“It 's
fault
, it's
fault
!
[lack]".
“
Watch out
!
[Watch].”
It's Saturday mid-morning and two teams are playing a basketball game on a court in the district of Villaverde (Madrid).
Some take it as a party and others seem to be about to win an NBA ring.
They are Dominican.
"But the [violent] gangs do not enter here," they specify.
Neither Trinidadians, nor Dominican Don't Play, whose literal translation is "Dominicans do not play."
Because these do play and they do it precisely so that their adolescents do not end up absorbed by the violent groups that lead brawls and even homicides.
Almost always, before turning 18 years old.
Players start arriving at the basketball courts around 11 am on Saturday.
The life stories of young people are practically a carbon copy.
Almost all of them say that the first to come to Spain were their mothers, to work in the hotel industry or as cleaners, and after a while they ended up coming as part of a family reunification process.
In the image, a friendly match on a pitch in the Orcasitas neighborhood where they meet to prepare for the official league. DAVID EXPÓSITO
If basketball has fans, the true passion of Dominicans is baseball.
For this reason, years ago they created a league for this sport with fifty clubs from different parts of Spain.
In Madrid alone there are about twenty teams. DAVID EXPÓSITO
They themselves feel that they have a finger pointed at them because of their appearance.
No one is oblivious to the gang problem.
Either they directly know the fallen in the war between rivals, or they sound familiar to them from the neighborhood or have had problems for not belonging to any.
One, who prefers that his name not be published, 22 years old, comments that his brother is involved in one.
"I try to tell him that there's nothing good there, but if he doesn't make his decision I can't do anything because if I insist that he leave he's going to get more passion," he points out.
He is also concerned that the Dominican community is being directly singled out as a source of trouble.
In the image, Enrique, a member of the Pirates baseball team, resting on the grass after a game. DAVID EXPÓSITO
In the league, there is hardly any female presence.
Fans crowd around the fields to watch the matches.
Many come with their partners or family.
On official game days in the summer, the "Basketball Without Borders" league creates enormous expectation in the neighbourhood.
In the photo, a teenage couple on the field of Ciudad de los Ángeles. DAVID EXPÓSITO
All baseball teams have a coach or trainer.
They make speeches before and after the games to motivate themselves.
All players usually play the same minutes.
Things such as punctuality are valued, not failing the team if players are missing and if the small fees that each one has to contribute to cover the costs of equipment and material are paid. DAVID EXPÓSITO
Enrique receives instructions from his coach before going out to play a match.
The job of the elders is to guide and try to keep young people from going off the rails.
Many land in Madrid as teenagers to come and live with their mothers, who usually arrive first so that their children can come with a certain security and stability.
DAVID EXPOSITO
One of the key positions in baseball is that of the catcher, which is the player who in his defensive turn occupies his position behind the batter in the game and receives the pitcher's deliveries.
This position is assigned the number 2. It is the one that indicates to the thrower where he has to send the ball.
In these municipal leagues they have all the professional clothing, the catchers use a protective mask to avoid injuries in case of impact on the face.
In the image, Jesús, one of the catchers of the Pirates team. DAVID EXPÓSITO
In the background, the figure of the Metropolitan Wanda stands out.
A few years ago they talked with several district boards so that they could minimally condition these unused lands and turn them into safe spaces to play. DAVID EXPÓSITO
Matches end with sportsmanship.
The party continues into the night.
They shower and get ready quickly at home to go out together to the pubs where the Dominican community gathers to dance.
In the photo, Alexander (right), congratulates himself with a teammate at the end of a game. DAVID EXPÓSITO
Yordan Marqués, 40 years old, appears on his bike.
He shakes hands with all the players with the typical Dominican greeting: "What what!".
He is one of the “leaders”.
This is what they call the members of this Caribbean community that promoted a sports league under the name Basketball Without Borders, in 2018. “Here we want the boys to be focused on something good, do you understand me?
Get out of gangs.
I talk about it with them, I tell them that this does not bring anything good.
We know of someone who has had problems and has asked us to participate and we are doubting it, but I want to give them
a chance
[an opportunity]”, explains Marqués, a physiotherapist by profession, without losing any detail of the game.
He remembers a teenager who had a relationship with one of these groups and at the end of each game he would stay in the middle of the track until the crowd dispersed, attentive to any sign of danger.
“I grabbed him and said: 'But is it worth living like this?
Do you want this for your family?
Two young Dominicans congratulate each other after playing a basketball game on a court in the Villaverde district of Madrid. DAVID EXPÓSITO
Although Dominicans who live in Madrid have been playing together for years informally and participating in some municipal leagues, it was four years ago when a group of members of this community decided to launch this competition with players of all nationalities, but above all compatriots.
There are also Venezuelans, Filipinos, Colombians, Spaniards... Thus, a dozen teams were formed with their respective kits and logos.
There is Team Usera, Los Fuertes, Gold Team, Aluche, Marqués de Vadillo… They got financing from the Dominican Embassy to have equipment and hire referees and a track in Ciudad de los Ángeles to play the matches.
They devised it with a competitive purpose, watching them play a party it is evident that they do not like to lose, but also to do something for the youngest.
Fiti, 39, is another of the leaders.
He arrived in Spain in 2003. “We are concerned about the issue of gangs, of course.
We know that they approach the kids
they
bully
at school and offer them protection, that's how they attract them”, he says.
Each death, each brawl, each amputee weighs like a slab on this community.
