Community Driven

Player at bat during a neighborhood game

¡Pleibol! In the Barrios and the Big Leagues is made possible through close collaborations with communities in 14 states; Washington, D.C.; and Puerto Rico to help bring visibility to Latina/o histories through baseball. In a series of collecting and preservation events over four years (2015–2018), communities shared stories, pictures, and artifacts. Generations of Latinas/os remembered why baseball was such an important part of their families’ lives and how it brought them all together then—and continues to bring people together in games, events, and exhibitions now.

Mapping Our Stories

From 2015 to 2018, Smithsonian curators co-hosted events, collected over 150 new artifacts and 10 oral histories, and collaborated with partners across the country to document and preserve baseball stories at the heart of Latino communities.