Kirjahaku

The history of baseball is filled with players whose careers were defined by one bad play. Mike Torrez is remembered as the pitcher who gave up the infamous three-run homer to Bucky "Bleeping" Dent in the 1978 playoffs tie-breaker between the Red Sox and Yankees. Yet Torrez's life added up to much more than his worst moment on the mound. Coming from a vibrant Mexican American community that settled in Topeka, Kansas, in the early 1900s, he made it to the Majors by his own talent and efforts, with the help of an athletic program for Mexican youth that spread through the Midwest, Texas and Mexico during the 20th century. He was in the middle of many transformative events of the 1970s--such as the rise of free agency--and was an ethnic role model in the years before the "Fernandomania" of 1981. This book covers Torrez's life and career as the winningest Mexican American pitcher in Major League history.

Here, the author looks at the history and culture of Hispanics in Utah and examines the impact of their widespread conversion from Catholicism to Mormonism. His study examines Hispanic assimilation and acculturation in a setting vastly different from other states.

In Utah, unlike most other states, new arrivals can connect with the most powerful institution in the state simply by embracing a set of spiritual beliefs. In Hispanics in the Mormon Zion, 1912-1999, Jorge Iber looks at the history and culture of Hispanics in Utah and examines the impact of their widespread conversion from Catholicism to Mormonism. Hispanics began migrating to Utah in the early 1900s seeking work in the state's thriving sugar beet industry. However, by the end of the twentieth century, Hispanics could be found in all of its major cities working in tourist, industrial, and service occupations. Drawing on University of Utah archives and organizations such as the Salt Lake Catholic Diocese and the Mormon Church, Iber has compiled an informative study that examines Hispanic assimilation and acculturation in a setting vastly different from other states.

Gabriel "Gabe" Rivera was one of the greatest players in the history of Texas Tech football. He earned All American status, was enshrined into the College Football Hall of Fame, and saw his name elevated to the Texas Tech Ring of Honor. After his college career, Rivera became a first-round selection of the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1983, but his career would be tragically cut short by an accident during his rookie year that left him paralyzed from the waist down.Sports historian Jorge Iber's newest book chronicles this Mexican American athlete's rise to prominence and later life. Beginning with the Rivera family in Crystal City, Texas, a hotbed of Chicano activism in the late 1960s, Señor Sack seeks to understand how athletic success impacted the Rivera family's most famous son on his route to stardom. Football provided this family with opportunities that were not often available to other Mexican Americans during the 1940s and 1950s.While Rivera's injury seriously derailed his life, Señor Sack also chronicles his struggle to regain a sense of purpose. With great effort and despite adversity, over the final two decades of his life, Rivera found meaning in helping minority youths in his community of San Antonio, serving as an example of what can be accomplished even under incredibly trying circumstances. Ultimately, the true legacy of Gabe Rivera is not just on the football field, but also in the lives he touched with his volunteer work. One of the most storied Red Raiders and a legend of Texas football, Gabe Rivera powered through many obstacles to make way for future generations of Latinos in American sports.