Arturo Bonafont's "Nuevos Modos De Defenderse En La Calle Con Un Baston"

**chiliepeppa** · Posted On: 12/20/2012 5:03pm

Greetings,

I have owned scans of this book for a few years now and I can tell you that It is indeed a good book and extremely rare. Ralph and I had discussed a reprint for a while now , however I have concern about releasing it, not because I want to keep it secret but after seeing how the Bartitsu movement is going where many unqualified people came out of the woodwork and became "instructors" because they own the Compendium. I can only speculate that if a reprint is done the same will occour and we will suddenly see another influx of "Maestros" from a source that no one previously had access to.(this implies that there has been enough time for folks to train the material, which there hasn't been since the material wasnt available.)

That stated, I think the info is worth while to train and I have no issue with people training it, running a study group or even incorporating it into other methods, provided credit is given . I do however have a problem with people running commercial schools and teaching systems from books, it may not be an outright falsehood to do so, but it implies that they were trained in the method by a qualified instructor with lineage. Many of the recostructionists (not all) have no base in the respective arts they are attempting to reconstruct. All the "Neo and Modern" prefixes in the world doesnt change the fact that there is simply no lineage attached to this and other historical systems. If the intent is to study the material , learn it and share it fine, but be upfront about the history and lineage, which we know little to nothing about and there is no direct line. -Josh

**lklawson** · Posted On: 12/21/2012 11:11am

Originally Posted by chiliepeppa

after seeing how the Bartitsu movement is going where many unqualified people came out of the woodwork and became "instructors" because they own the Compendium.

I haven't seen this phenomenon. I've seen exactly one study group pop up which the Bartitsu Society was completely ignorant of.

Further, I've never seen any indication that Bonafont taught his system much beyond his own local students. In fact, IMS, he had a hard time finding someone to write his Foreword. Yet he still published his manual anyway and sold who-knows-how-many copies, presumably most to folks who weren't already masters of his system nor his direct-lineage students.

So I rather doubt that there'd be much "danger" of having Bonafont's material misrepresented by self-appointed masters.

The man wanted his material to be read. I think it should be.

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk

**chiliepeppa** · Posted On: 12/21/2012 2:09pm

Greetings,

I spoke to ralph last evening, since there was some renewed interest. I Inquired about the progress of the translation of this manual. Essentially,the translation is slow going as the challenge of finding a competant translator who was also a martial artist took some time and the translation is indeed underway but is slow going since it is written in an old-world dialect of spanish. Although it is in the origional spanish version and provided as a reference, many of the members of our training group have a pdf of the manual from the scans I made, the general concensus is that until the translation from Spanish to English is complete it seriously limits the appeal and viability of releasing it for republication. Once the translation is complete Mr. Grasso said that there is a high possibility that it will be offered to paladin as the first choice for republication. When this takes place Mr. Grasso intends to make an anouncement that the book will be available.

Mr. Grasso also asked me to state that although He/We do have access to the material, train it, and Incorporate some of the techniques in to our walkingstick Method , We do not teach the system as a whole and are hesitant to claim a rank or athourity in Maestro Bonafont's system due to the fact that there are no lineage instructors to have studied under. -Josh

**chiliepeppa** · Posted On: 12/21/2012 3:51pm

"I've never seen any indication that Bonafont taught his system much beyond his own local students. In fact, IMS, he had a hard time finding someone to write his Foreword."

In regards to the Foreword, the issue wasn't that the Maestro couldn't find anyone to write the forword, the person Maestro Bonafont wanted to write the foreword was his fencing maestro, who admonished Bonafont for producing the book and refused to write the forward because he felt that this information should not be made available to the common man(ie: the poor) and kept in the salon with the "upper crust".

Interesting side note: of the copies that we are aware of, those copies are autographed by Maestro Bonafot or his son Roque, so it is possible that the inital books were printed in a small quantity and given as gifts- though this is just speculation. Vigilante, is your copy signed as well? Courious if this is consistant with the others.- Josh

**TheVigilante** · Posted On: 12/23/2012 6:34pm

Hi Josh,

Yes, my copy has been signed by Roque Bonafont.

I didn't know that you guys were working on a translation/transcription - in that case I shall butt out as you guys have way more knowledge and experience than I do.

**chiliepeppa** · Posted On: 12/24/2012 10:53am

Originally Posted by TheVigilante

Hi Josh,

Yes, my copy has been signed by Roque Bonafont.

I didn't know that you guys were working on a translation/transcription - in that case I shall butt out as you guys have way more knowledge and experience than I do.

Vigilante, Thank you for the reply, interesting, it is my assumption that since all surviving copies have been Autographed. The initial publication might have been a rather limited quantity, although I have no further evidence to confirm either way. What I find particulary of note is some copies seem to be signed by Maestro Bonafont, some by Roque Bonafont , one copy that is known is signed by both Bonafonts. Not sure what that means exactly but if all of the autographs have the same dates that may infer a book signing possibly leaning to a smaller quantiy of inital copies. Just a hunch.

**Mordschlag** · Posted On: 12/24/2012 12:51pm

This sounds awesome. I've never seen the reverse grip used with the walking stick, though I've seen it with other smaller sticks and I've suspected that there could be a lot of use for such a grip if one trained with the rondell. Please update us as you get closer to publishing it!

**ralphg** · Posted On: 1/02/2013 10:11am

Originally Posted by Mordschlag

This sounds awesome. I've never seen the reverse grip used with the walking stick, though I've seen it with other smaller sticks and I've suspected that there could be a lot of use for such a grip if one trained with the rondell. Please update us as you get closer to publishing it!

members, my name is ralph grasso. my partner [josh morale] and i are working on a reprint that provides an english translation as well. it takes time because there are many fencing terms used and the spanish is one that is more closer to turn of century dialect of argentina. we currently also have a small group of associates in the arturo bonafont society[craig gemainer, roman hilva and others] which whom help each other with the understanding of the method. i do not claim to be an instructor of the system but we do include several combinations/tactics from bonafont in our personal defense system.upon completion of translation i will decide if we use paladin press or lulu to reprint the little treasure. i have used lulu to print josh and my manual of cane fighting. please be patient and stand by, i will surely let people know when it comes out