It does not matter that it is the penultimate month of the calendar; the intersection of Santa Catalina and Primelles is boiling with heat and she is there, a few meters away, at the Manuel Fajardo University of Physical Culture and Sports Sciences, at the Cuban Sports Research Center (CIDC). She has been there for several years as a collaborator and specialist in the technological observatory. She looks somewhat different from the image we all know. It’s strange but she looks younger, taller. She instantly makes a joke and immediately clings to the first technical timeout:
“Hey skinny, a meeting has come up at 10. How do we do it: do we start and then continue?”
“We better wait until it’s over. I’ll stay here, you call me and I’ll come back.”
“Okay,” she says as she checks the number. “Got it. I’ll call you.”
Yumilka Daysi Ruiz Luaces was born on May 8, 1978, in Camagüey and, like almost all of her teammates, she grew up in a humble family. The El Modelo neighborhood of the provincial capital saw her run, kick balls and fly a kite.
“I was lucky to learn to play almost everything. At home, we were taught to play board games: checkers, pachisi, dominoes. I played with marbles, tops, bags, stilts, burrito 21, catch, four corners… I had a childhood that I remember a lot, I keep it very present. At that time there was no technology at all; I enjoyed it to the fullest,” she recalls.
She was an active and restless girl, who was instilled from a young age with a love for the game of high nets. Yumilka does not forget when the family would get together to watch volleyball. Twenty-five people and a single television. She evokes those moments and talks about how they all lived in the same patio, in very bad little houses, always together.
“My mom was a volleyball fan. When it was on TV, the channel was changed and we enjoyed the game. That was a continuous influence for me, and then my family’s support.
“Back then there were special areas where one started in the sport. Calls were made for the children to play the discipline they wanted. From the beginning I liked volleyball. I did the skills tests and I was automatically recruited for the Cerro Pelado EIDE. I entered when I was 8 and spent four years there. Later I was part of the national preselection of cadets, the junior team, here in Havana.”
“When you were little, did you follow any player?”
“Yes. I had a fixation with several. Among them, of course, ‘Mamita’ Pérez, Imilsis Téllez; the effervescence and rise of Mireya Luis, who was from Camagüey, and Josefina Capote, captain of the Cuba team at that time, was starting.”
“How do you evoke your time at the EIDE in Camagüey?”
“We had the chance to win two School Games. It was a very nice stage. We enjoyed our coach Cándida Jiménez, who prepared us very well for life. She was a teacher who showed us how to sit, how to talk, she didn’t forbid us to play marbles, tops; she taught us to wash clothes, to make the beds, to be combed. It was a healthy time that leaves memories like these. She always said that, above all, we should be women in the full sense of the word. And today we carry it very present.”
“From the beginning, did you consider the possibility of integrating the national team in the future?”
“It’s hard to say, we were very little. I actually liked to have fun, to play. I was not interested in anything. Also, we didn’t have the goal of making it to the national team, or maybe it was way in the back of our minds. I can’t lie to you, when you talk to me about the national team, I didn’t have it in mind.”
“What made it possible to train such good volleyball players in Camagüey?”
“A very good and conscientious job was done. We arrived in Havana with tremendous technical preparation and that facilitated the path to ascend to the different categories. The work over there was excellent. You have to take into account that I came to Havana after the 1991 Pan American Games and seven of the regular team went up with me, plus one from the bench. All of the same category; that is to say, it was quite a large recruitment.”
Remembering the moment from the welcome in the capital makes her smile. The context seemed complicated. Cuba began to enter the most difficult period after 1959 and a girl left her home to search for a dream that would lead her to fly as high as those kites of her childhood. However, coming together with many of her classmates softened the impact of arriving as a teenager in a completely different environment than usual.
“It was a total change, although I felt cared for and at home. We arrived at a course in which around 18 or 20 athletes entered. Later, over the years, only three made it to the national team.
“We did many training sessions at the national ESPA, today Club Habana, and others at the Ramón Fonst Multipurpose Hall. They took us by bus. It was a new life; but great fun. In truth, I neither resisted nor felt the change so much. In addition, I knew other players from Ciego de Avila and from Sancti Spíritus who came at that time.”
“Do you have photos of when you played?”
“I think I have some here on the phone,” she says, as she unlocks it.
