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How Victor Montalvo honors Mexican roots in breaking journey to Paris Olympics
By Chris Bumbaca, USA TODAY,
3 hours ago
In more ways than one, Victor Montalvo credits his father, Victor Bermudez, for his journey within breaking – from their home in Kissimmee, Florida, to the 2024 Paris Olympics , where breaking will make its first (and perhaps only) appearance at the Games.
Not only did Bermudez’s breaking background from his native Mexico influence his son, but Bermudez pushed Montalvo into the international breaking scene as a teenager. He wanted Montalvo to go to “The Notorious IBE,” an international dance festival in the Netherlands that is one of breaking’s biggest events.
Montalvo was 17 and hadn’t finished high school yet. Some family members bristled at the decision.
“My dad is like, ‘No, I'm going to get you a passport. I don't care what anyone says, you're going,’ ” Montalvo told USA TODAY Sports. “Because he saw how much passion I had for it. And I just thank him for doing that.”
Another world opened up to Montalvo. He started traveling more after that trip and receiving invites to places like France, which has a thriving breaking community, and other spots around the globe.
“It's like, ‘All right, I'm going to pursue this.’ And I decided to leave (school),” Montalvo said.
After the Olympics, Montalvo will receive his GED, he said, and wants to attend college.
But first, winning the first Olympic gold medal for breaking is on Montalvo’s wish list. But beyond that, showcasing hip-hop and breaking culture to the world is his priority – along with continuing to make his family proud.
“Follow your dream,” Victor Sr. told his son, “and let's see what happens.”
Victor Montalvo following in footsteps of dad, uncle
One peso.
That’s how much Bermudez and his twin brother Hector paid to watch a tape inside of a friend’s kitchen in Puebla, Mexico, more than 40 years ago. What Bermudez saw altered the course of his family’s trajectory.
It was a recording of an American show, Bermudez discovered years later, called “That’s Incredible.” The clip he saw featured the Floormasters battling the Dynamic Rockers, two New York City-based breaking crews from the 1980s.
The Bermudez twins watched the video at least 10 times. They tried to copy the dance moves and started practicing on the sidewalk. Afterward, the movie “Beat Street,” which chronicled New York hip-hop culture in the early 1980s, came out. The Bermudez twins took it up a notch.
“We kind of knew how to do windmills, backspins, things like that,” Victor Bermudez told USA TODAY Sports. “So when we started doing that, there were a lot of people … they went crazy.”
Victor Sr. and Hector were about 12 or 13 years old. Other kids in the neighborhood started breaking and a crew slowly formed. A local government worker found the group and asked if they wanted to participate in a traveling variety show that traversed the state of Puebla. Somebody played guitar, another performed comedy. The Bermudez boys and their friends breakdanced. Sometimes there were 20 people in the crowd. Other shows, they danced for 800 – one hundredth of Montalvo’s current 81,000 followers on Instagram .
“We practiced 10 hours (a day) in the concrete. All the bruises, scratches on our back,” Hector Bermudez, Montalvo’s uncle, told USA TODAY Sports.
Breaker Victor Montalvo hopes to honor his father and uncle - who were breakers growing up in Mexico - at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Josh Morgan, USA TODAY
They put down cardboard to help with that. Their crew swelled to about a dozen kids, but Victor Sr. was the best, Hector said.
“He always was the one who would say, ‘I'm going to play the best in the world,’ ” Hector said. “But the things that we were doing back then, it wasn't like where you can watch YouTube and try to do the stuff that they were doing.”
Victor Sr. had to wait for his son to reach the summit on his behalf.
“We fell in love with it big time,” Hector said. “For little kids traveling from this one town to another one, it was a big thing.”
US teammate says Victor Montalvo ‘well-rounded as a breaker’
The traveling tour ended. Breaking leaked out of hip-hop culture and decreased in popularity. At the end of 1988 and beginning of 1989, the Bermudez twins immigrated from Mexico and joined the rest of their family in the United States; their parents and siblings were in the Orlando, Florida, area.
The Bermudez boys found another art form, death metal, and started a band called “Sarcophilus” (the scientific name for a Tasmanian Devil). During a garage jam session one day, they realized their children were watching “Beat Street” in another room.
“I went ‘Oh, I used to do that. And my nephew, Hector Jr. was like, ‘Ah, you are lying. I don't believe you,’ ” said Victor Sr. “I say, ‘Ah, I was good at it. And they started going like, ‘Yeah, right.’
“And I went to my brother and I go, ‘They think I'm lying about being a B-boy.’ ”
Victor Sr. dug out his old b-boy sweatshirt and a cap. They all went into the living room, moved the sofa and started doing windmills, backspins, headspins and more.
“They were like, ‘What the hell?’ ” Victor Sr. said.
Montalvo was about 6 years old when that happened, Victor Sr. said. A couple of years passed before Hector Jr. started taking breaking more with kids at school. Montalvo saw his older cousin trying to do windmills and became interested.
“He didn't stop. He was (doing it) every day, every day,” Victor Sr. said. “I was like, you’re going to break the TV.”
