Willson Contreras’ family is OK, for now. Which is about as far into the future as Contreras can look and keep his emotional footing.
“They’re in a safe place,” the Cubs catcher said as spring training opened this week. “I just wish that their visas were going to be longer. I’m trying to bring them back and hope they can stay and live here.”
As Contreras approaches what could be a defining season for his young major-league career, he does it with one eye on the chaos that has overrun his Venezuela homeland.
Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro is under growing heat internationally to step down or allow a new secured, verifiable election after the widely disputed results of last year’s election that kept Maduro in power. The national assembly declared the results invalid, and last month declared its leader, Juan Guaido, the acting president.
The United States and other countries recognize Guaido as the country’s leader.
Venezuela’s once-thriving economy has crumbled under Maduro (and predecessor Hugo Chavez), along with its social infrastructure, including any semblance of law and order in much of the country. One result has been an exodus in recent years of those with means to flee.
“As a Venezuelan player, we are here. When you’re on the field, your mind’s here, and your heart’s here,” Contreras said. “Once you get off the field your mind and your heart go back to Venezuela.
“We have a dictatorship going on in Venezuela. We hope it’s over soon,” he added. “I’m just tired of seeing a lot of kids dying because don’t have nothing to eat. Venezuela’s tired of seeing a lot of old men dying because they don’t have medicine or because people cannot [afford] food.”
Contreras, whose brother William is a minor-league catcher in the Braves system, slumped much of his second full year in the big leagues in 2018 but doesn’t use the real-life magnitude of the rest of his life as an excuse.
He said he “tried too hard,” called last year “a learning experience,” and vowed to be better for that experience.
As much as the baseball part of his life is a healthy place to take his mind away from what’s going on at home, Contreras won’t be too far from Venezuela even on the field.
If baseball backs off on the ban that force him to stop wearing his Venezuelan flag-motif sleeve, he’ll bring it back for games. Regardless, he plans to wear an undershirt with the flag’s colors and the message “Freedom For Venezuela” on it.
The shirts he helped design are being sold on obviousshirts.com for $28, with proceeds benefitting relief aid in Venezuela, he said.
“It’s really bad when you go back to your country and you see all this stuff that 20 years ago wasn’t the same,” said Contreras, who also said he must employ security to travel home these days. “It’s just hard. It’s just hard for us and Venezuela. But the faith and hope is there, and I want to thank the United States of American for stepping up for us and doing everything they can for us.
“You love your country, and you want to go back and feel freedom,” he added. “I hope we have the freedom soon.”