Memories assail her. Passages from yesteryears come to the present through the six-inch touch screen. Pictures with the national team, her time in the Russian league, friends she made and some pictures of the Cuban boxing champions Arlen López and Robeisi Ramírez with their Olympic medals; they are the snapshots that make up her gallery of memories.
“I like the one with my teammates, that’s why I still have it,” she points out as she continues passing with her long fingers.
Suddenly, a photograph appears of her receiving in extremis. Her body arched, one foot in the air, hair in motion and the ball at the precise moment of contact with her two arms. “Wow, this one fascinates me!” she admits enthusiastically.
In 1993, she became part of the senior national preselection and attended her first training base at Mexican altitude. But in the junior category, Cuba had one World Championship left. The girls won the title with a dream team, which included the 1992 Barcelona Olympic champions Marleny Costa, Regla Torres and Ana Ibis Fernández, among others. The fact that she has little ventured into this international experience does not obscure the flashbacks that come to her mind.
“I was one of the change players there, because in my position Martha Sánchez or Mirka Francia opened, the passers Marleny Costa and Taismary Agüero, and the centrals were Ana Ibis and Regla Torres. We managed to win the World Championship, a nice competition because we had very good opponents, Italy, Korea…and we were able to beat those teams that already had a history.”
Sharing the field with girls from the big team was beneficial for Yumilka. It gave her even more security when facing the training sessions with the senior team.
“As I already had confidence in those players, when I reached the national preselection, regardless of the fact that I was one of the youngest, I felt in a comfortable environment. I just had to train and give my best.”
“How hard were the training sessions?”
“Very strong, long… I had one quality: I really liked training and I had fun; I was young and I didn’t feel so much the volume of exercises, the intensity. But yes, they were extensive and there were always quite a few goals to accomplish.”
The Camagüey woman added to her record the 1993 Central American title in Ponce, however, she was not yet part of the main group. In 1995 she had those famous high altitude training sessions that were the basis for facing international competitions. She was in Japan, was crowned in the World Cup and finally was left out of the team formed to represent Cuba in the continental event of 1995 Mar del Plata.
“They brought colleagues with much more experience. They informed me and I remained satisfied and calm. Already in 1996, for the Atlanta Olympic Games, I did manage to be part of the national team as such.
“There I was on the team. We only played one or two games; at most, three; because the opportunity was given against rivals like Peru. For me, it was an Olympic Games in which I did not have any kind of responsibility when it came to playing, although I did have to train.”
“How does a young athlete endure the desire to compete and assume that her time has not yet come?”
“To tell you the truth, we knew what our role was. There were volleyball players way ahead of us. In my case, Mireya Luis and Regla Bell were in the regular squad, exceptional athletes, and Idalmis Gato as the first change. I knew who the players in charge were. If something happened, Gato was there to enter. I wanted to play, yes, but I knew I wasn’t going to happen unless I had an opportunity with weaker teams, which happened.”
“In the 1996 Grand Prix, you played as captain. How did you face the responsibility of starting to take the place of a figure like Mireya Luis?”
“Actually, from the way we trained, I didn’t see such a big responsibility. It was what I felt. We practiced every day as if we were going to play the last game or qualify for something, and this was one of the determining aspects to be able to join the regular team and do it in the best way.”
Yumilka adds that the confidence of the coaching staff was essential, a fact that made them feel confident in their possibilities and abilities on the court.
“The mentors told you: ‘Do it like in training.’ Subconsciously, it was as if we were training. In addition, they were very intelligent and did not give us access to information from the press, which talked about the pressure or responsibility that occupying the position of Mireya Luis implied for them. No, none of that. It was simply a change: ‘You enter, if you do it well, perfect. Go hard and play the way you’re doing in training.’”
“The year 1996 was characterized by the famous brawls with the Brazilians. What role did you have in those episodes?”
“Other players who can give a more extensive explanation, because, truly, there is one important thing,” she can’t help but smile. “I was one of the skinniest, apart from being the youngest. I weighed 54 kilograms. It really wasn’t an impediment, but actually, from my point of view, the Brazilians hadn’t done anything to me. I just looked, I didn’t really know what to do.”
“How much responsibility did the Cubans have in what happened?”
“We were on the bench and it seems that, as they say, the game heated up. We were not inside, we did not know what was happening; yes, we shouted, we did so because of the victory. On the court, there were quite strong exchanges that ended in this…‘brawl,’ as you say.”
