Here, Frederick Luis Aldama and Christopher González offer a thought-provoking conversation on the history of Latinos in the pro football leagues. As they weave their way through significant points where culture, politics, and history congeal (an early twentieth century era of Brown Color Lines, the Great Depression, WWII, birth of television, Civil Rights struggles, the twenty-first century Latino demographic explosion, among others), Aldama and González thread together an alpha-to-omega, all-encompassing story of Latinos in the NFL. They push hard at issues such as racial prejudice, including why Latinos have historically had to cross into the Canadian Leagues to prove themselves to white American officiators and the glaring omission of prominent Latino names honored within the hallowed interiors of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Encyclopedic in scope and powerfully pointed in its analysis, they put the spotlight on the significant contribution made by Latinos in the history of pro football.

"Football might be the most suitable metaphor to understand the role of Latinos in the United States today." - Ilan Stavans, General Editor, The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature

"Who knew that the NFL was Chicano? That the National Football League owed much of what it calls its legend to Americans of Mexican descent? Well Aldama and González did and do and with Latinos in the End Zone they share with football fans and pointy-headed professors alike (not a group that often tailgates together) compelling, evocative, and moving stories that trace the Mexican DNA at the heart of the NFL." - William Nericcio, author of Tex[t]-Mex: Seductive Hallucinations of the "Mexican" in America

Autorentext

Frederick Luis Aldama is Arts and Humanities Distinguished Professor of English and Founder and Director of LASER/Latino & Latin American Space for Enrichment Research at The Ohio State University, USA. He is the author of 13 books, including: Your Brain on Latino Comics: From Gus Arriola to Los Bros Hernande, The Routledge Concise History of Latino/a Literature, and ¡Muy Pop!: Conversations on Latino Pop Culture (co-authored with Ilan Stavans).

Christopher González is Assistant Professor of Literatures and Languages, Texas A&M University-Commerce, USA.

Inhalt
Preface: A Life Unexamined is Not Worth Living Prologue: Kick Offs 1. From Scrimmage Lines to End Zones: Latinos in the National Football League 2. From Punishing Penalties to Brown Bodies Raiding the NFL 3. Sidelined . . . No Más! 4. The Blitz . . . Heroes, Saviors, Saints, and Sinners Epilogue: End Zones and New Scrimmage Lines