Today’s Times features a story on the past, present and future of Puerto Rican baseball, and the politics behind their recent decline.
Check out a excerpt from the story below…
…In 2009, only 3.5 percent of position players in Major League Baseball came from Puerto Rico, a 24-year low. Meanwhile, the percentage of Cuban and Venezuelan position players has nearly doubled in the last decade.
An average of 27 Puerto Ricans a year were drafted and signed during the past decade, down from 35 a year during the 1990s. Ten times as many amateurs were signed from the Dominican Republic.
Major League Baseball has tried to boost the popularity of the sport through the World Baseball Classic and by playing regular-season games in Puerto Rico, including this week’s series between the Mets and the Florida Marlins.
The folks over at Friends We Love sit with Dominican-American film director Albert Xavier to talk life, art and film. Check out the video below…
Film director Albert Xavier recounts how his artistic background prepared him for filmmaking and the development of his latest release, Hermafrodita, which is the first Dominican film to be screened at the Cannes Film Festival.
Google the phrase “Cabarete, Dominican Republic” and you’ll find links for “windsurfing,” “kiteboarding,” and an “eco-sensitive beach front boutique hotel.” Venture beyond Cabarete’s resorts and you’ll find a real city with real people, most of whom will never have the means to enjoy those luxuries. Dominicans and Haitian-Dominicans live in separate communities in and around the area’s sugar plantations, where they find work as cane cutters. Tensions exist between the groups—over housing, labor, and a number of other social problems that accompany economic hardship—and the area can be a object lesson in wealth disparity.
“One takeaway was just how relative everyone’s situation is,” says the photographer Youngna Park, whose visions of off-season sugar cane workers offer a glimpse of everyday plantation life. “What often attracts image making is tragedy, like we saw with Haiti. I was here to witness these people’s normal lives, and the living conditions still seem jarring, so it was certainly an education in relative wealth.”
Via Asho comes info on an event sure to be one to remember. Three legends, three stories, one night; check out the info below….
This gathering of artists from across the Latin American diaspora represents some of the best the genre has to offer.
These artists embody the independent spirit, thriving in their respective countries and in sister cities across the United States. The leaders of this rap genre bring their own brand of swagga to the Studio stage for the first time. International beats brought to you by DJ Laylo and Sucio Smash will make this a rare night at the Studio at Webster Hall not to be missed!
HHTF & ASHO PRODUCTIONS presents:
Tres leyendas, Tres historias:
La Re-Evolución del Hip Hop Latino
Wednesday April 7th
The Studio @ Webster Hall
125 East 11th Street
New York, NY 10003
Doors @ 8pm
Show @ 9pm Sharp!
With
Siete Nueve (Puerto Rico)
El Meswy (Spain)
Bocafloja (México)
Hosted by Calle Cardona from
La Conekta
Music by DJ Laylo & Sucio Smash
Special Guests:
Eli Efi (Brasil)
Mikki Flow (Cuba)
Delaceiba (Honduras)
Division X (DR)
Reph Star & Patty Dukes (DR/PR)
For more info and to purchase tickets, click here.
Tonight at 6pm, the Hostos Center for the Arts and Culture will be hosting the Half and Half Panel discussion on exploring Dominican and Haitian identities. The discussion sounds like it will be pretty interesting and it will bring up some fiery topics that exist between the two nationalities. Race, economics, politics and colonial legacy will all be on the agenda. It’s a free event so if you can make it out.