Local History Happy Hour: José Alamillo “Deportes: The Making of a Sporting Diaspora”

The Museum of Ventura County invites you to join us for our new bi-monthly Zoom series, Local History Happy Hour. In this series, local authors and historians will sit down with The Barbara Barnard Smith Executive Director Elena Brokaw to discuss their unique perspectives on our region’s history, and take questions from the audience.

Mark your calendars for Tuesday, May 4, 2021 from 5—6PM for the next installment featuring Jose A. Alamillo, author of “Deportes: The Making of a Sporting Diaspora.” Admission is free with registration.

José A. Alamillo is professor of Chicana/o Studies at California State University Channel Islands (Camarillo, CA) and author of “Making Lemonade out of Lemons: Mexican American Labor and Leisure in a California Town” and co-author of “Latinos in U.S. Sport.” He is a consultant on Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History exhibition on Latinos and Latinas in baseball.

“Deportes: The Making of a Sporting Diaspora” 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. Some even made their mark in the sports world by becoming the “first” Mexican athlete to reach the big leagues and win Olympic medals or world boxing and tennis titles.