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Axios Latino is the newsletter that summarizes every Tuesday and Thursday the key news for Latino communities in the hemisphere.
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1 theme to highlight: A lot of history in a cap
A collection of
vintage
Mexican baseball team caps sold out in the blink of an eye when they went on sale last week, a sign of fans' appetite to discover more about the game's undertold Latino history.
Overview
: Latinos have played an important role in the formation of the
baseball.
Historians, fans and activists in recent years have worked to make this story known.
More than 30% of Major League Baseball players are Latino, with a fan base that has also become more diverse.
News Momentum
: Ebbets Field Flannels released a series of caps of teams from Mexico that played from 1915 to 1940 on Friday.
The caps are from teams like the 1937 Tigres de Comintra and the 1920 All-American Cables, which faded from public knowledge to the point that their origins are little known.
Ebbets Field Flannels founder Jerry Cohen told Axios it was "one of the most successful launches" from his company.
Courtesy of Ebbets Field Flannels.
Background
: Baseball in Mexico arose from teams made up of companies, political parties, and military units before an official league was created.
They had Mexican and Cuban players, and stars from the American Negro Leagues, because there were no Jim Crow laws that prohibited African-Americans from participating in this sport.
Mexican-American teams were later formed in the US, playing against teams from the Negro Leagues and the Asian-American Courier League.
In Cuba and Puerto Rico there were also strong teams that developed several generations of players and fans.
Between the Lines
: A bilingual exhibit on Latinos' historical ties to baseball opened last year at the Smithsonian Museum of American History and is now on tour.
Notable
: The Minor Leagues in 2017 launched the Copa de la Diversion, in which 76 teams play with Latino-themed logos and names on certain nights to generate interest among Hispanics.
The California Fresno Grizzlies become the Fresno Lowriders, and the San Antonio Missions become the Flying Flip Flops.
2. Mexico, shaken by drug attacks
Cartel attacks on civilians in Mexico last week have sparked fears of narco-terrorism, violence in public places intended to strike fear into the population and show authorities who is in control.
Violent attacks by organized crime spread to several municipalities in Baja California
Aug. 13, 202202:17
What happened
: Cartel members opened fire in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, and set cars and stores on fire in Jalisco, Guanajuato and Baja California.
In Juárez, 10 people died, most of them civilians, including a 12-year-old boy who was hit by crossfire, according to authorities.
That's where the violence began due to a brawl in a prison, but it spread to the streets.
In the other states, it was attributed to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel as an attempt to show strength amid rumors that its leader, Nemesio
El Mencho
Oseguera, would be ill and there would be a succession dispute.
There will be a possibility that there will be more aggressions like this if [the cartels] are not subject to the rule of law and there are no consequences when they commit massacres and crimes."
lilian chapa koloffon WORLD JUSTICE PROJECT
Why It Matters
: Mexico has witnessed violence fueled by cartel rivalries and clashes with authorities for more than a decade.
But attacks on civilians have not been frequent.
Analysts predict a growing narco-terrorism.
Montserrat Caballero, mayor of Tijuana, acknowledged the growing power of the cartels by making a public appeal to them after the attacks in her city.
She indicated that drug traffickers should attack and "collect the bills" only from those who "owe them" and not from families, apparently referring to those who have been unable or unwilling to pay the extortion known as
right to the floor
.
The president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, said on Monday
that his political "adversaries" are "exaggerating" what happened, and argued that there is "stability" because the violence did not spread nationwide.
Over the weekend he sent even more troops to the states where the attacks took place and announced 100 arrests.
LĂłpez Obrador says that his security policy is one of "hugs, not bullets," but he has maintained the strategy of his predecessors of mobilizing security forces, also giving more powers to the National Guard.
The Secretary of Defense, Luis Cresencio Sandoval, believes that public security policies are yielding results because "little by little they have been advancing and undermining the structure" of organized crime groups.
Up to 95% of crimes
go unpunished
in Mexico
.
"There must be an immediate police response, but the most forceful response must come from the law enforcement agency. There must be an exemplary criminal prosecution in these cases," analyst Lilian Chapa Koloffon, an expert in public security at the World Justice Project.
He added that it is not enough to have detainees if later it is not known "what the authority has done" with the arrested persons.
"Their organizations must be weakened and the networks must be dismantled through criminal investigations" beyond just saying that there were arrests or mobilization of armed forces, Chapa Koloffon said. Otherwise, he indicated, "it will always be a latent possibility that there will be more attacks like this if [the groups] are not subject to the rule of law and there are no consequences when they commit these massacres and crimes".
3.
