A Home Run of a Collection

Lola Ramirez is the Digital Content Fellow at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History (NMAH). Recently, Lola travelled to Los Angeles alongside NMAH curator Margaret Salazar-Porzio to meet with Alonzo Orozco, a reporter from Coastal View News. Alonzo’s family was heavily involved in the development of Latino baseball history. They have graciously donated many artifacts that coincide with the Smithsonian Institution’s “Latinos in Baseball: In the Barrios and the Big Leagues” project.

(L to R) Rose-Mary Festich, Elisa Orzco-O’Neil, Alonzo Orozco, Margaret Salazar-Porzio, and Lola Ramirez pictured with photos and artifacts collected for the NMAH Latinos and Baseball project.

At the meeting, Lola, Margaret, Alonzo and other Orozco family members discussed photographs and artifacts collected by the Orozco family over the years, including game day fliers, membership cards, and newspaper clippings from the 1920s. These artifacts will be used to further document the impact Latino communities have had on American culture and history through baseball.

Read more about Lola’s work in collecting this memorabilia and the Orozco family’s involvement in Latino baseball history here.