Columnist Dean Juipe: Cortez and family refuse to go down for count

Dean Juipe

Saturday, Aug. 23, 1997 | 3:31 a.m.

IN HIS ROLE as perhaps the finest boxing referee in the world, Joe Cortez has seen his share of big hits. He even took a few during a five-year stint as a professional fighter that preceded his officiating career.

But nothing can compare with the 1-2 punch he and his family have experienced in the past 14 months.

Cortez's daughter was injured in a single-car accident that left her a quadriplegic. Then his wife was diagnosed with cancer and had to undergo a mastectomy.

"I've got the headline you can use for this story," he said last week after publicly discussing his family's situation for the first time. "Something like, 'Joe Cortez and family refuse to go down for the full count.'"

It's a headline that captures the essence of the family's collective spirit.

Joe, 53, talks softly, reflectively, and it's straight from the heart. His wife, Sylvia, is cheerful beyond description. His injured daughter, Cindy, is tougher than anyone can imagine.

And while they've all had their moments of sadness and will continue to have their moments of sadness, their approach to the hardships inflicted upon them is textbook exemplary.

"When things like this hit home, you realize how difficult life can be and how your entire life can change in one second," Cortez said. "We've had a very difficult year but we pray to God every day to watch over us."

It's likely he prays every day at 3 a.m. when his alarm goes off and it's his turn to go into Cindy's room and turn her over. As a quadriplegic, totally paralyzed from the neck down, she's susceptible to bed sores if she lays too long in one position. As a result, she needs to be moved every few hours and her father is the one to do it at 3.

Cindy is 29. Before her injury, she was an X-ray technician in New Jersey.

After she was incapacitated, it became apparent she would have to be moved to Las Vegas to join her mother and father. They have two other daughters, one of whom also lives with them.

Joe and Sylvia moved to Las Vegas in May 1992 and he says his only regret is that Cindy was injured while visiting them here.

"I came here to better my life and help my family," Cortez said. "I saw a great opportunity here. But had I known what would happen to my daughter, that she would be hurt after coming to see us, I wouldn't have done it."

The accident could have happened anywhere, of course. But this one happened as Cindy and Sylvia and a family friend were traveling back to Las Vegas from California on Interstate 15.

Without warning, a tire blew out near San Bernardino.

"There's no explanation for it," Cortez said. "The tires were good, there was nothing on the road, they had their seat belts on and the air bags worked.

"But they rolled over and Cindy got the worst of it."

Although Cindy was the only one seriously hurt, just like that several lives were changed. The date of the mishap -- June 26, 1996 -- is so firmly etched in her father's mind that he says "I'll never forget it."

There's another day he'll never forget either, and it was last May 17.

Cindy, spurred by her own fighting spirit and bolstered by calls from the likes of Christopher Reeve, Bruce Willis, Demi Moore, Magic Johnson, Jesse Jackson and Sugar Ray Leonard during her recovery, was taken to Red Rock. But this was no sightseeing tour -- she was there for a little rock climbing!

"It was through the Help Them Walk Again Foundation," Cortez said. "Cindy was carted to the top of this cliff, something like 200 feet up, and then placed in her wheelchair. They got her fastened in and dropped the ropes down and two climbers then helped her down the side of the cliff in her chair.

"I can't tell you how nervous I was. But she said it was a piece of cake."

The descent was uplifting for everyone involved.

"It was very encouraging for us," Cortez said. "To me, it showed my daughter wasn't going to lay down. It showed she was a fighter, like me."

Quadriplegics rarely, if ever, regain sufficient control of their bodies to walk again. Cortez said their doctor told them he knew of only two cases in which a quadriplegic regained even a partial ability to walk.

Nonetheless, they're hopeful.

"The damage was serious but her spinal cord wasn't severed," he said. "So we pray. Maybe someday, with modern technology ..."

He doesn't need to finish the thought. Someday -- is it years, decades, centuries? -- the ever-developing fields of medicine and therapy may provide an answer. Anxious to do his part, the world's greatest boxing referee has had a brainstorm of sorts.

"I formed a corporation just last week called Latin Jazz International," he said. "What we plan to do are pay-per-view concerts on the Internet. The technology is there and we can do it for something like $2 a household and maybe reach millions of people around the world."

He's hoping to have the first of those concerts by the end of the year. It'll be in a Las Vegas casino and will offer several Latin, jazz and salsa entertainers.

"Most of the money will be donated to spinal-cord research," Cortez said. "Every little bit helps and maybe this will help find a cure."

He came across the idea while watching a Florida-based firm present a live boxing card on the Internet. "The way it happened made me think it's God-sent," he said. "I realized I've got to reach out and this came along at just the right time."

Sylvia's cancer and resulting mastectomy also weighed heavily on the Cortez family. She had the surgery in April.

"It really worried me a lot, for a couple of reasons," Cortez said. "Not only did this affect her, she's also the primary caretaker for Cindy."

With Sylvia having to give up her job with the Clark County School District following Cindy's injury, Joe is trying to add to his workload and income. Aside from his boxing duties -- he has refereed 93 world-title fights -- and his developing Internet plans, he has taken a position as a North Las Vegas deputy constable.

He serves papers for Constable Lou Tabat's office and speaks to kids at schools. "I was born and raised in Spanish Harlem in New York, so I can relate to anything on the street," Cortez said, adding that he may run for constable if and when Tabat retires.

"I'm trying to get as much work as possible to make ends meet," Cortez said, content with the number of assignments he receives from the Nevada State Athletic Commission but always willing to take on more.

"They've been good to me," he said.

A wall in his home offers proof. On it are dozens of framed photographs with Cortez at work between some of the world's best-known fighters.

He continues to do high-profile fights around the globe and has the WBC heavyweight title fight between Lennox Lewis and Andrew Golota Oct. 4 in Atlantic City.

"I'm diversifying, though," he said, referring not only to the Internet but to some consulting duties he handles on behalf of a community outreach program with ophthalmologists in New Jersey. "I always liked to stay busy and now it seems more important than ever.

"It helps to have these other things going on because there are days I feel I've been thrown under the bus.

"With the help of God and friends, though, I've always managed to get back up and keep running."

There it is again: Down but not out. It's a concept this admirable man and his family have embraced, fighting back from what may, in truth, be a constant battle with adversity.