A Mexican Family Story - Ted Williams: Mexican-American

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  • Опубликовано: 8 ноя 2021
  • Deep exploration of baseball legend Ted Williams' Mexican ancestry and the story of why his mother's family immigrated to California from Chihuahua, Mexico.
    Podcast available on all major platforms.
    Website: wwww.amexicanfamilystory.com
    #AMFstory #aMexicanFamilyStory #MexicanHistory #MexicanFamily #Genealogy #MexicanAncestry #Ancestry #MexicanGenealogy #Mexico #Familia #MajorLeagueBaseball #Beisbol #MLB #TedWilliams #Chihuahua #MexicanRevolution #Porfiriato #PanchoVilla #USMC #Marines #WWI #WWII #KoreanWar #MarineAviation #MexicanVeterans

Комментарии • 69

  • @miklom41
    @miklom41 3 месяца назад +6

    Great job, I am white and my wife is mexican american, I tell our kids to embrace both their mexican heritage and irish heritage. Thanks for this wonderful research.

  • @billnowlin329
    @billnowlin329 9 месяцев назад +5

    Nicely done! For those who wish to know more, let me suggest the book TED WILLIAMS - FIRST LATINO IN THE BASEBALL HALL OF FAME (Rounder Books, 2018) - more than 200 pages on the subject, including interviews done with his aunt Sarah Venzor Diaz and several other relatives.

  • @JayJay-lc5qq
    @JayJay-lc5qq 2 года назад +10

    That story literally touched my heart and I teared up. I looked up the meaning of venzor in Spanish and ironically (and fittingly) means "winner.' I believe the entire family hid their Mexican roots purely for safety reasons, and that Ted kept his quiet because he wanted a career at a time when there was a lot of prejudice against Mexicans.
    I wish I could contact the poster of this wonderful video directly. I have watched it six times so far.
    I've done quite a bit of research on Ted and as much as a pro that he was in baseball, he really shined in real life. Sure he had his issues but all of us have them as well. He was just an incredible role model and a gentleman and a generous gentleman as well. It's amazing how he could have risen out of such a family that was so disconnected. I think we need to appreciate him more as Ted the man instead Ted the baseball player. As a child, I was fortunate enough to have a dad who would take me to see some Red Sox games which included Ted Williams.

    • @amexicanfamilystory8053
      @amexicanfamilystory8053  2 года назад +2

      Thanks for the kind words. I did the research and created this video. It took me several months to gather this information.

    • @mariocisneros911
      @mariocisneros911 Год назад +2

      Kind of yeah , but I heard he was a poor husband and an absentee parent . In fact many athletes were. Being gone half the time for 7 months did that .

    • @johnschuh8616
      @johnschuh8616 2 месяца назад

      Remember the Zoot Suit riots?

  • @TheDickeroo
    @TheDickeroo 8 месяцев назад +2

    When it boils down to your own survival, you do what you need to do to reach your goals. I met him once at Buckley Stadium in Hartford CT. He was bigger than life in many ways. His kinetic energy was simply amazing.

  • @adrianjordan6291
    @adrianjordan6291 8 месяцев назад +3

    Excellent story. I saw Williams play in his last year, 1960. TSW was always considered to have movie star looks. This is the first time that I saw how his mother looked as a young woman. She was quite attractive. For those that criticize Williams for not being more forthright about his heritage, it was a different time. Many Jews changed or shortened their names to avoid antisemitism. Ted's fellow Marine, Berel Dov Rasofsky (sp?), was decorated with the silver star for heroism in combat on Guadalcanal. The world knew him as middleweight and welterweight champion, Barney Ross.

  • @JoseHernandez-xe5vs
    @JoseHernandez-xe5vs 8 месяцев назад +4

    He looked like mexican and chihuahua mexico a land of really good baseball players like Hector espino the mexican babe ruth on mexican baseball league

  • @deme30883
    @deme30883 Год назад +4

    Beautiful story , excellent narrator

  • @deewilson3239
    @deewilson3239 Год назад +3

    That's right !! Ted was Mexican, and they rarely talk about it, and thats a damn shame!!! A Mexican woman gave him life !! He was just able to pass, but deep down, he knew the ancestors didn't let you forget

    • @mariocisneros911
      @mariocisneros911 Месяц назад

      I don't forgive him , because he dissed my people. My Papa was an immigrant and served in the military too, but he was always proud of his homeland and people and told us too. His father served as officer in Mexico.