Cuba dominated the big volleyball events in the 1990s; however, in the Grand Prix, the Morenas del Caribe only managed to be crowned in 1993 and 2000. Yumilka thinks that this type of tournament “was taken more as a preparation competition. We participated in several editions and we took many second, third and fourth places; but three, four from the first team, went. The others went on vacation.”
“How did you accept the fact of competing for cash prizes and many times not being able to receive them or receiving only a part?”
“Payments were delayed because there were procedures, but we did receive them. Perhaps not the amount one would have wanted or thought. There was a scale of awards based on performance. We were very young athletes and if living in our country in those years they gave me a dollar it was glory. We did not care about the money issue so much.”
“Did it create some kind of discomfort?”
“There may have been dissatisfaction, but the results were there, you were going to battle it out. If you talk to me a little about and after 2003, the conception was already different in the other groups. For us, Cuba first. Everything that came after…welcome. We young people had a different mentality. We wanted a little more and, even though they gave us a little less, we played like it was the end of the world.”
“How do you remember the 1998 World Cup?”
“Fantastic. I don’t forget that the captain, Regla Bell, and I attended the last press conference. There was a journalist who asked the Russian coach: ‘Aren’t you sorry that a young team from Cuba comes and wins the World Cup?’ The coach turned to the right, looked at us, and said: ‘Who is young: Ruiz, who is already an Olympic champion? No, she’s not young. Who is young: Agüero? Neither. Torres, who is a two-time Olympic champion?’ He began to mention all of us as if to say to the journalist: ‘You must be crazy!’ Because only Magaly Carvajal was missing. All the rest of us had been Olympic champions, we were there and we won the World Cup. This experience was divine.”
When she arrived in Cuba she found out that she was registering great effectiveness in attack. “They never gave us access to the statistics; it seems that it was a policy of the group of coaches to avoid contradictions about who was better or worse, and we focused on the rival with the outlined strategy.”
“How did they take the defeat at the 1999 Winnipeg Pan American Games, taking into account that the team was decimated and you were injured?”
“We hadn’t lost a single game in ten years, winning the Grand Prixes. We won all the NORCECAs, the World Championships, the World Cups. Losing the Pan American Games affected us, several of us were injured and things didn’t go well for us. We later won the 1999 World Cup; that is, it did not affect us. Perhaps from a political point of view, yes, but we did what we could and, as Eugenio always said, ‘we went with our lot.’ The Brazilian team arrived very well prepared, they had no injuries and they won a 5-set match against us, it wasn’t 3-0 either.”
“Did you play while injured?”
“Yes.”
“Why does an athlete choose to take that risk?”
“It’s not that you decide. Everyone wants to look good, represent their team and they determined that I should be in the contest. I was given a lot of rehabilitation and I played the last match, I did as much as I could. It is not a decision as such, but it was part of the plan, I think.”
So many successes seem to crowd the memory of the Cuban attacker. She did not remember having won the 1999 World Cup undefeated, which, in her words, was one more title.
“We had such a broad mentality, we were fighters, winners, that — maybe I’m wrong — for us it was normal. Besides, we worked hard. You had to run; that if you ask Raiza O’Farrill, it’s like she got sick when she heard that word. We ran like animals. Therefore, we deserved to win, according to us.
“We said: ‘Someone has to pay us for this.’ We were not looking for money, but the opponents had to reward us for all our efforts. How did we get paid? Beating them! That was the thought and it was one of the things that helped us the most in that period. We were also coming from a winning team and just needed to hold our flag high. We fought and we were able to do it.”
“During those years, several of you played in foreign leagues. How was that like?”
“Since 1997 I had the possibility. I played three seasons at Reggio Calabria, in southern Italy. It was very good, we gained experience and achieved results with those teams.”
“What fundamental differences do you establish with respect to Cuba in terms of training methods and playing styles?”
“The styles changed, they were different, and the training sessions were very short. We had a large reserve that allowed us, with less physical preparation, to be at high levels of competition. It is important to note that, as young volleyball players, we would always travel with a coach and then the national team would visit us. We were constantly checked. We tried to keep the physical preparation as high as possible during all these seasons.”
“Prior to Sydney 2000, the team won the Grand Prix, which had not been achieved since 1993. How much did it influence the way you approached the Olympic Games?”
“It was very valuable. There was an opportunity to truly test ourselves and see how we were doing. We fall back into the fact that it was a preparation competition. We realized that we were doing well and we were able to face the Olympics with a positive mentality. It gave us tremendous happiness and helped with confidence.”
