El ángel de Ringo Bonavena
(Ringo Bonavena’s Angel)

- Edebé, Barcelona
- 2012
- 284 pages

‘Ringo’ is the nickname of an Argentinean boxer, Oscar Bonavena, and this is his story. We learn of his birth and his childhood, of his family and his beginnings as a heavyweight professional boxer, the highlights of his career. When Oscar is born, God sends him an angel to help him and protect him in his eagerness to become a world-famous boxer. And so Angel, for that is the angel’s name – who, incidentally, was more of a troublemaker in Heaven, so God decides to get rid of him – meets Bonavena’s family and becomes one of them. His aim: to take Ringo to the heights of boxing, all the way up until he fights Cassius Clay and is defeated. Bonavena’s loss to Clay is the beginning of the end of his career as a contender. He is then hired by the owner of the Mustang Ranch brothel in Las Vegas to put up fight shows and entertain clients, but he refuses to get paid to lose fights to his opponents. Finally, a thud shoots him dead. At that exact moment, Angel had forgotten the mission God entrusted him with, he forgot to look after Ringo and was thoroughly enjoying earthly pleasures.

“Ringo” es el nombre artístico de un púgil argentino, Óscar Bonavena, contada desde su nacimiento hasta su muerte. Nos relatan su nacimiento, su infancia, la familia, el comienzo como boxeador y los puntos más relevantes de su carrera. Al nacer, Dios le manda un Ángel que le va a apadrinar en su afán de devenir un boxeador famoso. El ángel se llama Ángel - hay que decir que era un poco pendenciero en el cielo y Dios se lo quita de encima - se suma a la familia naturalmente y convive con ellos, con el objetivo de llevarle a la cúspide hasta que combate con Cassius Clay y es vencido. Después de eso comienza la caída, que lo lleva a boxear para entretenimiento de los clientes en el Mustang Ranch, un prostíbulo de Las Vegas donde no accede a cobrar por perder las peleas contra los contrincantes y donde finalmente un matón acaba con su vida de un balazo. En ese momento preciso, Ángel se había desviado del encargo de Dios a cuidar de Ringo y estaba disfrutando de lo lindo de los placeres terrenales.