Latinos and Latinas in American Sport: Stories Beyond Peloteros
expands upon the significance of sport in U.S. Latino communities by
looking at sports as diverse as drag racing and community softball, the
rise of Latinas in high school basketball, and the role of Latinos in
protesting social injustice through sport.
Although the Latino/a population of the United States has significantly
expanded since the 1960s, an analysis of this population's place in the
history of American sport has, until recently, been sorely lacking. This
second anthology by Jorge Iber adds scope and depth to our understanding
of the relationship between sport/recreation and identity and
involvement among Spanish-speaking people throughout what is now the
United States. The chapters of this volume focus on eras and topics as
varied as the Latino experience itself, including the treatment of
Mexican athletes arriving in the U.S. for the 1932 Olympics; the
importance of youth baseball in an early 1960s southern Texas community;
and how the growing Latino presence in the NFL and other professional
sports has destabilized the historically black/white dichotomy in U.S.
athletics.
As the nation's demographics continue to change, more and more
Latinos/as are leaving their marks on fields of competition from local
to professional, on college and franchise business offices, and on the
American sporting event and sporting goods industries. In considering
such instances in the particular, this volume further illuminates the
roles that sport and recreation play in the day-to-day existence of
Spanish speakers in the United States.
