For at least a century, across the United States, Mexican American 
athletes have actively participated in community-based, 
interscholastic, and professional sports. The people of the ranchos 
and the barrios have used sport for recreation, leisure, and 
community bonding.

    Until now, though, relatively few historians have focused on the 
sports participation of Latinos, including the numerically 
preponderant Mexican Americans. This volume gathers an 
important collection of such studies, arranged in rough 
chronological order, spanning the period from the late 1920s 
through the present.

    They survey and analyze sporting experiences and 
organizations, as well as their impact on communal and individual 
lives. Contributions spotlight diverse fields of athletic endeavor: 
baseball, football, soccer, boxing, track, and softball.

    Mexican Americans and Sports contributes to the emerging 
understanding of the value of sport to minority populations 
in communities throughout the United States. Those interested in 
sports history will benefit from the book's focus on under-studied 
Mexican American participation, and those interested in Mexican 
American history will welcome the insight into this aspect of the 
group's social history.

_________________________________________________________

JORGE IBER is the chair of the Department of History at Texas 
Tech University; his Ph.D. is from the University of Utah. 
SAMUEL O. REGALADO received his Ph.D. from Washington 
State University and is a professor of history at California State 
University–Stanislaus.


What people are saying about this book

"This collection of articles is intended to fill a major gap in the 
historiography of Mexican Americans: their participation in 
community-based, interscholastic, and professional sports."
—Journal of American Ethnic History, Fall 2007

"Contributes to the emerging understanding of the value of sports 
to minority populations in communities throughout the United 
States."—Hispanic Outlook, July 2007