From Punches to Paintings

His artwork has won numerous top prizes
at the Musee du Luxembourg in Paris, and has been purchased by notables
such as Andy Garcia, Evander Holyfield and Petula Clark. Most recently,
Pacheco’s portrait of Mohandas Gandhi was selected for a commemorative
stamp the United Nations commissioned for its annual Day of Nonviolence
in 2009.

During his nearly 20 years with Ali, Pacheco met and
spent time with Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and the Beatles,
among others, and had the opportunity to see all the wonders of the
world. But one historic place has eluded his itinerary

. . . until now. He will make his first visit to Syracuse for the
opening reception of an exhibition of his work at the Brian Wood Art
Gallery, 201 Wolf St. (424-9663). The artist will appear at the gallery
on Friday, Nov. 21, 5 to 8 p.m., and Sunday, Nov. 23, noon to 4 p.m.,
for an autograph signing.

Now 80 and based in sunny Miami, Pacheco
has no intention of slowing down. “For the last 20 years, I’ve tried to
do at least one or two paintings a week,” said Pacheco by telephone
from his Florida home. “I really don’t have any free time because I’m
programmed to be doing something all the time. I’ve got to feel like
I’m progressing toward a goal and I’ve been that way since I was a kid.”

Five years ago, Pacheco suffered a stroke. Ever since, he
dreams beginning-to-end stories and he has translated those nocturnal
tales into more than 100 short stories. He splits most of his time
between writing and painting, and both influence the other.

With an Orson Welles baritone, Pacheco regaled many tales
during the one-hour phone conversation and his knack for yarn-churning
could have easily made him a star on the Mercury Radio Theatre
broadcasts. That affability translated well to TV, as he became a
boxing analyst in the early 1980s for NBC and Showtime and won multiple
Emmy Awards before he retired from commentating in 1998.

“In another world I would have been an
entertainer,” continued Pacheco. “And because I’m a storyteller, all of
my {art} work is narrative, there is a story in everything I do. The
faces are biographies of each guy, and even if I do a boxing painting
or a jazz painting, they all have a story to them.”

Pacheco noted he likes to paint historical figures and
has done portraits of Ali, jazz legend Dexter Gordon, Abraham Lincoln
and Frida Kahlo—all rendered in a Fauvist style, which emphasizes the
use of bold and vivid colors perhaps with a distorted form. He further
noted that he goes through phases when it comes to subject matter. He
believes one of his best paintings is “Pickett’s Charge, the Battle of
Gettysburg,” a 72-by-124-inch rendering of more than 200 soldiers
charging each other in a narrative mélange not unlike Hieronymous
Bosch, into which you can read a different story by studying the
expression and position of each character.

He also uses his upbringing in Ybor City—a neighborhood
in Tampa, Fla. composed mainly of Spanish, Italian and Cuban
immigrants—as a muse. “Coming to Work,” for example, features a
predominantly blue and yellow tropical city backdrop behind two
bustling rail cars making a transfer stop while 35 characters engage in
daily activities such as the shoe shine and ordering deviled crabs at a
nearby stand.

He moved from Tampa in the early 1950s and earned his
medical degree at the University of Miami. He practiced medicine there
until 1962, when he stared the opportunity of a lifetime in the face at
the famed 5th Street Gym, which Pacheco labeled the “University of
Boxing.” There he met trainer Angelo Dundee, and a young man named
Cassius Clay—who would later change his name to Muhammad Ali—and the
rest is history. The sudden change of scenery for Pacheco was a polar
shift for someone who never sought the spotlight.

“It was huge. Ali was the biggest thing there was in
sports,” said Pacheco. “My life in medicine was very quiet despite the
fact there’s a lot of dramatic shit going on in your office. But you
save somebody’s life because that’s what you’re supposed to do and you
don’t get a round of applause for it. When you get into boxing, you’re
in the spotlight and you’re in the paper the next day, you can’t avoid
the spotlight. But part of the fun is being unashamedly in the
spotlight and it’s made me, me. And you get to be in a position where
you’re selling books and paintings because of who you are.”

He has written several screenplays, plays and books including a memoir titled Blood in My Coffee (Sports Publishing, 2005) and his chronicles with the Louisville Lip called Muhammad Ali: A View From the Corner (Carol Publishing Corporation, 1992). Next year, in what he described as his best writing yet, he will release Tales from the 5th Street Gym (University Press of Florida), which will recall those early days spent in Miami.

Despite having spent nearly 40 years of his life in
boxing, Pacheco stopped following the sport around the time Mike Tyson
had one less tribal tattoo on his face. “There is no boxing anymore,
there all a bunch of half-asses,” said Pacheco. “I couldn’t get off
my ass to watch it, it’s not worth it. It used to be a family thing and
everyone was related to everyone by experience or careers and now it’s
controlled by Vegas casinos, and they took it out of the realm of
sports and made it entertainment. That’s the way it goes and I don’t
want to be part of it. . . I think I’ve seen all there is to see.”

—Tom Kahley