NEW MEXICO Master
Albuquerque’s Ray Barrera Jr. has been recognized in a book as one of 50 “Modern Masters of the Martial Arts”
Ray Barrera Jr. has nothing against the sport of mixed martial arts. He enjoys a good fight, he’s been in a few over the years, and he’s not quite done.
Yet, he emphatically prefers martial arts without the “mixed”— traditional martial arts as a way of life and not merely a sport.
Barrera, owner and chief instructor at Albuquerque’s Karate One International, is included among 50 “Modern Masters of the Martial Arts” in a book written by David B. Nemeroff and published by Tambuli Media, a publishing house that specializes lifestyle, health, fitness and the traditional martial arts.
The Las Cruces native is the only New Mexican featured in the book.
“I feel pretty honored,” Barrera said. “But more important to me, if I can help New Mexico get a little bit of limelight somehow ...”
At age 73, Barrera still competes. He’s looking forward to this year’s AAU Nationals — probably his last, he said — which begin today in Raleigh, N.C., and at which he hopes to extend his record for having won the most gold medals in that competition. He has 26 golds and hopes to return from Raleigh with 30.
“I’m competing in four divisions (short weapons, long weapons, empty hand and, yes, fighting),” he said. “If I win all four, it’s gonna be tough for anyone to (catch me).”
But being able to compete at age 73 is precisely his point.
“You don’t see 73-year-old guys in MMA competing,” he said. “You don’t see that in boxing. In most sports, by the time you hit early 40s you’re pretty well washed up.
“I started (martial arts) when I was 14, and I’ve never lost my enthusiasm for it.”
Barrera isn’t worried that traditional martial arts will ever become a lost art, in New Mexico or anywhere else.
“There’s trends,” he said. “You see trends
come and go in every sport. Right now the big thing is of course MMA, and there’s a lot of MMA schools open.
“But the preponderance of schools in New Mexico as well as the U.S. is still traditional schools.”
Barrera just doesn’t want the lifetime benefits of traditional martial arts to go unnoticed by anyone, from ages 7 to, well, 73 and beyond.
“I like seeing little kids come in and evolve and all a sudden realize, ‘I can do things other people would never have the opportunity to do,’” he said. “To see that epiphany hit them, what a thrill to see that.
“And to see older adults, mature adults come to the school and say, ‘I’ve always wanted to,’ well, why not? ... You’re never too old.”
Regarding the lasting benefits, Barrera offers himself as proof.
“I can do a full split and have a pretty good six-pack for a 73-year-old guy,” he said. “The point is, the most important asset that anyone will ever own is your own body, your health.
“The bible says you have 120 years. I want my 120, but I want quality 120, not just quantity 120.”
In the book, Barrera is shown wielding a nastylooking apparatus called a kusarigama — a sickle attached to a rope, which is wrapped around his right wrist. Its purpose in combat was to injure and/or disarm an opponent brandishing a weapon or hiding behind a shield.
Barrera doesn’t shrink from the martial arts’ combat/personal defense origins, or even their application in today’s society.
Still, he always returns to the lifetime benefits.
“It’s always come down to this, maintenance,” he said. “I’d rather maintain myself now and enjoy my life, rather than worry about who’s going to maintain me later on because I can’t do it anymore.
“The martial arts have been very good to me . ... It seems to display that traditional martial arts have more to offer than a short career of either getting beat up or beating somebody up.”