As part of the Detroit Tigers Hispanic Heritage Month celebration, the club will be featuring some pieces of content from Tigers Magazine. The following Q&A appeared in the third edition of Tigers Magazine.
1) You were born and raised in Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela. How is it there?
Born and raised in Ciudad Bolivar. There are not many things to do there. It is very big, there is Ciudad Bolivar and Puerto Ordaz, in the state of Bolivar. There are farmlands and ranches, it is more agricultural.
• Read this article in Spanish
2) Was that the point where you started to love baseball?
Since I was little. We liked baseball, but it was never anything serious. We liked it and we played and then we realized that there was a possibility that we could play baseball professionally. That was where it got more serious, because we trained, ran harder -- but that wasn't until we were around 15 years old.
3) Baseball is the most popular sport in Venezuela, right?
Baseball is the No. 1 sport in Venezuela. A lot of good ballplayers have come from Venezuela, and they were the ones we used as guides. We always watched the big league games and watched the ballplayers, and if a Venezuelan was playing, we would pay more attention. During that time, there weren't as many Venezuelan ballplayers as there are today. It made us very proud. Things have changed for the better. Today there are more schools and academies that prepare you to sign. In the past, you would just prepare on your own. Now there are schools where they can prepare you, so everything is more organized.
4) What is your favorite city to visit in Venezuela?
Venezuela is very pretty. The thing is the situation nowadays, but the country is beautiful. There are places like Canaima, the Santo Angel, there are beautiful places. There is the Gran Sabana, you can go there in a car. There is the Isla Margarita that is 100 percent tourist with the beaches. There is also Puerto la Cruz that is also a beach. It is a beautiful country.
5) What is your favorite Venezuelan tradition?
The big Venezuelan tradition is like Thanksgiving here in the United States. Over there for us it is the 24th and 31st of December. The 24th and 31st of December are times to be with your family with a lot of food.
6) Some of your walk-up songs are vallenato, what kind of music is big in Venezuela?
Yes, the vallenato music is Colombian, but I love vallenato. The typical music in Venezuala is similar to country music here. It is heard out in the farmlands. It is with harps, cuatro and maracas, that is it. That is the Venezuelan music.
7) What do you miss the most from Venezuela?
I would say the big get-togethers with your family and friends, and definitely the food. You can't compare with the food -- the cachapa, the fried fish. I will stop because I'm getting hungry.