Kids visited the Bermudez house routinely to practice in the driveway or garage. Maria Montalvo, Victor Jr.’s mother, said they were making too much noise. But Victor Sr. was happy they were dancing instead of finding trouble.
From there, Montalvo progressed into local competitions. Everyone could see the talent. He would practice for hours on end. In 2011, Montalvo won a competition in Tampa. He took first in another Florida-based battle and that advanced him to the national championships in Chicago. His first time competing against the best breakers in the U.S., Montalvo took second, finishing behind Alex “El Nino” Diaz.
During this time, Montalvo was under the mentorship of b-boy David “MexOne” Alvarado, who died in 2017 at the age of 35. Before his death, though, he watched his mentee reach the top of the sport.
“He helped me out a ton,” Montalvo said. “He instilled a lot of positive mental ideas, and he just believed in me, and that made me believe in myself.”
Bermudez also instilled confidence in his son. His advice: have fun and be yourself. Once he started breaking like he was in the garage again, he found success in the sport that is based on a judge’s decision, much like gymnastics or figure skating.
After Montalvo started his international career, and put his education on hiatus, success quickly followed. Montalvo won his first Red Bull BC One, the biggest one-on-one b-boy/b-girl competition in the world, in 2015. His second victory came seven years later. He took gold at last year’s world championships.
What makes Montalvo an effective breaker, his fellow Team USA b-boy Jeffrey Louis said, is his ability to move in any position. The traditional themes with a new-school twist are apparent in his style.
“You could just throw him, and he’d land on one hand and then figure his way out,” Louis said, with a laugh. “He has total body awareness. He’s just well-rounded as a breaker.”
Victor Montalvo’s love of breaking reignited before Paris
Olympic breaker Victor Montalvo poses for a portrait during the Team USA media summit in New York City on April 16, 2024. Josh Morgan, USA TODAY
Winning, at first, was a way to honor his family legacy.
Once Montalvo won his first belt, the version of a trophy Red Bull awards, he knew it wasn’t staying in his possession for long. On the phone with his son, Victor Sr. offered a reminder.
“I said, ‘Make sure you bring my belt,’ ” Victor Sr. said. “But I was kind of joking. I know it’s my belt. But he came home and he was like, ‘Oh, that is for you.’ ”
There were a lot of tears during that euphoric phone call, too. The belt still hangs in Victor Sr.’s bedroom.
Montalvo does not only respect the path his father and uncle paved, but what all “OGs” – the generation of breakers from the '70s, '80s and even early '90s – did for the culture. He feels fortunate that many are still alive.
“They basically created the path that I'm on right now, that we are all on,” Montalvo said. “So it's important to learn from your past, to understand it, and then to just level it up.”
To Bermudez, his son’s Mexican heritage is one of the reasons why he is considerate of his elders.
“Our people, we're like that,” Bermudez said.
When Montalvo first learned breaking, the passion wasn’t rooted in competing or the money. By 2020, the same year he bought a house for his parents, he felt he reached a plateau.
“I just felt like I had already done it all in my breaking career,” Montalvo said. “I won the event I wanted to win, and I have won most of them numerous times.”
The announcement that breaking would be at the 2024 Summer Olympics reignited the spark. Paris became the goal – and allowed him to reprioritize why he loved the art.
“Just overall, becoming a better dancer in this sport, in this art, and creating my own fingerprint, creating my own moves, innovating new moves, and inspiring other younger breakers,” Montalvo said. “And now I understand that I have to bring back the ‘why’ and do it for the love.”
Montalvo gains inspiration from a variety of places – breakers he competes against, different forms of dance, other sports (he started Muay Thai training a few years ago). Even Mike Tyson.
“I love Mike Tyson,” he said. “Just his energy and just his perseverance throughout his life.
“Creativity, for us, is the most important thing. You take the foundation, the basics, and then you add your own little flare, your own little flavor into the move to then distinguish yourself from everyone.”
That personal style is paramount to being a b-boy or b-girl. There is an inherent vulnerability that comes with entering a battle.
“You have to be uncomfortable to then become comfortable,” Montalvo said. “You have to try new things.”
The future of breaking at the Olympics is unknown. In the U.S., its birthplace, breaking won’t be part of the Los Angeles 2028 program. That’s disappointing, but Montalvo knows the attention the sport will receive in Paris becomes even more important.
“It doesn’t matter what color you are, who you are, where you’re from. It’s inclusive. So anyone can do it,” Montalvo said. “That’s what I love about breaking and I want to show it to the world.
“It’s all about peace, love, unity and having fun.”
These Olympics will be a family affair for Montalvo. His wife, Kate, is a fellow breaker and will represent Ukraine. The Bermudez twins will be watching from home watching their dreams reach the Olympic stage.
“The American Dream” means something different to every person. Its meaning has been twisted in every direction from ironic to xenophobic. To Victor Sr., it’s not about the money – a $50,000 car takes you to the same place as one that costs $5,000, he always told his children. It’s being in America, which he’s called home since he was 18. Having a roof over his head. Having a steady job and not worrying about food.
“That's the thing,” Bermudez said, “The real American dream is seeing your kids, like my kids, doing good things, and that's the American dream.”
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