The only Latina governor is in danger
Michelle Lujan Grisham, the Democratic governor of New Mexico and the only Latina state leader, is fighting to stay in office.
Why It Matters
: Although it's a heavily Democratic state, his re-election is on the line in one of the GOP's best chances to win a rival governorship.
Lujan Grisham in 2019Steven St John/Bloomberg / via Getty Images
More details
: Lujan Grisham has had low approval ratings for some time, between problems with his staff and accusations of hypocrisy.
He initially received praise for his handling of the pandemic, but sparked outrage by publicly criticizing citizens for not wearing masks;
and for buying jewelry right after ordering all non-essential businesses to close.
Lujan Grisham paid thousands of dollars to a campaign collaborator who accused her of sexual misconduct.
The state's heads of education, health and youth resigned or were fired in their four years on the job amid staff complaints of a "toxic work environment."
Republican Mark Ronchetti,
a former television weatherman, is closing the gap in the polls when many expected it to be an easy re-election campaign for Lujan Grisham.
Ronchetti defeated Republican candidates backed by former President Donald Trump, who is wildly unpopular in New Mexico, in the primary.
Yes, but
: Lujan Grisham holds a strong fundraising lead, and Democrats believe that repeal of abortion rights may entice women voters to back it.
4. Artistic recovery
There are major conservation efforts in Denver, led by the Chicano/a/x Murals of Colorado Project, to restore murals on an endangered list.
Why It Matters
: Five Chicano murals were included in the National Trust for Historic Preservation's 2022 list of the 11 places where historic art is threatened in the US.
They depict stories from Latino, Chicano, and Mexican-American culture and history in Colorado.
Latinos represent approximately 22% of the state's population, and there are even families whose roots date back before the United States.
The mural 'Huitzilopochtli', in August in DenverEsteban L. Hernandez/Axios
News Momentum
: Local artist David Ocelotl Garcia recently completed the first phase of restoration of his
Huitzilopochtli
mural in Denver's Sun Valley neighborhood.
The art, which Garcia dedicated to her late mother upon completion in 2007, covered a wall in a former community center.
But in April 2020 the building's new tenants, owners of a cannabis dispensary, painted over the mural.
Garcia completed the process in July to remove the white paint that covered her mural.
It now needs to be repainted in some areas.
In his own words
: “Just at this point, even with the recognition” of the National Trust listing, “I am realizing how important the mural is,” Garcia said.
The artist, who grew up in Denver, has artwork on display at the Colorado Museum of the Americas, one of the leading Latin American art museums in the Rockies region.
Garcia also has several public works of art, including paintings in cultural institutions like La Raza Park and outside the city's newest library.
He often uses Mesoamerican motifs and patterns, combining bold colors that represent mestizo communities.
5. Summary of key news in Latin America
1. Maras: take care of the vaccination brigades.
That was the request of the Honduran authorities to the gangs in areas where the brigadistas cannot have police escorts.
A mass vaccination day against COVID-19 in Tegucigalpa on July 31, 2022Jorge Cabrera/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Health Minister José Manuel Matheu said that health workers have been assaulted while carrying out vaccination campaigns.
"We want the collaboration of the living forces of the community, the patronages and the gang boys themselves," Matheu told local channel HCH.
2. Nicaraguan authorities guarded a Catholic mass
in Managua over the weekend, after banning a traditional religious procession for "security reasons."
Daniel Ortega's regime has increased its repression of NGOs and religious institutions and accuses Catholic leaders of being "coup plotters."
He also banned Mother Teresa's order of nuns.
6. Farewell Smile: Literary Donkeys
A Colombian teacher who set up
a mobile library on donkeys
22 years ago still brings books to rural areas twice a week.
This teacher distributes books in remote communities in Colombia with the help of two donkeys
July 4, 202202:18
Details
: Luis Soriano BohĂłrquez began his
biblioburros
when he was touring the northeast of the country.
"They didn't have schools or a community center, so I decided one day to ride them on a donkey," he tells Noticias Telemundo.
He uses a special mount to carry the books and he moves on two donkeys, named Alfa and Beto.
Soriano gathers the children in a shared area to read the stories aloud to them and do literacy activities.
Thanks for following Axios Latino!
We will be back on Thursday.
Want to read any of the previous editions?
Latinos use streaming services more but hardly appear on screen
Fidel Castro arrives at the cinema, amid controversy over the actor who plays him
Kamala Harris turns to Latinas in the fight for reproductive rights
How Mexico has recovered missing (or stolen) archaeological treasures
This Latino helped save his boss's life.
He now aspires to Congress and faces criticism
