In Mexican American communities in the central United States, the modern tradition of playing fastpitch softball has been passed from generation to generation. This ethnic sporting practice is kept alive through annual tournaments, the longest-running of which were founded in the 1940s, when softball was a ubiquitous form of recreation, and the so-called "Mexican American generation" born to immigrant parents was coming of age. Carrying on with fastpitch into the second or third generation of players even as wider interest in the sport has waned, these historically Mexican American tournaments now function as reunions that allow people to maintain ties to a shared past, and to remember the decades of segregation when Mexican Americans' citizenship was unfairly questioned. In this multi-sited ethnography, Ben Chappell conveys the importance of fastpitch in the ordinary yearly life of Mexican American communities from Kansas City to Houston. Traveling to tournaments, he interviews players and fans, strikes up conversations in the bleachers, takes in the atmosphere in the heat of competition, and combs through local and personal archives. Recognizing fastpitch as a practice of cultural citizenship, Chappell situates the sport within a history marked by migration, marginalization, solidarity, and struggle, through which Mexican Americans have navigated complex negotiations of cultural, national, and local identities.

Mexican American Baseball in El Paso chronicles the vibrant and colorful history of baseball in the El Paso-Juárez border region. For more than a century, baseball along the border has served as a means of bringing together people of all backgrounds, races, and nationalities, from the fly-by-night teams of the Pancho Villa era to the fabled semiprofessional clubs of the Lower Valley League. For the area's Mexican and Mexican American citizens, storied teams like the Juárez Indios, Fabens Merchants, 1949 Bowie Bears, and El Paso Diablos served as both community rallying points and signposts of cultural identity. From the legendary semiprofessional players of decades past to the most recent major leaguers, this book presents the photographic history of baseball in America's largest border community.

Mexican American Baseball in the Alamo Region celebrates the game as it was played in the Tejano and Tejana communities throughout Texas. This regional focus explores the importance of the game at a time when Spanish-speaking people were demanding cultural acceptance and their political and civil rights in cities like San Antonio, Corpus Christi, New Braunfels, San Diego, Kingsville, and Pleasanton. All had thriving Mexican American communities that found comfort in the game and pride in their abilities on the field. On these pages are historical images and wonderful stories that are now immortalized, taking their rightful place in the annuals of the game. ¡Viva Tejas, Viva Béisbol, y Viva los Peloteros!

Mexican American Baseball in the Inland Empire celebrates the thriving culture of former teams from Pomona, Ontario, Cucamonga, Chino, Claremont, San Bernardino, Colton, Riverside, Corona, Beaumont, and the Coachella Valley. From the early 20th century through the 1950s, baseball diamonds in the Inland Empire provided unique opportunities for nurturing athletic and educational skills, ethnic identity, and political self-determination for Mexican Americans during an era of segregation. Legendary mens and womens teamssuch as the Corona Athletics, San Bernardinos Mitla Caf, the Colton Mercuries, and Las Debs de Coronaserved as an important means for Mexican American communities to examine civil and educational rights and offer valuable insight on social, cultural, and gender roles. These evocative photographs recall the often-neglected history of Mexican American barrio baseball clubs of the Inland Empire.

At the beginning of the third decade of the 21st century, the Latino minority, the biggest and fastest growing in the United States, is at a crossroads. Is assimilation taking place in comparable ways to previous immigrant groups? Are the links to the countries of origin being redefined in the age of contested globalism? How are Latinos changing America and how is America changing Latinos? The Oxford Handbook of Latino Studies reflects on these questions, offering a sweeping exploration of Latinas and Latinos' complex experiences in the United States. Edited by leading expert Ilan Stavans, the handbook traces the emergence of Latino studies as a vibrant and interdisciplinary field of research starting in the 1980s, assessing the current state of the discipline while suggesting new paths for exploration. With its twenty-three essays and a conversation by established and emerging scholars, the book discusses various aspects of Latino life and history, from literature, popular culture, and music, to religion, philosophy, and language identity. The articles present new interpretations of important themes such as the Chicano Movement, gender and race relations, the changes in demographics, the tension between rural and urban communities, immigration and the US/Mexico border, the legacy of colonialism, and the controversy surrounding Spanglish. The first handbook on Latino Studies, this collection offers a multifaceted and thought-provoking look at how Latinos are redefining the American identity.

From its humble beginnings in 1887, when it was invented in a Chicago boat club and played with a broomstick, to the rise in the 1940s and 1950s of professional-caliber company-sponsored teams that toured the country in style, softball's history is as diverse as it is fascinating. Though it's thought of today as a woman's sport, fastpitch softball's early years featured several male stars, such as the vaudeville-esque Eddie Feigner, whose signature move was striking out batters while blindfolded. But because softball was one of the only team sports that women were allowed to play competitively, it took on added importance for female athletes. This book chronicles its history.