Sometimes, digging into the past can lead to a wild journey of unanticipated discoveries—such as happened with Cal Poly Pomona professor Richard Santillan.
A professor of Mexican-American studies for more than 40 years, Santillan helped spark the movement that led to the publishing of a series of historical books, including the fourth and most recent: Mexican American Baseball in the Central Coast.
The book, which details the rich local history of Mexican-American baseball, is the result of a two-year process and is co-authored by several Southern California professors. According to Santillan, an exhibit in Los Angeles sparked the idea for the series as a whole.
“It was 2006, and they had an exhibit for three months on Mexican-American baseball at Cal State L.A.,” Santillan said. “It was very successful, and the exhibit had thousands of visitors.”
As the exhibit came to a close, Santillan and fellow colleagues/baseball enthusiasts had an interest in establishing a book-writing project that focused more on Mexican-American baseball. The group is currently based at Cal State San Bernardino. Rather than produce a book full of baseball statistics and famous players from the area, Santillan said he and the authors wanted to do something different.
“We didn’t just want to focus on baseball as a sport, but how baseball was a vehicle communities used to come together,” Santillan explained.
Santillan and the co-authors found that many Mexican-American players were also very involved in local churches, in schools, and as city council members. Baseball games featured promotion tables registering people to vote and encouraging them to become a part of a labor union or to fight discrimination in work and schools.
“Baseball, as it did for Jackie Robinson and other African-American players, was not simply a game, but a way of integration into American culture and sports,” Santillan said.
When they decided how they wanted to publish the book, Santillan and the authors wanted the stories to be told by the community members themselves.
“About 99 percent of the pictures came from personal collections of the players and their families,” Santillan said. “It’s amazing, because very few places collected information and pictures on Mexican-American baseball.”
The families were also responsible for writing the captions that accompany the pictures.
“It was important they told their story,” Santillan said. “Our cultural history has been told by non-Mexican-American people, and we wanted to share it through our lens.”
Local coach for Southside Little League and sports historian Eddie Navarro was involved in the Central Coast book and helped locate useable pictures.
“The book on baseball in the Inland Empire was actually a teaser for us,” Navarro said. “There were pictures in there of the first Little League team in Santa Maria, and a picture of the Guadalupe men’s team who went to Japan to play.”
Santillan enlisted Navarro’s help for the book, which shows pictures of the first CIF championship baseball team from Santa Maria High School. The book also reveals pictures of Coach Bill Cobb (Ty Cobb’s son) and Robin Ventura’s father, not to mention such other prominent Santa Maria families as Ontiveros and Aguirre. One of the things Navarro and Santillan discovered was the extent of baseball on the Central Coast.
“We found teams from Lompoc, Los Alamos, Pismo, and a number of small communities we were not aware of,” Santillan said. “These teams traveled all the way to Los Angeles to play.”
Santillan explained that the history detailed in the book is from the 1960s and earlier, because they wanted to reveal the importance of baseball for Mexican-American communities who outlasted a number of political changes and movements.
“At that time, many Mexican-Americans were segregated and had to abide by rules in certain towns. We thought the only time they got to travel was for labor,” Santillan said. “But we found that wasn’t true—they traveled to play baseball, too.”
Traveling, the collaborators also discovered, was a community affair. When teams went on the road for games, family and friends would travel along; dances and dinners would often follow.
Santillan said softball also played a prominent role on the Central Coast and helped to redefine the roles of Mexican-American women, their family lives, and their level of involvement as community leaders.
“We are just beginning to explore this area,” Santillan said. “But we found Mexican-American women who were playing softball dating back to the 1930s.”
All of the information in the book, according to Santillan, has been discovered in the last several years. They found that baseball helped create a series of political networks up and down the state.
The authors, players, and contributors have been host to several signings since the book’s debut, and Santillan said they’re continuing to experience success; their Santa Maria Library signing event earlier this year saw a number of players from the book in attendance.
“We have been able to share an incredible history that hasn’t been told yet,” Santillan said. “The players are the real heroes in these books; they are living historians.”
For Navarro, who grew up in the area playing baseball, this book was important for the Mexican-American community because the sport was not only a release but a way for them to better their lives. But Navarro’s favorite part of being involved with the book is meeting all the players.
“It’s been cool meeting all these interesting people; it sparked something in them that was lost for a while,” Navarro said.
The next Central Coast book signing is scheduled for July or August and will be held at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, where Navarro said there’s a sports Hall of Fame to be proud of.
“We are looking forward to getting these guys together,” Navarro said. “The camaraderie that comes back is amazing.”
Right now, the group is working on compiling information and artifacts for a Texas series; Santillan never imagined the project would go this far.
Staff Writer Kristina Sewell says baseball brings people together. Contact her at ksewell@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in May 29 – Jun 5, 2014.