In that event, Yumilka Ruiz was selected as the most popular player in the competition. Her charisma, simplicity and dedication were qualities admired by fans, who greatly influenced the Cuban to win recognition over other volleyball stars worldwide.
“I was not an athlete who liked the media. I always tried to do my best where I could. I think I won the prize because I had fun, I played happily and I had no limits in different aspects. Not only in the part of playing volleyball, because I did the same when I had an ice cream with the people, that I laughed and that fascinated them; furthermore, we had a very stable performance. I was happy to be able to receive this, that they would have given it to me in front of important teams. Being the most popular and being among the best in the world meant tremendous happiness for me.”
Yumilka Ruiz became one of the most effective attackers in the world when she took over as a starter in the national team after the golden age of Mireya Luis. Photo: Ricardo López Hevia.
After the Olympic titles in Barcelona 1992 and Atlanta 1996, it could be thought that the Morenas del Caribe carried an extra weight for having the possibility of winning three gold medals in a row. It would be the first time that Yumilka would open as a starter in a competition of this magnitude; but she, as she tells it, seems to be extremely calm about this.
“We were not burdened; it was a party, like any other competition, I quote. We enjoyed ourselves and looked at the stars and the photo, when possible. We were not the center of the Games. We lived soft, relaxed. No pressure.”
From the final clash, she remembers that it never crossed her mind to let the gold escape, because they were always at stake, hard fought. They lost the first two sets to the Russians by a very close margin.
“We knew we could, regardless of the fact that we had already been defeated twice. Brazil and Russia beat us. I close my eyes and see the full final. The Russians were playing with the net close to their chests. Sometimes we said that we needed a little help and the saints celebrating here and we over there, fighting hard. We commented: ‘And these people, when are they going to arrive?’ They were late, but they arrived,” she looks up and smiles for the umpteenth time.
“Anything specific led to the recovery?”
“We were fighting. We wanted to win, just like them. They were not meek. I don’t know if the technique, the tactics or the psychological part went well, who knows! I only know that we were fighting and we wanted victory. The technicians told us that things were being done well; although minor adjustments were needed. It was clear to us that we had to jump hard to block, we did it and the Russians counterattacked. That’s where the game went. I passed my nose over the net and did not block anyone. How do you explain that to me? I looked at the bank and asked: ‘Where is this going?’”
“On one occasion you declared that you had missed a lot of balls that nobody wanted to miss. What was going through your head? How did you get over it?”
“You feel very bad because you say: ‘Shit! I attacked with a single block, I missed the last point, ahhh!’ A disaster, but hey, there’s always someone who comes and drives you: ‘Go on, it doesn’t matter; for the next time,’ and you think: ‘Okay, for the next one,’ with the sense of responsibility and of wanting to win; with that ball there’s nothing more you can do.”
When remembering the last point, with that run by Regla Torres, her face becomes clean, healthy joy.
“When Marlen Costa was going to serve, Ana Ibis Fernández was very close to her, because Marlen stood very close to the line. And Ana Ibis told her: ‘Oh, Marlencita, don’t fail. Oh, Marlencita, don’t fail.’ And she, very ready to execute. The concentration was so great that it was as if she didn’t hear her. Marlen hit, she, Ana Ibis and I were on the back line, and they blocked Taismary, Regla Torres in the center and Regla Bell in zone 4. When the Russians attacked, they gave the ball to Lioubov Chachkova, one of the world’s greatest. I will never forget her. Our blocking touched the ball, the ball rose and I went for the ball. Marlen yelled, ‘No, me, me, me…!’ and I let her have it. I volleyed very close to Taismary, who came in, made an imitation attack and automatically turned to go to zone 2. There was no one, there was no one in that entire net and we got our gold medal with Regla Torres’ shot.”
“What emotions filled you?”
“It was crazy! Fantastic! I think I don’t appear in the photo. I arrived late. I was running and I don’t know where I was going. When I turned around, I saw that they were all hugging each other. I know that…what you feel is joy.”
“After Sydney, could there be a glimpse of the gradual decline that volleyball would suffer in subsequent years?”
