DALLAS — A new exhibit has made its way to Irving, Texas, to highlight how prominent baseball was in the Hispanic community during the mid-1900s. The exhibit sheds light on the fight for equality and the impact the community had on baseball.
With Major League Baseball back in the eyes of many sports fans, the Smithsonian’s traveling exhibition, “Pleibol!: In the Barrios and the Big Leagues,” is now on display at the Irving Archives and Museum.
It presents the stories of the Hispanic community and how important their influence has been on baseball in America.
Albert Valtierra, an Irving resident, has always had a love for preserving and sharing Mexican-American history. So much so that he and others in DFW founded the Mexican-American Historical League in 2008 to pursue that very mission.
For the last seven years, Valtierra has collected more than 50 photos of Hispanic baseball leagues in barrios across the Dallas area. The process has included countless hours of research and interviews.
So when the Irving Archives and Museum brought this particular exhibit to Valtierra’s attention, museum director Jennifer Landry says he was quickly on board to provide the Dallas perspective to the exhibit.
“It was just the perfect synergy. So we’re featuring 10 of the images he’s collected,” Landry said.
Valtierra says highlighting the importance of baseball in the Hispanic community just makes sense. “Being Latino and playing baseball is sort of — I always say it’s sort of like peanut butter and jelly,” he said.
The 10 photos are now on display, spanning from the 1950s to the 1970s, and even including photos with people Valtierra knew growing up.
“You’re getting history from them, and you’re telling their history,” Valtierra noted.
Each photo, according to Valtierra, tells a story of the hardships and perseverance the Hispanic community experienced during those tumultuous decades.
“We couldn’t play at every ballpark, um, we had to play late hours, because they would turn out the lights,” Valtierra said.
These roadblocks became the spark some of those Hispanic baseball players needed to start making some change in DFW.
“It allowed them to see and thus become active in the community,” Valtierra said.
With 10 of his photos on display until June 19, Valtierra says his next step is to gather another 50 baseball-related photos for a book that’s being put together by a California group that will discuss many of the topics brought up in the exhibit.
To highlight the exhibit, the museum plans to have a "Family Fun Day" on Saturday, April 30. It will include baseball-themed activities and hot dogs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.