Explore the history of Latinos in American baseball

By Lori Harwood, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences

Today

ESPAÑOL

When Alex Nuñez was choosing a research topic for his doctorate in history, he was inspired by his own family history. Nuñez grew up playing baseball and his grandfather, Tommy Nuñez Sr., was the first Mexican-American referee in the NBA. Nuñez said his grandfather often shared the impact of sport on him, not only professionally, but also socially and economically.

Nuñez decided to examine the relationship between racial identity and sport in the United States, particularly among Americans of Mexican descent.

In addition to being a doctoral student in the Department of History at the University of Arizona College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Nuñez works as Deputy Director of Recruitment and Admissions for the Specialized college.

He is also a virtual member of the Smithsonian’s Latino Museum Studies Program and participates in the National Museum of American History exhibition “¡Pleibol! In the Barrios and the Grandes Leagues. “ The exhibit examines how generations of Latino players have changed baseball and transformed American culture. Nuñez creates a resource collection on the subject for K-12 educators, a task the former high school teacher is delighted to work on.

The exhibit is linked to Nuñez’s research into how baseball provided an opportunity for Latino players and also reflected their limited opportunities; how it served as a vehicle for identity formation; and how baseball and other sports can be a gateway to understanding the larger problems of society.

Latino players in the major leagues

More than 50 Latino players competed in Major League Baseball before Jackie Robinson became the first African-American to play in MLB, making his debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, Nuñez said.

“My research is about how Latino players negotiated with the racial logic that baseball used to decide who could play and who couldn’t, and it was often on a case-by-case basis,” said Nuñez.

Vincent Nava became the first Mexican American to play professional baseball in the United States in 1882. For most of his career he claimed Spanish heritage. Nuñez said the ambiguity of Latino racial affiliation has allowed some people to bypass the colored lines, but it has come at a cost for other people of color.

“While the ability to participate in a white space is certainly a personal act of resistance and mobility, this claim to whiteness reinforces the standard of belonging established by the dominant group,” Nuñez said.

Identity training and switch knocking

Nuñez said Mexican-American players used a paradox of strategies to negotiate their identity. On the one hand, says Nuñez, baseball has allowed them to form networks and cultural bonds with other Latino players. On the other hand, the players’ success in “chasing the whiteness” has required a move away from their traditional Mexican identity, Nuñez said.

“Like a baseball hitter, who is able to hit successfully from the left and right sides of the plate, these two social strategies were both opposed and complementary, and helped create a new identity based on race. and class… as Mexican Americans, ”Nuñez said.

The baseball field has become an interesting identity training lab, Nuñez said.

“There is a common saying, neither from here nor from there – neither here nor there. Many Americans of Mexican descent felt in the middle, “Nuñez said.” They were no longer fully Mexican in the United States, but neither were they fully accepted as Americans. It was in intermediate spaces like the baseball field where they were able to sort of hybridize those two feelings and create a sense of pride in being Mexican-American. “

Baseball and Labor Relations

Nuñez said one of the biggest surprises for him in his baseball research was how essential the sport was to working relationships in the early and mid-20th century – at least for Mexican-American communities. .

Many newly arrived Mexicans were relegated to manual jobs in the United States. Often times, baseball has been presented to workers as an incentive and a means of enforcing control.

“The managers were basically saying, ‘If you do your job well, on Saturday we’ll have baseball games,’” Nuñez said. “It was also meant to be a way to instill American values, with the perception that people of color or immigrants lacked the characteristics of being American, and sport was a way to anchor work ideals. teamwork and discipline. “

But sometimes the goal of controlling workers has been overturned, Nuñez said. When workers spent time together playing baseball or other sports, it often became an informal way to organize.

“They recognized when they were together that there were grievances they had with their conditions,” Nuñez said. “So they could use this time to organize themselves and demand the change.”

The rise of latinos in baseball

Over the years, Latino players – including those who grew up in the United States or came from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Cuba or the Dominican Republic – have made a big impact on baseball and culture. American.

One example is Fernando Valenzuela, a former Mexican professional baseball pitcher who played from 1980 to 1997, most famous with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

“For a long time, Mexicans were opposed to the Dodgers because of the history of the forced eviction of the residents of Chavez Ravine to build the Dodger Stadium,” Nuñez said. Fernando Valenzuela really won over those Dodgers fans. Studies have also been done on how Fernando, as an iconic Mexican player, had a wider impact on views on immigration in the ’80s and’ 90s. “

The official history of baseball is increasingly Latinized, with an increase in the number of Latino players inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, Nuñez said.

That doesn’t mean the discrimination is gone, Nuñez said. For example, some Latino players have a more lively style of play and a bat-turning – made to celebrate after a home run – which is popular in Latin American baseball leagues. When the bat-flipping first appeared in MLB, some people criticized the practice for not following proper baseball etiquette.

“Discrimination kind of changed shape. In the 40’s and 50’s it was who could and couldn’t play. Now it’s more: ‘Are they playing the right way?’ “said Nuñez.

Today, Latino players are the fastest growing group of professional baseball players and they also make up a large portion of fans, a fact that franchises are aware of, Nuñez said. For example, the Arizona Diamondbacks recently revealed their Snakes jersey, stating that the uniform highlights “the Hispanic culture of the state and the connection between the team and its fans.”

“I think you see this kind of Latinization of an American sport that was originally used to Americanize Latin America,” Nuñez said. “I’m really interested to see how baseball is developing as an international sport.”