Who else remembers the old advertising jingle? (Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie…) The new Smithsonian exhibit and related virtual chef demo prove that Latinx fans are just as enthusiastic and voracious as any others. While the demo was a function of the Smithsonian Associates and therefore a ticketed event, the exhibit, spotlighting the popularity of baseball among Spanish-speaking folks throughout North and South America, is free at the National Museum of American History. It would have been a real pleasure to view even if that museum visit hadn’t been my first in a very long time.
Take Me Out
I admit the demo colored my experience of the exhibit – I was primed to spot any reference to food. Sure enough, among the uniforms, stats, and homages to the great ones (Roberto Clemente!), there were a few artifacts and some video footage relating food to sport.
Among the displays of associated merchandise were familiar artifacts: a Wheaties box, a glass, mugs, a soda can, a Coke bottle.
A wall of imagined orange crates with exaggerated and wonderfully fanciful end papers depicting heroic men’s and women’s teams by artist Ben Sakoguchi was one of my favorite parts of the exhibit. One team, from East Los Angeles, was known as the Carmelita Chorizeros (sausage-makers), providing not one but two food references.
The teams were real; the orange brands and embellishments were created in the artist’s imagination. But wouldn’t that Aztec warrior strike fear into the hearts of your opponents?
Connecting the Corn
The chef demo, billed as “Pleibol and Eat Well! Latino Culinary Traditions and America’s Game,” neatly dovetailed into the ¡Pleibol! exhibit by featuring Dayanny de la Cruz, executive chef of the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. The virtual audience was treated to a demonstration of three dishes served in the ballpark, all traditional but with a few tweaks designed to make them easy to eat while holding a scorecard or anticipating a leap for a foul ball.
Bull Pen Elote, corn on the cob covered with a savory cheese and spice mix, was inspired by a stop at a Mexican street market on the way to a ballgame (in Chicago, go figure!), where the elote was topped with Cracker Jack.
The Cubano sandwich is popular throughout the Latinx world, but where else would smashed plantains substitute for the bread? According to Chef Dayanny, “plantanos” are thought to be the source of Dominican boys’ extraordinary strength, and so as a tribute to those ballplayers, she uses tostones for her “Domini-Cubano Sandwich.”
Other ingredients are more traditional: pernil (roasted pork), Dijonnaise sauce with guava jam, hot dogs, pickles, and Swiss cheese. Layered on those fried and flattened plantains, that would give any fan a run for their money!
The last recipe Chef Dayanny demonstrated was controversial at first. Nobody thought it would work at the ballpark, but it was a big hit. Tomatillo and Watermelon Salad, says the chef, “represents very much who I am, as a chef, as a woman, and I as a mother…This dish was not made for certain times, or places, or seasons; I created it to break expectations of what food in sports entertainment was supposed to be by incorporating Latino flavors and culinary techniques along with my own culinary style, which is very much grounded in my identity as a woman.”
Community and Resilience
Other ways of representing women in the Miami baseball community reflect the inclusiveness of South American fans. About fifty local vendors supply food to the ballpark, supporting small businesses and promoting a sense of community involvement.
And the long tradition of players’ mothers supporting their boys’ teams with homemade food just happened to be on display in the ¡Pleibol! Exhibit. Among a collection of video clips was one profiling Mrs. Altagracia, Vladimir Guerrero’s mother, who cooked for all the teams her son played for during his 16-year Major League career. She’s just one in a long tradition of “the moms of baseball,” looking out for their sons and all the other players on their team.
This virtual chef demo series includes two more events, one which has passed (Lena Richard’s New Orleans Cook Book), and another on September 30th, for which you can still sign up: Stir-Frying to the Sky’s Edge: Chinese Americans and the Power of Stir-Frying.
¡Pleibol! In the Barrios and the Big Leagues / En los barrios y las grandes ligas continues at the National Museum of American History.
