By Maria E. Garcia
Settlement Houses across the United States, including Neighborhood House, stated that the Americanization of immigrant residents was one of their goals. Books and news article from the 1920s through the 1940s allude to the fact that baseball games and baseball teams were methods used in that Americanization.
Some articles go as far as to state that they were a way of replacing what was considered “Mexican interests.” Emory Bogarus from the University of Southern California (USC), in referring to the Mexicans in Los Angeles, states “Baseball clubs were used to counter the interest Mexicans had in bull fighting, gambling and cock fighting.”
Neighborhood House, the various canneries and some employers in San Diego formed baseball teams for their employees. This was done not only to Americanize them but to maintain loyalty to a particular employer. Involvement in this popular sport had consequences that broadened the meaning of Americanization in unanticipated ways. [Read more…]