¡Pleibol! In the Barrios and the Big Leagues Part 4: Pastime of the Américas

This five-part series takes audiences on a journey into the heart of American baseball to understand how generations of Latinas/os have helped make the game what it is today.

The distinctive sound of a bat connecting with a baseball; the sight of the diamond itself; fans and vendors clamoring around the stands. 

Throughout the 1900s, immigrants and migrants from the Caribbean—Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico—as well as from Mexico, Venezuela, the northern coast of Colombia, and Brazil, knew the sights and sounds of baseball before coming to the United States.

Baseball was already a vibrant part of their home communities. At the same time, generations of Latina/o ballplayers are homegrown in the United States, playing in the U.S. and abroad.

Before African American legend Jackie Robinson broke the color line in 1947, racial restrictions and segregation kept non-white players from playing in Major League Baseball. 

The Negro Leagues were professional baseball leagues made up of African American, and some Latino, players. Between the 1930s and 1950s, many Negro League players—including stars like Buck Leonard—made their way to leagues throughout Latin América, where they found a more accepting racial climate.

In the first half of the 1900s, more than 240 Latinos played in the Negro Leagues because Jim Crow segregation blocked them from Major League Baseball. Players learned that talent alone did not result in acceptance. Latin American leagues also presented opportunities for African Americans and Latinos when Major League Baseball did not.

Buck Leonard played baseball year-round, especially as he ended his career. He participated in the winter leagues in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Venezuela between 1935 and 1955, and in the Mexican League from 1951 through 1955.

How much was Buck Leonard paid in 1951?

The Mexican League often paid more than the Negro Leagues, but neither paid their players as much as Major League Baseball. In more recent years, multimillion-dollar contracts look much different than the single double-sided page Buck Leonard signed with the Mexican League. 

Look at the details of this contract.

Baseball scrapbooks demonstrate international lives and, in this case, feature women’s invisible work to remember the careers of male family members. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Rose Marie Salazar meticulously recorded baseball clippings of her husband, Alonzo Orozco, and and brother David Salazar, in the U.S. Southwest and Mexico.

Many would rather play with makeshift equipment than not at all. Handcrafting baseball and softball gear is a tradition found in Latino communities across the Américas

In the late 1800s, Cubans became the “apostles of baseball,” spreading the game across the Caribbean. The first Cubans to learn the game were children of the Cuban elite sent to study in the United States during the 1860s. They returned home with baseball equipment, knowledge of how to play the game, and enthusiasm for sharing what they acquired.

This generation spread baseball across the island, teaching others how to play and forming baseball clubs that became the foundation for baseball’s central place in Cuban national identity and culture.

Minnie Miñoso was a key figure in the generation that bridged baseball from segregation to integration. From 1946 to 1948, he played in the Negro Leagues with the New York Cubans. 

In 1949 Miñoso debuted as the first Afro-Latino in the majors, just as the color line was dissolving. Pioneering integration meant enduring intense and sometimes violent racial animosity. He responded with exceptional on-field performance.

Minnie Miñoso’s signature appears in the center, just over the stamp.

The Cuban Revolution of the 1950s left diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States strained. Cuban baseball players who chose to play professionally in the United States had to defect and could not return to Cuba; exit visas were often denied to their families.

Luis Tiant’s career spanned 20 years, most notably with the Boston Red Sox from 1971 to 1978. Cuban-U.S. diplomatic relations broke down in 1961 and ballplayers had to choose between continuing their careers or returning to Cuba. Luis Tiant Jr. signed with the Cleveland Indians.

Because of U.S. embargoes on travel to Cuba, 15 years passed before he would see his family on the island.

Cuban artist Reynerio Tamayo painted Chicago White Sox player and defector José Abreu guided by Cuba’s patron saint, La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre. The baby Jesus in her arms also gestures to the son Abreu had to leave behind.

In Florida, the Minor League Tampa Smokers were named for the prolific cigar industry in the region. The team played across Florida, the southern United States, and Cuba. They also became known for developing several Cuban Major League players.

Who do you see on the pages of this book?