Latino Boxing In Southern California

Southern California, with its burgeoning Latino population, marked the spot as the proving ground for world-class boxers from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Panama, Nicaragua, and El Salvador to showcase their talent with exciting and unforgettable bouts. Latino Boxing in Southern California tells the true, heartfelt stories of Latino and Mexican ring idols who did battle on the West Coast, while exploring the mythical devotion boxing purists and fans have for their boxers. This colorful tribute to the sweet science, Los Angeles-style, keeps the memory alive of when boxing in this town revolved around the beloved Olympic Auditorium, Main St. Gym, and the Forum.

Many West Coast Latino boxers have entered and departed the ring, their anecdotes left behind like another stain on the mat. Latino boxing stories have floated around for ages without the benefit of being passed down from generation to generation. Buried tales and colorful narratives of beloved Mexican ring idols such as Ruben Olivares, Mando Ramos, Carlos Zarate, Danny "Little Red" Lopez, Bobby Chacon, Carlos Palomino, and Alberto Davila are showcased in these pages, their stories revived because no champion deserves to be forgotten. Other overlooked heroes and one-hit wonders of the golden era of Southland boxing (1940s-1970s) will also be saluted, along with the bygone contenders of the barrio who never saw their name in neon lights.

Welcome to the colorful, flamboyant, and wonderful world of Mexican American boxing in Los Angeles. From the minute they stepped into the ring, Mexican American fighters have electrified fans with their explosiveness and courage. These historical images bring to life a sociological culture consisting of knockouts, the Main Street Gym, the Olympic Auditorium, neighborhood rivalries, Mexican idols, posters, and promoters. Like a winding thread, the Golden Boy Art Aragon bobs and weaves throughout the book. From Mexican Joe Rivers to Oscar De La Hoya, the true stories of their sensational ring wars are told while keeping alive the spirit and legacy of Mexican American boxing from the greater Los Angeles area.

The Mexican American boxer is one who leaves it all in the ring. They have been described as devastating punchers, fearless fighters, and tough competitors by boxing fans, sportswriters, and commentators alike. Mexican American boxers have long carried a reputation in boxing circles as being the ultimate crowd-pleasers. In continuing that tradition, the dramatic testimonies of seven distinct, valiant, and dashing warriors from the Golden State of California are presented here in intricate detail: Aurelio Herrera, Art Aragon, Mando Ramos, Bobby Chacon, "Yaqui" Lopez, Arturo Frias, and Oscar Muniz. By exposing new generations to their action-packed stories, new life is breathed into these talented and gifted boxers, ensuring their fighting spirit and heartfelt memories will never die. This volume salutes these pioneers of Mexican American boxing for opening the doors for today's boxers.

Seventeen-year-old Miguel Angel spends every minute after school at the Packing Shed, working out with the Alisal Boxing Club. He dreams of becoming a champion so he can get his mother and five siblings out of their cramped one-bedroom apartment in one of Salinas' poorest barrios. But suddenly his life gets more complicated. The city is threatening to take the Packing Shed away from Coach, and without a place to train he won't be able to avoid the gangbangers in his neighborhood. His childhood friend, Beto, has succumbed to the wiles of easy money and expensive cars, and Miguel Angel wonders if he'll be able to resist his friend. Meanwhile, beautiful blonde Britney from Pebble Beach has entered his life, and Miguel Angel has never felt this way before. She too feels an overwhelming attraction, and she's willing to defy her hard-nosed father, who expects her to date someone from their social background of exclusive country clubs and Ivy League schools. When Beto turns to him for help, Miguel Angel is torn between his commitment to friends and Coach's warnings about gang life. With gang violence getting closer and closer, he and Britney are suddenly faced with the consequences of unprotected sex. Can their love for each other survive all of the problems swirling around them? In A Fighting Chance, journalist Claudia Melendez Salinas has crafted a vivid novel for young adults that captures the challenges of contemporary urban life in one of the Latino community's poorest barrios.

The violent sport of boxing shaped and was shaped by notions of Mexican national identity during the twentieth century. This book reveals how boxing and boxers became sources of national pride and sparked debates on what it meant to be Mexican, masculine, and modern. The success of world-champion Mexican boxers played a key role in the rise of Los Angeles as the center of pugilistic activity in the United States. This international success made the fighters potent symbols of a Mexican culture that was cosmopolitan, nationalist, and masculine. With research in archives on both sides of the border, the author uses their life stories to trace the history and meaning of Mexican boxing.

Los Angeles has been regarded as one of the greatest boxing cities in the world for more than a century. With a large fan base, Los Angeles has also been the home of many of the best and most exciting boxers. In Boxing in the Los Angeles Area, authors Tracy Callis and Chuck Johnston provide an overview of one of the greatest pugilistic hotbeds in the world from 1880 to 2005. This comprehensive history covers the top boxers of the area who became famous both locally and worldwide such as Jim Jeffries, Solomon "Solly" Smith, "Mexican" Joe Rivers, Armando Muniz, Oscar De La Hoya, and "Sugar" Shane Mosley. Boxing in the Los Angeles Area also reviews some of the areas most notable bouts such as Tommy Burns winning the heavyweight title from Marvin Hart in 1906, Shane Mosley winning the welterweight title from Oscar De La Hoya in 2000, and Ad Wolgast retaining the lightweight title in a bout with "Mexican" Joe Rivers in 1912. Written by boxing historians and members of the International Boxing Research Organization, Boxing in the Los Angeles Area includes many photos while providing a thorough history of the boxing world in one of the greatest boxing cities.

Sports Matters brings critical attention to the centrality of race within the politics and pleasures of the massive sports culture that developed in the U.S. during the past century and a half.

Spanning the first half of the twentieth century, Deportes uncovers the hidden experiences of Mexican male and female athletes, teams and leagues and their supporters who fought for a more level playing field on both sides of the border. Despite a widespread belief that Mexicans shunned physical exercise, teamwork or “good sportsmanship,” they proved that they could compete in a wide variety of sports at amateur, semiprofessional, Olympic and professional levels. Some even made their mark in the sports world by becoming the “first” Mexican athlete to reach the big leagues and win Olympic medals or world boxing and tennis titles. These sporting achievements were not theirs alone, an entire cadre of supporters—families, friends, coaches, managers, promoters, sportswriters, and fans—rallied around them and celebrated their athletic success. The Mexican nation and community, at home or abroad, elevated Mexican athletes to sports hero status with a deep sense of cultural and national pride. Alamillo argues that Mexican-origin males and females in the United States used sports to empower themselves and their community by developing and sustaining transnational networks with Mexico. Ultimately, these athletes and their supporters created a “sporting Mexican diaspora” that overcame economic barriers, challenged racial and gender assumptions, forged sporting networks across borders, developed new hybrid identities and raised awareness about civil rights within and beyond the sporting world.