José Pérez Julién, one of the best referees in Cuba: "I am very happy since I stepped foot on Canadian soil"

Many Cuban baseball lovers remember a golden era of our ball in which not only the players but also the referees shone.

There was an important relationship of good ampayas and, without a doubt, one of them was our interviewee today, the capital native José Pérez Julién.

What do you currently do, where do you live? I practically don't know about you.

I currently work as a computer engineer in a Canadian company. When I arrived in Canada in 2012 I started working in construction for two years at a company that repaired roofs and did aluminum and copper work.

At the same time, I studied English at night and computers on my own to update my knowledge. During this time of study I set out to achieve Microsoft certifications to be able to compete in the Canadian job market, and I obtained three certifications that helped me achieve my goals.

In 2014 I got my first job in computing and currently I work as a “Senior Software Developer”; I have spent more than seven years in Canadian companies.

What city you live?

In Toronto. In 2014, after two years, I was able to bring my wife and her son to Canada for family reunification. I have two sons. Both of them, the oldest, 28 years old, and recently, the youngest, 22 years old, are in the United States, to my pleasure and peace of mind because our country has truly become very tough, to use just one adjective. My mom still lives there.

When did you decide to leave Cuba?

The decision arose in 2010 due to two incidents that occurred that same year. The first, when I was expelled from my workplace as a computer engineer, a job I performed for 23 years. I was a victim of the “Availability Law” and the opportunism of the director of my company.

The second, when I was suspended in the final play-off between Industriales and Villa Clara due to Alexander Malleta's decision at 2nd base during the fifth game held at the Latinoamericano stadium.

I left Cuba permanently in 2012 through a letter of invitation from my brother who already lived in Canada.

After locating your current situation, let's take a look at the past. Did you always want to be a referee or did you dream of being a player?

My childhood took place in the Cerro near Latin America. All the kids from the neighborhood went to see the Industriales play. We played all types of ball in the neighborhood, four corners, with two bases, hard ball, loose ball, cue ball, etc. There was a lot of baseball atmosphere in the neighborhood, where two National Series players lived: Julián Villar and Florentino González.

When I was a child I wanted to be a baseball player. There was a field at my primary school and I was there for a while. I remember that Euclides Rojas was in my classroom and we played there. The coaches at that time were "the Puerto Rican Jiménez" and Lázaro Barroso but they gave me a scholarship in 7th grade at Güira de Melena from 1977 to 1979 and I completely distanced myself from playing baseball. I only had the opportunity to watch it on television.

So did you decide to referee?

Look Julita, before being a referee and thanks to my father's vision, I studied a university degree at CUJAE, Engineering in Automated Management Systems, currently Computer Engineering, years 1982 - 1987. Upon graduating I began to work as a computer scientist at the Ministry of Sugar.

But I don't see any relationship with the ball.

It was not until 1989 that he became a referee, by the way, by chance. Sitting at home reading the sports page of the Granma newspaper, I see a small note from the Sports Directorate of the City of Havana, where it reported on the holding of a Provincial Baseball Rules and Officiating course.

I signed up. The teachers of the course were Orlando Valdés and Lázaro Ramírez. Both were National Series referees at the time. In the course I met Manuel “El Chino” Hernández, who sometimes helped teach some classes with more complicated content.

That course was theoretical, you learned the rules of baseball. Practice began at the 1989 Youth Championship. There were around 40 students on the course and, as far as I remember, only three people continued their refereeing career. The rest abandoned this profession.

And how do you get to the National Series?

Getting to the National Series is a long, difficult path, with a lot of sacrifice and dedication for any referee. You also need a little luck. For four years, from 1989 to 1993, I was working on all the categories that are played in a province. From 10-12 years old through youth and reaching the first category.

During that time I had to work on all the baseball fields in Havana City. Transportation and food were on my own, most of the time I rode a bicycle; That was in the so-called Special Period.

In 1992 they created the First Development League, in which I worked as a referee representing Havana City, which gave me the opportunity to intervene as a substitute in the 1992-1993 National Series; So I was able to referee 10 games. That was unforgettable for me.

How many National Series did you take part in?

I worked in 20 National Series. My first game was in 1991 as a substitute referee and my last game in 2012. I was group leader in the National Series from 2001 to 2012.

There are ampayas who look for problems; In your case, the problems were looking for you. I remember embarrassing events that involved you on more than one occasion. Many identify you as the “man of difficulties.”

