A Puerto Rican couple who have followed their national delegation to every major games since Barcelona 1992 arrived in Santo Domingo on July 22 for the XXV Central American and Caribbean Games, continuing a tradition that has taken them across three decades and multiple continents.
Rafael Pérez, originally from San Juan, and his wife Vanessa Ortiz began planning the trip in February. The couple, who have been together for more than 35 years and first met while working at a department store in Puerto Rico, plan to stay until the final day of the Games. Eight more family members are expected to join them before the closing ceremony.
Since Barcelona, the two have attended games in Atlanta, Sydney, Athens, Beijing, London and Rio de Janeiro. The Covid-19 pandemic briefly interrupted their run before they made it to Tokyo in 2021. Santo Domingo brought them back into full swing.
Pérez described both music and sport as tools of resistance for maintaining Puerto Rican identity, given the island’s political relationship with the United States.
During their first days at the Juan Pablo Duarte Olympic Center, they watched Adrián Benítez win silver in taekwondo behind Dominican Bernardo Pié, who took gold, then headed to the softball stadium to see the Puerto Rican women’s team face the Dominican Republic.
Puerto Rico has 442 athletes competing at these Games. The geographic proximity of the two islands has made it easier for supporters to travel, and Pérez pointed to one player whose mother, father and both grandparents made the trip to cheer him on.
Basketball and baseball are closest to their hearts, though combat sports have become a fresh draw given the size of Puerto Rico’s delegation in those disciplines. They said they support every Puerto Rican competitor without exception. Among all-time greats, they named the late José Piculín Rafael Ortiz as a personal favorite. They are counting on volleyball, baseball, basketball and athletics to deliver gold medals.
Pérez is easy to spot in the stands. He wears a giant Puerto Rico cap he paid $90 for at the newly opened Olympic store at Plaza de las Américas in San Juan, purchasing it two days before departure. Other attendees, including some who are not Puerto Rican, have approached him asking to borrow it for photographs. His family found the buy hilarious, but he said it has caused a sensation. He has not yet come across anyone else wearing one and hopes the sighting in Santo Domingo will prompt people back home to get their own.
A graphic artist by trade, Pérez also designed his own event credential, featuring images of athletes. The boxer depicted is himself, another athlete represents his wife, and his sister appears on it as well.
The Games coincided with the Baseball Hall of Fame induction in Cooperstown of Carlos Beltrán from Manatí, who became the sixth Puerto Rican to receive the honor. Pérez said it came down to a choice between the two events. He attended Iván Rodríguez’s induction in 2017, but said a 17-day Games held considerably more appeal than a single weekend in Cooperstown.
He added that Central American competition offers something the Olympics cannot: more victories to celebrate and better chances of a medal, because the competitive level differs and delegations are smaller.
