Description: Mexican American Baseball in East Los Angeles highlights the unforgettable teams, players, and coaches who graced the hallowed fields of East Los Angeles between 1917 and 2016 and brought immense joy and honor to their neighborhoods. Off the field, these players and their families helped create the multibillion-dollar wealth that depended on their backbreaking labor. More than a game, baseball and softball were political instruments designed to promote and empower civil, political, cultural, and gender rights, confronting head-on the reactionary forces of prejudice, intolerance, sexism, and xenophobia. A century later, baseball and softball are more popular than ever in East Los Angeles. Dedicated coaches still produce gifted players and future community leaders. These breathtaking photographs and heartfelt stories shed unparalleled light to the long and rich history of baseball and softball in the largest Mexican American community in the United States.
Review Quotes: "If you spend enough time getting to know a city, you'll notice official and unofficial monuments of its history. On rare occasions, you might catch sight of grown men in crisp white and sky-blue uniforms kicking up clouds of dust at the diamond on 4th Street and Evergreen Avenue. This is part of the lesser known piece of Los Angeles history captured in "Mexican American Baseball in East Los Angeles..".
Photos of Manuel "Shorty" Perez from the 1930s to '80s show how baseball connected a diverse immigrant and first-generation enclave, which later became predominately Mexican American, to America while also fostering community pride in turbulent times." San Diego Union Tribune