Book Talk: José M. Alamillo presents "Deportes: The Making of a Sporting Mexican Diaspora"

Please join us online when José M. Alamillo, professor and chair of the Chicana/o Studies Department at CSU Channel Islands, presents his new book, Deportes: The Making of a Sporting Mexican Diaspora (Rutgers University Press, 2021). Spanning the first half of the twentieth century, Deportes uncovers the hidden experiences of Mexican male and female athletes, teams and leagues and their supporters who fought for a more level playing field on both sides of the border.  Despite a widespread belief that Mexicans shunned physical exercise, teamwork or “good sportsmanship,” they proved that they could compete in a wide variety of sports at amateur, semiprofessional, Olympic and professional levels. Professor Alamillo will be introduced by Genevieve Carpio, assistant professor of Chicana/o and Central American Studies at UCLA; Rudy Mondragón, doctoral candidate in Chicana/o and Central American studies at UCLA, will moderate the Q&A.

 

Alamillo was the 2002-2003 UCLA Institute of American Cultures visiting scholar at the Chicano Studies Research Center, where he first started researching sports history. He taught the first Chicana/o sports history class at UCLA, “Race, Sport & Recreation in Chicana/o Los Angeles,” in Spring 2003.

 

This event is organized by the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center (CSRC) and co-sponsored by the César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies, the Department of History, and the Center for Mexican Studies. This event is free and open to the public.