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An Important Afro-Latino Figure

Jeffery Mingo | Homewood, IL USA | 10/15/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The American Experience series does an impressive and extensive job in pointing out what matters greatly affect this country's history. The series does not limit itself to wars and presidencies. Here, it shows how sports and sports figures are significant.

Poor Roberto Clemente died in a plane accident like Otis Redding, Ron Brown, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and many others. Some people say that Latin Americans identify with those of their nation, but not the entire region. Che Guevara was from Argentina, but did political work in Cuba and Bolivia. Mr. Clemente died trying to travel to help disaster victims in Nicaragua.

I don't know about y'all, but in my life, I've met a TON of Caribbean Latinos who have features just like Wesley Snipes or Grace Jones, but will swear up and down that they are anything in the world except Black. I was worried that this documentary would do that mess too, but luckily it didn't. It did emphasize Puerto Rico as his home country, but the work never tries to pretend that Clemente wasn't Black. He wed a beautiful Black woman too. Unlike Basquiat who kissed up to whites who did racist things to him, the work says Clemente did his best to challenge racism in the US. The work speaks about racial, lingual, and place-based oppression. (Similarly, in Jos'e Canseco's autobiography, he seemed very aware that he was a man of color and faced discrimination in the US.) The work kinda suggests that Clemente was an important first just like Jackie Robinson was.

The work has a wonderful mix of Latino, Black, and white interviewees. Some interviewees spoke in English and others in Spanish. Men and women give their thoughts here. Clemente's biographer looked just like he could be Richard Roeper's older brother. George Will is interviewed frequently here and I have no idea why they chose a conservative writer to give his thoughts. Didn't Rush Limbaugh turn everyone off when he gave his two cents about Black quarterbacks?

I'm not a sports fan. Still, I thought this work could be embraced by numerous audiences: Blacks, Latinos, sports fans, historians, and many others."