“After that competition, we had to come together in 2001, at least 80% of the team; and for different reasons (players who wanted to have their babies, others were on vacation abroad, others who would not return) only four of us joined: Martha Sánchez, Zoila Barros, Taismary Agüero and me. We made it to the national team with a base, after 2001 the whole structure disappeared. We started working with what there was. Perhaps it was the beginning of the debacle, as we call it now. At that time, we did not see it, we thought that more athletes would join us, but some wanted babies and others got married or wanted to retire.”
Given the situation faced by the team in the new century, Yumilka Ruiz assumed the stripes of captain, since she had the most experience among those that remained. It was time to bring the horizontal line under her number on her uniform and, with it, the responsibility of replacing none other than Regla Bell.
“What was that like?”
“I always say the same thing: being a captain means setting an example. That was a method, a guide, and it served to move the group forward. They were very young volleyball players, seven or eight years younger than us; they had another mentality. I just gave the pattern in everything: I spoke softly, I was the first on the track, who best did the weights and defense. I gave them the model, so I could engage the group and they would follow me.”
The 2002 World Cup in Germany (fifth place) and the 2003 Pan American Games in Santo Domingo (second place) showed the gaps caused by these rapid and unforeseen changes. There was individual quality; however, as a whole, the captain acknowledges that, this time, there was no justification. They left, as Eugenio would tell them, with what was due to them.
In 2004, she was the best spiker at the Grand Prix, an individual award that she received as a reward for collective work. “I was a very versatile player; I don’t even know how I managed to win those awards. I think that the prizes they had to give me were for receiving because I seemed crazy receiving and defending; however, in Asian countries, they were much more effective.”
“What would be the weakest point of your game?”
“I did not like to do the volley over the top. At first, I was very bad at serving, I don’t know why. Later on I became one of the best suspension servers in the world. But volleying over the top,” she makes a small gesture, “I can’t even tell you.”
“Why has the bronze medal been so valued at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games?”
“In that tournament, we took a single game at 3-0, all the others were 3-2 and we lost against China, in the end, the champion, also 3-2. We went to fight, we were a group that was not counted on and we managed to get this bronze medal that for us was glory. It was like gold because we won all the games 3-2. It was a hard-fought medal, it was not counted on and it truly tasted like gold. We worked hard just like the other groups. This one had less experience, fewer international confrontations; but with tremendous conviction and desire. The time had come when we were the laughingstock of the teams, although individually there were results. That is, there was talent, we could.”
Thousands of kilometers from her country, a different culture opened its doors that year. A land of empires, czars and workers. The place where unthinkable dreams materialized and inexplicable mistakes were made.
Yumilka Ruiz arrived on the cold Russian soil to represent the Uralochka-NTMK Ekaterinburg Club. Her presence was a plus. Titles, awards and records widened the merits of the mythical number 1 in that experience for the Eurasian giant.
“I spent six to eight months in Russia. The language hits you and I didn’t have much of a way to build relationships with people from other fields, just friendship with our colleagues. Life there was like in a national team. Breakfast, training, lunch, rest, food, rest.
“I was able to learn a lot and I achieved results. In the 2004-2005 season, I say this with great pride, it was the last time that the club I played for won a championship and I finished as the best in the entire Russian league.”
In a match, giving a true sample of what Cuban volleyball players were, she won 53 points. An enormous amount that can only be achieved by combining physical capacity, talent and quality.
“There are players who have broken this figure in the Korean league. It’s not that their tournament isn’t good; even, by the indicators, they are really very defensive; although not with the stature of the Russians. That’s why I invite whoever wants to break that record in Russia, in four sets, not five as has been done in Korea.”
The following participations of the national team continued to fall below. With her eyes set on the Pan American Games, an important goal was coming for Yumilka. She didn’t have that medal. A new challenge loomed.
Samba and Latin ease hosted the 2007 continental games. Rio de Janeiro was the place and, forty-four years later, Brazil was once again hosting these events. The Christ from above, with open arms, received the Cuban athletes to witness the reappearance of the spirit of the true Morenas del Caribe.
The final challenge, to make the story more exciting, was against the local team. The tension could be cut with a knife; or with a spike, serve or block. The stands were sparking; but, against all odds, Cuba overcame adversity and won the game 3 sets to 2.
The Camagüey athlete finally managed to achieve it, after an exciting duel that brought to life the lineage of previous groups and in which, once again, the saints, fate or God knows what, but above all talent and work combined to tip the scales in favor of the Cubans.
