Character Analysis
Lencho is a bully. He's the kid in school who likes to intimidate Manny and his other pals, plus he likes to have as much power as he can get and wield it over everyone around him. Classic bully, right? Right.
But here's the weird twist: Some of the traits that come out when Lencho acts like a bully are also the qualities that make this dude an effective leader. So when he decides to run his own boxing team, Lencho is actually a pretty decent coach. Manny tells us:
What mostly fired us up, though, was Lencho's inspirational talks. He spoke with braids of lightning in his voice […]. He piled it on about being proud, about how marvelous it was going to be after we pulverized those other guys. (7.48)
Wow, Lencho sure sounds like he's got spirit. He totally has the inspiration part of being a leader down, especially with a voice of "lightening." We also know these talks can be pretty effective since Manny says the speeches "fired us up." Here, then, it looks like all that power Lencho likes to have is actually paying off.
Over time, Lencho's inspirational talks almost actually work—Manny says that the team is getting pretty good. But the bad news is that by the time match day arrives, each boxer is in for a huge beating… and then some. So for all Lencho's leadership, he ultimately ends up pretty bummed out.