Hui Cambrelen
Hui Cambrelen was a martial arts expert born in Puerto Rico.
Life and career[edit]
Hui Cambrelen was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, during the early 1950s. He relocated to New York City when he was a young boy. His father was a champion, trained in traditional western boxing. His first martial arts experience was studying boxing with his father. As a youngster growing up and going to school in the Bronx, he met some classmates who later introduced him to a Chinese martial artist named Wong Jung (?1898-?1994), who had a business in the Bronx. Mr. Wong was originally from Toi San County located in Canton Province (a.k.a. Kwongtung Province), China. He was a Master of Sil Lum Pai (Shao Lum System) Kung Fu. Hui and two other youngsters became students of Sifu Wong Jung during the early 1960s. Sifu Wong was from the old school. He taught his Kung Fu privately to these three selected individuals only after his observation of their conduct, honesty, responsible nature and willingness to devote time to the practice of the martial arts.
During the next eight years, Hui Cambrelen studied and practiced diligently all the fighting techniques and concepts he learned from Master Wong. At the end of that time, Sifu Wong decided to retire from teaching. He was about seventy years old. The three youngsters thus became Sifu Wong's only Disciples. Hui had mastered everything he learned from the Old Master and also became his best student, due to his prior martial arts training with his father, in addition to his being a precocious and talented individual.
Around 1967, Hui Cambrelen obtained a job working in a store in New York's Chinatown Section called "Chinatown Cut Rate" located on Canal Street. This store was in the business of selling martial arts books and supplies. The owner was Chinese and also a martial artist. The store was one of a kind at that time. All types of martial arts practitioners visited this store. As a result of his position at the Chinatown Cut Rate, Hui Cambrelen had the opportunity to review the publications of the various style, as well as the occasion to meet practitioners from many different systems. Some of these Practitioners later became his sparring partners.
Although he had already learned two distinct styles of martial arts, Hui Cambrelen had a curious nature. He was interested in studying another Kung Fu system to compare with Sifu Wong Jung's Sil Lum Pai. In 1967, he met Wai Hong, the Chief Headmaster of Fu Jow Pai in Chinatown, New York City. Afterward, Hui enrolled in the Fu Jow Pai (a.k.a. Tiger Claw System) school located at 145 Canal Street in Chinatown.
As a result of his strong background in boxing and Sil Lum Pai Kung Fu, Hui Cambrelen became a Fu Jow Pai Kung Fu instructor after only a few months of training. One reason was due to his quick ability to comprehend and absorb the Fu Jow Pai fighting concepts and techniques with a minimal amount of explanation and practice. The second was because both Sil Lum Pai and Fu Jow Pai appeared to have been descended from the same common origin. Many of the concepts and techniques from both systems were extremely similar. He was able to synthesize many advanced techniques and applications after an initial review and evaluation of the Fu Jow Pai concepts. Additionally, Hui Cambrelen appeared to have the ability to conduct and instruct his class in a much more effective and efficient manner than all of the other Fu Jow Pai Instructors of that era. Based on this, Sifu Wai Hong quickly promoted him to the position of Chief Fu Jow Pai Instructor in 1972. replacing Dewey Fong, David Lee and Sydney Ko. Hui Cambrelen had become the first non Chinese Chief Instructor in Fu Jow Pai's history and in the shortest time.
During the decade of the 1960s, Karate was one of the most popular and widely practiced sports in the United States. This was due to the early presentation of Karate by those former servicemen assigned overseas who later brought it back to the United States. These veterans had studied Karate while they were stationed in the Orient. As a result Karate Schools were being opened all over the country.
One of the most concentrated areas where Karate was being practiced was the east coast of the United States, especially in the metropolitan NYC area. This was because the Father of American Goju Karate, O Sensei Peter Urban's school was located here. Urban was a pioneer in American Karate, By the mid-1960s, he had trained a multitude of qualified Black Belts instructors and free style fighting tournament winners. Hui Cambrelen met Peter Urban around 1969 and the two remained very close friends until his untimely Death.
Prior to becoming the chief instructor of Fu Jow Pai in 1972. Hui Cambrelen was teaching his Shao Lum Pai Kung Fu to the Chinese youngsters on Market Street in Chinatown NYC. This was around 1968-1969. During this period, he met various Kung Fu Masters and practitioners in the Chinatown area. Some of these Masters wanted to test the range of his Kung Fu knowledge and abilities. A sparring session was arranged. Afterward, Hui was praised and accepted as a true Chinese Kung Fu expert by these Master's. As a result of this, Mr. Cambrelen's reputation as a Kung Fu expert began to spread in the Chinese martial arts community.
As his reputation increased, many aspiring martial arts experts decided to challenge Hui Cambrelen to try out his Kung Fu Skills. At the time, there were two major reasons. The first was because Kung Fu had not been accepted as a system of Self Defense by the non Kung Fu Martial Arts Community. The second was because many wanted to establish a reputation as great fighters. These challenges came from various martial arts schools and disciplines. Among those individuals who have had sparring sessions with Hui Cambrelen were practitioners from, other Kung Fu styles, various styles of Karate, Aikido, Tai Chi, boxing, kick boxing, Tai Boxing, street fighting, wrestling and other Fu Jow Pai instructors.
On the one hand, there were sparring sessions scheduled for the exchange of information between two martial artists or styles. Hui Cambrelens sparring partners in the area included the late Sensei Louis Delgado, the Late Master Ronald Taganashi and Chaka Zulu among many others. These were some of the more well known fighters of the martial arts community of the late 1960s and early 1970s. These sparring sessions represented the exchange of information between two martial artists. On the other hand, there were the many meaningless sparring sessions with challengers who wanted to use Hui Cambrelen as a stepping stone to fame. Needless to say none has succeeded to date.
Unknown to Hui Cambrelen at the time, Wai Hong Sifu had tested his abilities and qualifications prior to promoting him to the position of Fu Jow Pai Chief Instructor. In 1970, Sifu Wai Hong Made arrangements for Hui to enter the First Ever East Coast National Kung Fu Championships as a competitor. Mr. Cambrelen became the Grand Champion of that Competition. In 1971, Hui enrolled as a contestant in the First Open United States Bare Knuckle Kung Fu Championship and took 1st place. These are only two examples of Hui Cambrelens list of tournament winnings. Another tournament where Hui Cambrelen defeated all his opponents was in Puerto Rico where he went on to defeat Ramon Smith and Marcelino Torres only to be later disqualified by the promoter of the Tournament who happened to be Marcelino Torres's Sensei. Ramon Smith has made claims that he defeated Hui Cambelen and those claims are unfounded.
During the traditional Mid Autumn Festival Celebration (Chinese lunar calendar 15th day of the eighth month-Translated by Mr. Hong as August Moon) in 1973. Hui Cambrelen was appointed by Sifu Wai Hong to open, operate, and head the First Fu Jow Pai Branch school (a.k.a. The First Fu Jow Pai Chapter) outside their NYC Headquarters. This School was located in San Turce, Puerto Rico.
Finally, during Fu Jow Pai's 35th anniversary celebration in 1992, Hui Cambrelen was awarded the title of Fu Jow Pai Grand Champion by Mr. Wai Hong. This was documented in the Fu Jow Pai 35th anniversary publication.
References[edit]
- Fu Jow Pai 35th Anniversary Publication, published by Fu Jow Pai, 1992 edition
- Conversations with Hui Cambrelens Classmates and students (names withheld per their request for privacy).
- The documentary "The Warrior Within" 1974
This article "Hui Cambrelen" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