Many of those who play in this league are no strangers to the problem of violence.
Either they directly know the fallen in the war between rivals, or they sound familiar to them from the neighborhood or they have even had problems precisely because they do not belong to any of them.
One, who prefers that his name not be published, 22 years old, comments that his brother is involved in a gang.
“I try to tell him that there is nothing
good
there , but if he doesn't make his decision, I can't do anything because if I insist that he leave, he will gain more passion,” he points out.
They are aware that the violence of these gangs stains the image of the Dominican community.
Not in vain one of them bears his gentile in the name.
Although the data shows that its members are of many other nationalities.
Maicol, 21, and Alexander, 19, look like twins, but they are just brothers.
The oldest arrived in Spain two years ago and the youngest, last year.
They both work the night shift at Mercamadrid.
“Of course my mom worries if I get into trouble, but we are focused.
We always work the night shift, I left work a while ago and I came here directly”, says Maicol.
His arm full of tattoos is another cause for concern for his family, in case a gang member thinks he got them because he belonged to a gang.
Alexander and Maicol, brothers and basketball players, on the field of Ciudad de los Ángeles where they prepare the summer league. DAVID EXPÓSITO
Their life stories are practically a carbon copy.
Almost all of them say that the first to come to Spain were their mothers, to work in hotels or as cleaners, and they ended up being brought as part of a family reunification process.
It is the story of Onaldi de Jesús, 27, who arrived in Spain at the age of 17. Like many, he changed countries in his teens and returned to live with a mother from whom he had separated long before.
Women who also start work in the morning and return at night.
“My mom made sure that I didn't get into trouble when I arrived, but luckily I was already mature.
All the adrenaline I need to release, I release it on the court.
When the police stop me to identify me on the street, she is surprised that I don't have a record, ”she jokes.
more seriously,
He comments that he knows someone who has been “mochado” (cut or stabbed).
"I tell them to get out, of course, but for some it's too late," she laments.
More information
Latin gangs are no longer Latin
They themselves feel that they have a finger pointed at them because of their appearance.
Tito, a green Boston Celtics jersey, afro hair tied with a ribbon, completes his sit-ups before playing.
He is 30 years old and arrived in Spain 16 years ago. "Anyone who doesn't practice sports, or study, or work, or do anything, he ends up involved in it," he says.
He has a food service and hookah company.
“When I went to high school I lived in Marqués de Vadillo and Carpetana and on the way to class sometimes they stopped me, because they saw me as Dominican and asked me what gang I belonged to.
Sometimes someone who knew me would show up and say no, that I wasn't in it.
But my mom and I were wondering, 'What's the matter, isn't it safe to go to school?
He counts it fast because he has to get back on the court.
"Everything else doesn't exist when I play basketball," he says with a Madrid accent,
Players' sweatshirts are piled up around the track, there is also a folding chair and some beer cans.
No food, even though they are at it until sundown.
"When we are here, we even forget to eat," they say.
Through the loudspeaker sounds bachata, hip hop and reggaeton.
While the heart of the play is on the other field, others take the opportunity to make shots in the other basket.
Members of a Dominican baseball team cheer before starting a game. DAVID EXPÓSITO
Basketball has fans, but the true passion of Dominicans is baseball.
There has also been a league for this sport for years, with fifty clubs from different parts of Spain.
There are more where there are more emigrants from the island, and in Madrid alone there are twenty teams.
Wilbin Alexander was the first president of the league and also owns the company that supplies the flashy kits to the players.
But he is also the father of four children who are between childhood and adolescence.
“I brought my first two children from the Dominican Republic, ages 6 and 12, and many of us have to leave them alone at home because you don't have family here and they start doing things that you don't control.
I faced it talking to my children about what gangs are, teaching them to work,
The field is a blanket of dirt with a few specks of grass here and there.
For them this is paradise.
Where they disconnect on weekends.
Here too bachata sounds through the speakers.
A Dominican Republic flag flutters tied between two trees, along with a Spanish one.
Some play, others give instructions and write down the points in a notebook, and many others chat and comment on the game and the week sitting in hammocks.
All dressed, yes, in baseball uniforms that stylize some more than others.
In the background, the figure of the Metropolitan Wanda stands out.
A few years ago they talked to several district boards so that they could minimally condition these unused lands and turn them into safe spaces to play.
Enrique, a member of the Pirates team, rests on the grass after a game. DAVID EXPÓSITO
Álex, 33, remembers that when he arrived in Spain he didn't even know how to walk the streets without getting lost “because all the buildings here are the same”.
He landed in Madrid at the age of 15 to return to live with his mother, who had come a few years earlier to work.
"It was a little weird because I was six years old when she left, but hey, she's my mom," he recalls.
He played semi-professionally in his home country at a baseball school, he didn't know anything else in life and he took it for granted that he was going to dedicate himself to that all his life.
"There the only thing you have to get out of the pothole is music or sports," he says.
In Spain he got to play in a professional team and even receive a per diem, but it didn't last long.
Now he is also the father of a son: "He's funny because he sees a lot of things about Dominicans on TV and I have to explain to him that we're not all like that."
Another approaches, who asks that his name not come out so as not to get his family into trouble.
“My cousin was in jail.
When the police came to arrest him, my uncle couldn't believe it.
And already in prison my family told him where were his friends who were not going to see him, ”he summarizes.
Finish one of the games of the day, then others will come.
Both teams meet in two circles and then form two lines to high-five each other.
They are only Dominicans who do play.
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