I don't think that way, but I respect everyone's criteria. I simply think that I was harmed by the way the incidents were handled by the National Baseball Directorate, where they were responsible for the serious indiscipline against the refereeing.

Physical attacks against referees occurred with increasing frequency and the leaders did not take exemplary measures. The disciplinary regulations were not applied in the same way to everyone. It all depended on who was involved and what that athlete represented to the government and its leaders.

This deteriorated the authority of the refereeing body as the years went by and many athletes found themselves protected by their leaders. In the same way, there were athletes who were severely sanctioned because they were not of interest to the government and its leaders.

During my professional career as a referee in more than 20 years, I had four incidents that were very high-profile and, for that reason, could have affected my public image in one way or another.

The first incident was with Mario Vega in 2006, when they published a totally erroneous note about the events that occurred in the Granma newspaper. On that occasion, they published two different incidents and I quote:

“On December 27 (2005), during the Camagüey-Granma subseries, at the Cándido González stadium, the pitcher Manuel Vega Tamayo (GRA) attacked the main referee of the clash, in indiscipline incompatible with the conduct that our athletes must maintain.

“On the other hand, on Wednesday, January 4 (2006), after concluding the Havana-Ciego de Ávila game, the referee José Pérez Julién responded with physical aggression to the claims of the athlete Mario Jorge Vega Rodríguez - whom he had expelled during the game. match- in flagrant violation of the rules of conduct of our referees, thus imposing the aforementioned sanction.”

The Manuel “la Pistola” Vega incident occurred with another referee who is not mentioned in the press release. My incident was with Mario Vega.

This article published in the Granma newspaper by Sigfredo Barros does not really reflect what happened and, therefore, the public begins to create their own versions and opinions against me. The reality of the events was different.

The athlete Mario Vega, after being expelled from the game and once the match was over, went to the referees' room and began to insult and verbally attack me. The violation was committed by the athlete when he invaded our room, a place to which no member of any team should have access.

This incident occurred in a closed room where there were only seven people (four referees, their checker, the person in charge of attending to the referees and the athlete).

However, the National Baseball Directorate headed by Carlos Rodríguez Acosta, without taking into account the reality of the facts, decided to suspend both the athlete and the referee for two years. Furthermore, this publication was allowed in the Granma newspaper, which does not reflect the reality of the events that occurred.

The second incident was with Michel Enríquez. On Tuesday, March 12, 2007, during a game between Havana and Isla de la Juventud at the Cristóbal Labra, the athlete angrily protested a count of balls and strikes, for which I was forced to expel him from the game.

The next day, the athlete did not play because he was suspended for one game. On Thursday, March 14, the athlete returns at the end of his suspension. The challenge developed normally without any problems. At the end of the game, the referees evaluated the subseries and returned to the hotel.

When we were at the hotel, the athlete was inside the facility without prior knowledge of the referees because only the referees and the visiting Havana team were staying in that facility.

At the moment when we were getting out of the car, I saw the athlete coming running towards me with a bat in his hands and I only had time to dodge him with my forearm in his attempt to hit my head. That caused a fracture of my ulna.

This incident was totally managed by the country's leaders. Proof of this was that the athlete was a guest of honor to the play-offs that year. In this way, many negative opinions were created against me by the population.

The third incident was in a play-off held between Sancti Spíritus and Pinar del Río at the José Antonio Huelga stadium in 2008. In the game, which was being broadcast on television, I had to send off Pedro Luis Lazo in the 9th inning for unsportsmanlike behavior, leaving the bench in an unwell manner to protest with a cigarette in his mouth and under the influence of alcoholic beverages.

After the expulsion, a massive protest by the Pinar del Río team against me occurred with the intention of attacking me. This incident ended with the expulsion of six other members of that group.

This serious act of indiscipline was minimized and managed by the leaders when they allowed all those involved to continue in the next play-off between Pinar del Río and Santiago de Cuba. They never applied an exemplary measure in the face of these serious acts of indiscipline.

And the fourth incident was in 2010 during the fifth game of the final play-off between the Villa Clara and Industriales teams held at the Latinoamericano. It was a call on a play at 2nd base when runner Alexander Malleta was running towards 2nd base and was touched by Aledmis Diaz.

I did not see when they touched it and when they decided “safe”, there was a great protest from all the members of the Villa Clara team. This fact caused the expulsion of the player Ramón Lunar for unsportsmanlike gestures. While in Villa Clara to continue working in the play-off, the leaders Higinio Vélez and Cristian Jiménez decided to suspend me and I had to return to Havana City.

