By Oscar Avila
Tribune correspondent
October 24, 2008
VALENCIA, Venezuela — The kids who live here could use a hero.
They live in shacks along the highway. Their neighbors are drug dealers,
carjackers and other bad folks who have turned parts of Venezuela into
some of the bleakest environments for young people in Latin America.
For the volunteers trying to help the youths here, inspiration comes
from a Venezuelan who became a national icon when he starred as a shortstop
for the Chicago White Sox five decades ago. Alfonso "Chico"
Carrasquel also inspired a retired Chicago business executive to guide
the effort, four decades after he
worked in Venezuela in the first group of Peace Corps volunteers. But
as Venezuelan and American board members try to get the Chico Carrasquel
Foundation off the ground, they have run into a roadblock in fundraising.
Their best ambassador, Carrasquel himself, died in 2005.
"Regrettably, there is more insecurity, there are more risks for
children than ever," said Elias Polo Jr., who runs the YMCA in
Valencia and is on the foundation's board. "That is why every one
of us is on a mission to make things better."
Carrasquel was a hero when Joe Jaycox was going to high school three
blocks from Comiskey Park in the 1950s. Carrasquel always seemed humble
to a fault, "with a smile better than Paul Newman's," Jaycox
recalled. Carrasquel had made his debut for the Sox in 1950, eventually
becoming the first Latin American to play in the All-Star Game. By the
time the two men met, Carrasquel was living half the year in Chicago
and suffering the debilitating effects of diabetes. Family members say
he adored Chicago, despite his early missteps. His sister recalls a
radio interviewer who asked Carrasquel how many children he had. Thinking
the question was about his batting average, the shortstop replied, "Almost
300."
Jaycox thought of Carrasquel when he arrived in Venezuela in 1962 to
help the YMCA establish its first branches here. Sent to Maracaibo with
his trusty guitar, Jaycox would compose folk songs there and still keeps
the nickname that dubbed
him a local, "Maracucho Joe."
But it was a chance meeting with Carrasquel in Chicago in 1996, when
a mutual friend introduced them, that got the two men talking. How about
helping youths in the country both men loved so much?
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