Ignacio M. García ´ 6 free download
Winner, Al Lowman Memorial Prize, Texas State Historical Association, 2014 In 1939, a team of short, scrappy kids from a vocational school established specifically for Mexican Americans became the high school basketball champions of San Antonio, Texas. Their win, and the ensuing riot it caused, took place against a backdrop of shifting and conflicted attitudes toward Mexican Americans and American nationalism in the WWII era. “Only when the Mexicans went from perennial runners-up to champs,” García writes, “did the emotions boil over.” The first sports book to look at Mexican American basketball specifically, When Mexicans Could Play Ball is also a revealing study of racism and cultural identity formation in Texas. Using personal interviews, newspaper articles, and game statistics to create a compelling narrative, as well as drawing on his experience as a sports writer, García takes us into the world of San Antonio’s Sidney Lanier High School basketball team, the Voks, which became a two-time state championship team under head coach William Carson “Nemo” Herrera. An alumnus of the school himself, García investigates the school administrators’ project to Americanize the students, Herrera’s skillful coaching, and the team’s rise to victory despite discrimination and violence from other teams and the world outside of the school. Ultimately, García argues, through their participation and success in basketball at Lanier, the Voks players not only learned how to be American but also taught their white counterparts to question long-held assumptions about Mexican Americans. When Mexicans Could Play Ball: Basketball, Race, and Identity in San Antonio, 1928–1945
This book was well researched and throughly written. I enjoyed how Nemo (the head coach) played such and important part in his players lives. The writer did his job.
9780292753778 Excellent look into the world of the early half of the 20th century in the Hispanic world of San Antonio. Not truly a sports story and, in truth, probably had too much detail of numerous basketball games rather than more comment on the lives of players and student of Sidney lanier High School. The author points out that many newspaper accounts of the basketball games and even box scolres were unavailable in this period so much is anecdotal. Having said that, he uses a great number of interviews with participants of the era(interviewed 40-50 years after the events) to create the setting and thoughts of thiose involved.
A very good look at the area and the difficulties faced by the students in this school and their representation of the struggles of the Mexican-Americans of the the west side of San Antonio in general. 9780292753778