Boycotting The MLB Game Hurts Arizona’s Latinos
By Ruben Gallego, Arizona State Rep. District 16
The number one reason why no one — neither Latino baseball players, nor fans — should boycott the upcoming MLB All Stars Game is because doing so would hurt working Latino families in the hardest place, their pocketbooks. That baseball stadium employs a lot of Latinos, the tourism industry in Arizona employs a lot of Latinos, they are the janitors and cooks in our hotels, and our communities are struggling right now to pay the bills.
Calling a boycott directly affects the bottom line of many of these struggling Latino families. I’ve got a great, true story to illustrate my point. At Arizona’s Diamondback Stadium, a worker who shared some of the food prepared by his mother with his boss is now selling her food in the stadium, at her own franchise.
These are the people affected by an Arizona, or All Stars Game boycott, not those who shepherded in SB 1070 or other hateful laws.
It’s not just because the All Star Game is taking place in my district that I care, it’s also because a lot of the energy and resources being poured into this boycott movement would be better utilized elsewhere, namely in Latino voter registration and mobilization campaigns.
This boycott will not fundamentally change the structural, political power dynamic in Arizona, it has to be a movement that focuses on Latino political empowerment, namely voter registration and mobilization. Groups like Mi Familia Vota and Central Arizonans for a Suitable Economy are working towards that goal. Everyone forgets that the movements that started with César Chávez and Martin Luther King, Jr. weren’t just protests, they were paired with massive voter registration programs.
We have to focus on registering Latino families, the working class, to vote. A lot of the boycott energy is not focused on this aspect of empowerment, but it should be. For the impact of helping give a voice, a vote to the Latinos of Arizona so that they can stand up to laws like SB 1070 in the future is sure to outlast the boycott of a single baseball game.