I remember each and every one of those incidents as if it were today and I very much regret not having properly defended my interviewee today, perhaps taking me away from the immense love I felt and feel for the players involved. There are mistakes that are not forgotten, certainly.

If you had to mention referees of excellence before you, from your time or after?

There were many excellent referees before, during and after my time. First of all, I mention my great teacher, my friend and a father to me, Manuel “El Chino” Hernández, my second teacher and another father to me, Germán Águila and also Iván Davis, Alfredo Paz, Julio Ramón Veliz, Nelson Díaz , Luis César Valdés, Omar Lucero, Melchor Fonseca, Javier Rodríguez, Elber Ibarra, Juan José Cuevas, Omar Peralta and Jorge Nieblas.

José Pérez Julién is who doubts it? a great referee who was never one of those preferred by the sport's leaders, despite which he took part in several international events in Cuba and abroad, including the Havana 95 Intercontinental Cup, the 2002 Youth World Cup in Canada, the 2008 Chinese Taipei Pre-Olympic. and Pan American Games Guadalajara 2011.

There is a question that cannot be asked of a referee: What do you experience when you make a mistake?

There are many types of mistakes. There are minor mistakes and serious ones. In both cases, the referee must be able to overcome that at the moment it occurs to avoid making another error due to lack of concentration.

In my personal case, when the mistake is serious, I couldn't sleep. The wrong decision comes to mind again and again and it is very difficult to conceive of a break that day. Then you get over it, but that bad memory always remains and I set the goal of being better in my next job.

Slow motion as an appeal resource, positive or not for arbitration work?

I consider the use of replay for the referees to be positive. In this way, it helps to better resolve any controversial decision. The massive protests by the teams against the referees have disappeared and that is very favorable for the show. This was something that denigrated Cuban baseball and that was already becoming uncontrollable and, on occasions, ended with physical attacks towards the referees on the field of play.

In addition, referees have a new resource for improvement and will be able to receive a more objective evaluation of their work. On many occasions, the teams would protest angrily against the referees without seeing the replays of the plays. Then, when they watched the slow motion later, they realized that the referees had decided correctly. These problems have been avoided with the right that directors have acquired to request a review of the decision.

Currently, Cuban baseball is not the same as when you refereed. What is your current opinion of refereeing and the level of Cuban baseball? Are you one of those who considers themselves to be on par?

Cuban arbitration suffers from the same problems that any other activity in Cuba suffers. It is impossible to aspire to the development of arbitration when favorable objective conditions do not exist in the provinces. I am referring mainly to the salary issue.

There will be no referees, no athletes, no coaches, if there is no economy that supports the development of that. The salary payment of referees at the provincial level is important to attract young people to this difficult profession and that salary has to correspond to the current cost of living. As long as that does not exist, nobody will want to be a referee. This deterioration increases as the years go by.

The refereeing and the level of the ball are on par. Referees will not be able to develop if they do not work on quality baseball. For example: it is not the same to see 80 mile throwers as 95 mile throwers every day. The same thing happens with athletes. Current results in international events have shown that the National Series is of lower quality than professional teams from other countries.

Before 1999, Cuban baseball players faced amateur players. Emigration was less and had less impact on international results because the level of the opponents was lower.

Starting in 1999 and with the participation of professionals in international events, the level of quality of those events improved and little by little the true level of Cuban baseball began to be seen. At first, we could compete with the professionals. But that has been changing little by little over time.

Cuban baseball players began to learn more about what professionalism is and its benefits. This opened the eyes of the athletes even more and now emigration occurs from an earlier age. It is impossible to aspire to international results with the current Cuban baseball development system under the limitations of a government budget and centralized control of the sport.

As long as the Cuban government is not able to guarantee a salary to its athletes that is competitive with respect to the professional leagues of other countries, its athletes will continue looking for the best option for their lives and emigration will increase every day.

You are happy?

Yes, I am very happy from the first moment I set foot on Canadian soil and to have achieved everything I have in life. I feel very proud to have worked in construction and thanks to that, help my family from here.

I was able to rebuild my professional career as a computer engineer in a wonderful country like Canada at the age of 49 based on effort, dedication and sacrifice. Plus, I was able to bring my wife. I don't owe anything to anyone and I feel like a free man, full of love, health and happiness. Since 2018 we have been Canadian citizens, thus achieving another goal.