From De Zavala Park to Center Court: Magnolia Park Basketball Players of the 1950’s

From De Zavala Park to Center Court - Magnolia Park Basketball Players: 1953-1957 tells the story of four Mexican-American basketball players born in Magnolia Park during the late1930s: Frank de la Portilla, Ruben Martinez, Alfonzo Duran, and Amadeo Torres. A decade before, high schools in the barrio had seen some good Mexican-American basketball players, such as Faustino Torres, Carlos Flores, Joe Martinez, and Tom s Lupe L pez, who became role models for the next generations. The remodeling of the De Zavala Park and the building of the Rusk Settlement Gym in the 1940s provided better spaces than the previously-used hard-packed mud lots for players to practice and compete, and the close-knit social, economic, and religious network that Mexicans developed since their arrival in the 1910s encouraged these athletes to succeed in sports in middle and high school and then, take on tougher games in higher education and adulthood. This book is not only about basketball, but also about a community in search for an identity and a place in American society. It explores aspects of the life of each of these players, their dreams, triumphs, obstacles for success, and their struggle for survival in a city which slowly awoke to respecting Mexican-Americans in all areas.

Dr. Grisel Gómez-Cano is a humanities and INRW professor at the Houston Community College, where she has worked in several administrative and faculty roles for the past 31 years. She has published several books, including The Return to Coatlicue (XLibris 2010) and its Spanish translation (XLibris 2012), co-authored with James Ross-Nazzal, The Spirit of Magnolia Park: Ethnic Pride in a Mexican Barrio 1909-2009. (Pearson Learning Solutions, 2013), and contributed several articles on Mexican and Venezuelan folklore to the Encyclopedia of Latin-American Folklore.