In 1939, a team of short, scrappy kids from a vocational school established specifically for Mexican Americans became the high school basketball champions of San Antonio, Texas. Their win, and the ensuing riot it caused, took place against a backdrop of shifting and conflicted attitudes toward Mexican Americans and American nationalism in the WWII era. "Only when the Mexicans went from perennial runners-up to champs," Garcia writes, "did the emotions boil over."
The first sports book to look at Mexican American basketball specifically, When Mexicans Could Play Ball is...
In 1939, a team of short, scrappy kids from a vocational school established specifically for Mexican Americans became the high school basketball ch...