“That’s one of the most beautiful medals that I remember. Wow! Finally! Luck has never abandoned us. When you watch the game…Rosir Calderón had never made a defense in her life and she defended like three balls with the score 16-15. It felt glorious to me; it was the only gold that I had not been able to achieve.”
Silver from the 2008 Grand Prix in Japan bolstered hopes of a podium finish at the Beijing Olympics. However, as time goes by, the obstacles seem more difficult to overcome.
On the horizon was Yumilka’s fourth Olympic participation, in which Cuba would be left out of the podium after winning three consecutive titles and one bronze. The Chinese Wall would be impassable. Eleven years have gone by and teams like those of yesteryear have not been enjoyed again.
In the former captain’s opinion, more could not be done in the Asian city and she assures that the result did not influence her retirement.
“I had already been to four Olympic Games and I had considered other perspectives in life. I wanted more time for myself and in the end I ended my work with the national team and went to my province. I was working at the Cerro Pelado EIDE, doing social service and detraining. I learned a lot about how to treat young people, girls and I was nourished by my coaches. It didn’t make me nostalgic at all.”
Later, she had the possibility to be a member of the Athletes Commission of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
“The mission was to make a call to the very heart of the international Olympic movement. Being elected gave me tremendous joy because we were 35 candidates and there were athletes with a high level, from European countries…and that the black girl, the Cuban, had come out, it was fantastic; as well as being able to represent my colleagues and even more those from the third world, who voted for me to be part of the commission. I was able, from my point of view, to help Cuba and all the athletes in the world.”
“What sensations does a player, accustomed to winning, experience when finding herself impotent, on occasions, before the gradual decline in the results of the national team?”
“I worked 100 percent every day. I set the example as they did with me. I came from a victorious team, we had that mentality, at least the older ones. Unfortunately, we couldn’t maintain hegemony due to many things, not just the fact that our stars weren’t there: the world grew, volleyball changed and we changed with it. We did not get there due to various factors, although personally I was satisfied, because I gave it all day by day.”
“The Morenas del Caribe have always been seen as a very united squad. However, it is said that it is not so. What is true in this?”
“When you talk about the team, the important thing was what was done on the court. Maybe there were comments, but if I play with you and I have an affinity in volleyball, I don’t necessarily have to have it off the court as well. I don’t want to go eat with you. These are normal things that happen in all teams. I come, we play; but, when leaving, if I have a car, I get on it and go. The important thing was unity within the court.”
However, Yumilka assures very seriously that she has excellent relationships with all of her colleagues, both with those from before 2000 and with those who came after.
“What is the most pleasant memory of your career?”
“The gold medal at Sydney marked all of us; however, I loved the victory in the 2007 Pan American Games. I played injured all the time and having won…I was like: ‘Oh my God, I am at the end of my career and I will never be a Pan American champion….’ That medal for me is…. Wow! In fact, it is one of the few that I keep with me.”
“What about the other medals?”
“They are at home, in my native province. There are two or three that I have here. They were wonderful moments. The Pan American Games will always make me smile.”
“Your favorite player?”
“Miraya Luis.”
“Chosen rival?”
“I liked it against the Russians, not against Japan or China; they defended a lot.”
“Why did you call Eugenio George ‘the old man’?”
“Ah, because he was already old. He laughed and told me: ‘You got me old and tired.’ As athletes, we had the chance that he was our coach and we were very happy. He taught us, helped and educated us. He was like a father. But we did not have personal relations with Eugenio, there was always a line that could not be crossed, at least from here to there. From there to here he had to help us and guide us. It was a very nice relationship.”
The match has been extended a bit, it seems that we are in the tie break and Yumilka is starting to get desperate. She turns her head in various directions and tries to find a comfortable position.
It turns out that she is convinced they can win one more point. The match point. Now comes the last question, the classic one for a classic player:
“What did it mean to belong to the Morenas del Caribe?”
“Everything. My life. What I am and what I have I owe to the Morenas del Caribe. Boy, you journalists sure do ask a lot of questions! If I had known.… No way!” She starts to laugh. “I tell you that I do not give interviews.”
Outside, November 2020 is still not cool. The sky is clear, perfect to fill it with kites. This is how a movie of her life, romantic and action, as she likes them, could start. A girl, surrounded by grass, who flies her dreams on a kite without knowing that she would reach the same height, filling the opposite courts with shots to reach Olympus, the eternal stars of volleyball.
Author
Jorge Luis Coll Untoria
