The Baseball Reliquary’s Collaborative Project
on Mexican-American Baseball in Los Angeles
Receives National Humanities Award
The Baseball Reliquary’s
collaborative project with the John F. Kennedy
Memorial Library at California State University,
Los Angeles on Mexican-American baseball has
earned a distinguished national award for the
California Council for the Humanities (CCH). The
CCH provided a grant for
Mexican-American Baseball in Los Angeles: From
the Barrios to the Big Leagues as part
of its California Story Fund, a grant program
specifically designed to bring grassroots
community stories to wider audiences and make
them part of the larger California story. The
CCH was awarded the 2007 Schwartz Prize on
November 3, 2007 at the National Humanities
Conference in Williamsburg, Virginia. The prize,
given annually by the Federation of State
Humanities Councils, is one of two awards for
excellence in public programming presented each
year in the United States and its territories.
In October 2005, the Baseball
Reliquary received a $5,000 grant from the CCH
to begin its multi-faceted and comprehensive
examination of Mexican-American baseball in
partnership with the John F. Kennedy Memorial
Library at California State University, Los
Angeles. The project included a major exhibition
at the library and oral history documentation
conducted by Cal State LA students. The
exhibition has subsequently toured throughout
Southern California over the last two years. In
nominating the project for the Schwartz Prize,
the CCH noted that “Mexican-American Baseball
in Los Angeles: From the Barrios to the Big
Leagues had an extraordinary impact on a
large, underserved California community, forged
new and enduring ties between community members
and participating academic institutions, used
the humanities to explore a previously
overlooked piece of the American story,
attracted unprecedented audience members, and
developed a life of its own, so that the project
continues to prosper well after Council funding
has ended.”
“I am excited that our project has
been selected for this prestigious award,” said
the Baseball Reliquary’s Executive Director,
Terry Cannon, who collaborated with Cal State LA
personnel and a group of advisors in developing
the project and who was on hand at the
Huntington Library in San Marino, California on
December 13, 2007 when the Reliquary was
formally presented the Schwartz Prize by James
Quay, Executive Director of the CCH. “Hopefully
the prize will allow us to continue to build and
expand the project, particularly in terms of
establishing a Mexican-American baseball archive
at Cal State LA’s John F. Kennedy Memorial
Library as a major resource for students,
scholars, and the community at large.” Others
associated with the project who were in
attendance and spoke at the December 13 award
presentation included Cesar Caballero, current
University Librarian at California State
University, San Bernardino (and Acting
University Librarian at Cal State LA during the
initial phase of the project in 2005 and 2006);
Francisco Balderrama, Professor of Chicano
Studies and History at Cal State LA, who taught
the classes which conducted the oral histories;
Al Padilla, former East Los Angeles ballplayer
and coach, who was interviewed as part of the
project; and Alice Kawakami, current University
Librarian at Cal State LA.
A statement issued by the panel of
Schwartz Prize judges commended the Baseball
Reliquary project as one “whose strong
humanities focus both told the story of an
overlooked chapter of Mexican-American history
and forged new and lasting connections between
underserved audiences and academic institutions.
The judges highlighted the way in which this
project used familiar humanities activities,
such as the collecting of oral histories,
exhibitions, and lectures in order to bring to
life in an original and compelling manner the
nearly forgotten story of the once-flourishing
culture of Mexican-American amateur and
semi-professional baseball teams. The
collaborative approach of this project, one
which created ties between local colleges and
community members, including many who had never
before been on campus, resulted in an experience
of exceptional quality and lasting
significance.”
Since the inaugural exhibition for
Mexican-American Baseball in Los Angeles:
From the Barrios to the Big Leagues at Cal
State LA in the spring of 2006, it has traveled
to the Los Angeles Trade-Technical College
Library & Learning Resource Center, the
Institute for Socio-Economic Justice &
Progressive Community Development (Brawley,
California), and the Pomona Public Library.
The Schwartz Prize is made possible
by former Federation of State Humanities
Councils board member Martin Schwartz and his
wife, Helen, who established an endowment fund
in the 1980s to recognize outstanding public
humanities programs.
For additional information on
Mexican-American Baseball in Los Angeles: From
the Barrios to the Big Leagues, contact
Terry Cannon, Executive Director of the Baseball
Reliquary, at P.O. Box 1850, Monrovia, CA 91017;
by phone at (626) 791-7647; or by e-mail at
terymar@earthlink.net.
2007
Schwartz Prize Nominating Statement
by California Council for the Humanities
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Speakers at the 2007 Schwartz Prize
luncheon at the Huntington Library,
hosted by the Board of Directors of
the California Council for the
Humanities, included (from left to
right) Cesar Caballero, Terry
Cannon, and Al Padilla. (Photo
courtesy of Don Milici) |
|