Redemption in the ring

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2000 | 9:57 a.m.

Seeing and meeting Beatriz Miranda today offers no clue to her turbulent past.

She's bright, poised and engaging, a charming young woman who just celebrated her 17th birthday.

She talks about going to college or perhaps entering the Navy, and following a career path that allows her "to do something that helps people." Wistfully, she entertains the notion of becoming a child psychiatrist or an investigator of some sort.

Success seems assured for this Rancho High School senior-to-be.

And therein lies the startling contrast to much of her earlier life, spent as a pawn to an abusive father and as a bully toward her younger brother.

She's unlikely to ever forget that dark past, yet it hasn't outwardly affected her or kept her from emerging as a definitive example of the benefits that can be derived from organized, structured recreation.

"When she first came here she was shy, reserved and never smiled," said Faye Miller, who operates the Golden Gloves Gym. "But she's turned herself around. She's a wonderful young person."

Miranda is one of 30 participants in an ongoing boxing program run by professional referee Joe Cortez and funded in partnership with the Clark County School District and the Department of Justice. That program complements the Golden Gloves' own open-door policy that currently has 48 youngsters -- including 25 identified as "at risk" -- participating in daily boxing workouts.

"There was a time when I wished I could just live by myself in a jungle," Miranda said Monday. "I wanted to die."

That's what she wrote, more than once, on a sheet of paper as she made several halfhearted attempts to commit suicide. The knife marks on her arms have since healed and disappeared, yet in some respects they'll always be there.

"I used to cut myself," she said. "I was lucky I didn't have to go to the hospital."

She was unlucky, however, to have a father who took advantage of her for five years, from ages 8 through 13. "In a way I forgive him and in a way I don't," she says. "I just don't understand why he did what he did. He had no right, especially with me being a child."

As a likely offshoot of that problem, Miranda took out her frustrations on a little brother who is six years her junior.

"I had a very bad temper," she said. "I regret it now, but I used to beat up my brother."

Between those episodes and her regularly skipping school, Miranda was brought to Cortez's attention. They met in a private room at Rancho and he explained what his program had to offer.

"I was sick and tired of what was going on and wanted help," she said. "I'd talked to the school psychiatrist. I started telling people more about my issues."

Part of the psychiatrist's therapy included medication. But Cortez provided an even better option.

"She was starving for love and attention," Cortez said. "I told her I'd come from a broken family in Spanish Harlem and I know what it's like to feel a pain that's always there.

"I told her, 'I think I can help you' and the tears started rolling."

Cortez, whose program has been up and running for 20 months, welcomed Miranda, who lives with her mother and stepfather.

"All of a sudden, Joe was there," she said. "It just sort of happened. I always liked boxing, although it took awhile for me to get comfortable with it because I was real shy and didn't know what was going on."

But she found the exercise stimulating.

"The punching bag ... I really like hitting the punching bag," she said. "It's a chance to take out your anger. It really works."

Now she boxes regularly -- a young man at the gym who has sparred with her said she has a "killer right hand" -- and, at some point in the future, will take an amateur fight or two. But boxing probably isn't her life's calling.

"I'm not too good or too bad," she said of her boxing ability. "I'm about in the middle. But I'd like to try a couple of fights and see how I do.

"In the future, maybe I'll help some other kids who are coming into the program."

Cortez all but stipulates that those in his program return the favors they have received and participate in group projects that include visits to the elderly or the infirm.

"Once you teach them, they automatically go on and teach someone else," he said. "There was a time when each of these kids was looking for somebody to give them attention and guidance, and now that they have it they'll volunteer to help somebody else.

"I tell them, 'You can't only receive, you have to give' and that the measure of success is to make someone else successful."

Those words of wisdom have found a captive audience and Miranda, to name just one, is a different person because of her association with Cortez, Miller and their programs.

"She has a self-confidence she didn't use to have, and her self-esteem is way up," Cortez said. "She found an outlet for her anger and the discipline that goes with the sport.

"She's a good example of what I've been saying since we got this program going. It's the most rewarding job I ever had in my life."