go get em man.” Everyone was clapping. I see my friends, you know, and I see my wife . . . (choking up) and uh, it was such a proud moment for me, you know?

“To have them there, and to feel that love and the support . . . looking at her (Tegan) being excited and knowing that that’s where it started. I cracked a smile. I wanted to be serious, but I cracked a smile. I wasn’t going to tear up, but I cracked a smile and people are punching my gloves and the train. Elliot is getting the crowd going. He’s like, “Put your hands up, put your hands up.”

“They’re like, “Yeah, go, Marlon!” I got in there, got in the ring, and warmed up. I had two of the guys that I love the most in my corner. I see Jason, who I have so much respect for, in his corner, too. And the ref comes over: checks my helmet, checks the gloves, everything’s taped, everything’s good, show your shoes. He’s like, “You’ve got it champ?” He give me a smack in the head.” He’s like, “We’ll have a good fight.”

“I look at Jason and I give him a nod, almost like, “Damn, this is happening.” It rings: ding, ding, ding. Touch gloves, and we just started. We exchanged blow after blow. We were boxing. The first round ended, it felt good. Tired. I mean, that round felt like it lasted a half hour. I go back to my corner. I’m breathing, and it’s like, “How’d I do?” He’s like, “You’ve got to throw it. You’ve got to be more active. Make this round yours. That was Jason’s.”

“I go back again, touch gloves again. We’re smiling. We’re punching each other, and we’re smiling. I bring it up that second round. I caught him with a little heater in the corner, and all of a sudden, I start hearing, “Marlon, Marlon,” and I couldn’t believe it. That just fueled me, and I’m just trying . . . trying to get it over there, and we’re exchanging blows. He gets out of the corner and then he starts throwing. He throws volume, he’s really good. He works really well around the ring. The round ends, and I go back to my corner.

“I get some water in the back, and I’m like, “Whooh.” Everyone’s like, “You made that yours. Finish hard. Finish hard.” I’m thinking, “All right, we got this.” As soon as I got up, and they said, “All right, that’s boxing,” and my trainer said, “Give it all you’ve got!” I saw Jason, super relaxed, and I thought, I’m reading you right now, and you seem relaxed almost like you’re planning something. Like that punch that knocked out the guy! I was really cautious that round, but I was throwing. Not how I was throwing that second round, but I was still relaxed.

“The round ended, and immediately we hugged each other and it was amazing to hear the crowd, too. They were standing up, clapping, and we both crossed the ring to shake our opponent’s trainer’s hands there. Everyone had smiles, and I’m just trying to catch my breath like . . . how long was that? What was it? Two, six minutes?

“It felt like forever, you know? W;e got these medals put on us, and then they announced the winner. They raised Jason’s hand, but I was proud. I was happy.

“I didn’t even watch the main event. I just I went back to my corner, composed, and I said, “Find my lady,” and started cleaning up. The gym slowly started to clear out, and of course, who do you have there? My trainer, my gal, the owner, and then we were just reflecting on it. I loved Lisa’s reaction, too. She’s like, “What? That was amazing.” We proved a lot to ourselves.

“Even before the fights, it was a passion in me, and I would think of young Marlon. What does young Marlon need? I had just started at Henry Sibley, the high school, there in West Saint Paul. I decided that I wanted to start a boxing club. I talked to a couple of principals. I talked to an athletic trainer. The athletic trainer’s like, “Yeah, why not?” I told him, too, I am going to buy the equipment.
“It was twenty kids. I had them write an essay. What is this going to mean to you? What are you hoping to get out of this? Twenty kids turned into twenty-five kids, and then the students themselves—I love this—decided to combine the male and female classes, and said, “We want two sessions a week.” I had set up just one.

“I mean, there was this kid who had a disability. The administration told me that the year before he hadn’t spoken to anyone. He would dress like the WWF, like the Undertaker. He was kind of loner. He approached me, and I could tell he was very nervous, but I said, “Hey, it’s okay. Just come, don’t worry. We’re going to do this.” He went from wearing black to wearing colors; to doing his hair, to sitting with people at lunch, to asking a girl out to prom, to being goofy . . .

“Little stories like that . . . there’s another kid that is a little overweight, who’s trimmed down. There are these kids that you would not expect to go into the boxing club, and I’d work them, work them, work them, but work where they saw results.
“Keep it going, keep it going. Turn with your hips. Time.”
“When the kid approached me, the one that just blossomed, he said, “I’ve found out what I want to do for a living.” He goes, “I want to be a personal trainer.” His mom approached me at the conference, she’s like, “You have no idea how much this sport has meant to him.” And just to hear that from parents, from the gals having confidence . . . and they created this club together. I told them, “This is your club. I want everyone to have ownership of that.”

“We created it, that sense of community was building in the school. You could just feel it. Just like these kids that were scattered came together with boxing. For me, it was a huge barrier. I didn’t believe in myself. I had no confidence. I’m not going to be good . . . I think once they get the basics and then realizing, “Hey, I can do this,” and then learning . . . there’s so much to learn.

“I’m learning, too. I got my coaching certification and I stepped up my game. My organization became better, and that’s where the club took off at school. From there, it led me to Lisa filling me in for a couple of roles at the gym: teen class, helping out other trainers. Then, just a couple of months ago, I got on a schedule consistently, teaching different classes, and it’s a passion. That’s what the sport has become, and it’s almost like taking a new attitude in life, of seeing things from different angles.

“Even in my marriage, there’s been conflicts, and normally I would just say, “We’re in a conflict right now. This is a big deal. It has to be this way, or no way.” That’s because of the chaotic life that I lived, right? Just intense, when do you have to be on the defense? And I’m still dealing with that. My childhood was very traumatic, but the sport, and what I’m gaining from it, is helping a lot. I find myself catching myself, too. I don’t want to be like, or have that reactions of my mother, or my siblings, or my aunts and uncles.

“You want to change that attitude. It’s too bad. I wish the rest of my family would find something so special as boxing, but those are the consequences of war, I think. I’m grateful for being in this country. I’m grateful for my mother bringing me over here. That forever I’ll be grateful for, but I still have my feelings towards how I was brought up. Being fortunate enough to discover the sport, and having my wife say, “You need this, “ and then it turning it into what it is now, is just remarkable.

“I guess I see my job as the way I want to return to all the trainers that have worked with me, all the teachers that have helped me, and all of my friends, and family. That’s my way of thank you. Now it’s my turn to make sure that someone like me has that opportunity to grab onto that hope, to go on to a better future.” •