For this week’s reading I read the piece on the story of the Cubana women in the AAGPBL. There were several things in this article that I found interesting. The first was that the AAGPBL was only willing to buck certain historical societal trends, especially when it came to issues of racism and sexism. The article states, “Women in the AAGPBL were all American, but also all white. In effort to construct the pristine image of mid-century American femininity and natural appeal, there was a strong notion that the only shade of skin, which could keep this All-American image intact, was a woman of light complexion.” I know that women (or at least white women) gained rights before African-Americans did, as evidenced by the 19th amendment passing several decades before the Civil Rights Act, but I found it interesting that baseball followed roughly the same progression in this department as the rest of society. I had always assumed that a league that challenged gender norms the way the AAGPBL did would have challenged other norms as well. Another thing that jumped out to me was that according to the article these issues of racism were largely about skin color, not ethnicity. The article states, “Since league officials were constantly looking for new talent, there was no exception to offering Latinas the chance to tryout for the league—as long as they fit the light-skinned, feminine image.” I thought it was interesting that league leadership evidently didn’t care where players were from or what their heritage was, they just cared that they could pass as white. It makes the whole issue of racism look even more superficial and ridiculous than it already was. The final thing that caught my attention was the passage that discussed how difficult the transition to playing in America was for some of the players. The article quotes Isabel Alvarez, who said, ““I was alone in Fort Wayne. Sometimes when you can’t communicate, you feel maybe [others] don’t want you around. Everyone has a clique, they run around in groups.”” I think this is something that we sometimes forget the importance of with athletes, and it doesn’t just apply to racial minorities. It can also apply to white athletes in sports like basketball and hockey where you sometimes have a European player that comes over and struggles with the adjustment because they don’t have a fellow countryman on the team. The language barrier is discussed a lot, but I think some people often forget just how difficult the transition to living in a new country with a different language can be, especially when these athletes are expected to perform at the highest level on a very public stage.