  • @MCKevin289
    @MCKevin289 Год назад +8

    Odds are he has some distant Basque and Spanish heritage. But that doesn’t change the fact he was Mexican-American. His family was there for centuries and likely intermixed with the people there. As Mexico didn’t have as strict of a racial caste system compared to what we had here. I saw his cousin in a PBS documentary and he looks Mexican.

    • @amexicanfamilystory8053
      @amexicanfamilystory8053  Год назад +4

      I traced his family back many generations and they had been in Mexico for at least three centuries. Most of his European ancestors came during the era of the Spanish conquest with a few coming later. Mexico did have a strict caste system during the Colonial era, but it changed after the war for Independence. Ted’s cousins were Mexican as well with lineages from Chihuahua and Durango.

    • @MCKevin289
      @MCKevin289 Год назад +2

      @@amexicanfamilystory8053
      I was comparing it to America’s which was way stricter. Generally speaking it wasn’t as strict as it was here. The top were the peninsulares, then European descended Mexicans, then mixed people(like Ted’s family), then indigenous Mexicans. It also wasn’t like America where we had the one drop policy, where someone like Homer Pleasey who was 7/8ths white was classified as black. But yeah it’s like saying I’m English or Northern Irish Protestant when the majority of my ancestors came to America 200 years after the first British colonists and were mainly from Ireland and Germany.

    • @amexicanfamilystory8053
      @amexicanfamilystory8053  Год назад +1

      @@MCKevin289 I see what you mean and agree.

    • @MCKevin289
      @MCKevin289 Год назад +3

      @@amexicanfamilystory8053
      You should look into the San Patricios! It’s a really interesting part of Mexican history. They were Irish Americans who defected during the Mexican war to fight for Mexico. When I lived in Ireland I learned about them in the EPIC museum in Ireland.

    • @amexicanfamilystory8053
      @amexicanfamilystory8053  Год назад

      @@MCKevin289 I have heard a few brief stories about them, but have never dug into it. That is a good idea.

  • @johnschuh8616
    @johnschuh8616 2 месяца назад

    Bravo!

  • @MrOcto13
    @MrOcto13 2 года назад +16

    You couldn't blame him for concealing his Mexican heritage. Just wished he would have came out when he retired from the game.
    He definitely was baseball's first Latin superstar.

    • @mariocisneros911
      @mariocisneros911 Год назад +6

      Yes I can. He didnt get that shame from his mama's family. We mexicanos have pride in our race..Maybe from his father , his father's sisters/ brothers/ parents or gringos he hanged out with

    • @franksantacruz4521
      @franksantacruz4521 9 месяцев назад

      ​@@mariocisneros911 If your so proud than why don't you go back to mexico and why do we have so many who join gangs and
      make the southwest part of the U.S. the squaller ghetto it is?

  • @anthonyvasquez7050
    @anthonyvasquez7050 Год назад +8

    Incredible ! We never get the representation we deserve

    • @JayJay-lc5qq
      @JayJay-lc5qq Год назад +1

      He was far more than his incredible baseball playing career. Far greater than that. His compassion to sick children and his love for children as far as making sure they had autographs in the way he brought up his own children with all his frustrations and lack of parenting himself.
      You could say he had a big ego and maybe he did. But later on life, you could watch his body language and see that he really mellowed out and realized who he was and was grateful for his fans. He said just that in many ways and many times in TV interviews and in Fenway park when they honors him.
      So when people say he was a great baseball star, which is correct, he would even tell you that he was not the greatest hitter that ever lived. He had said so much at least twice on television.
      We have to take into account the entire man. The entire person that he was. Thankfully we have memories, if not the actual person.

    • @carlt8188
      @carlt8188 Год назад

      Anthony, how many of your generations were born in the USA? Were you born in the USA? My first Spanish ancestors settled in what is now New Mexico and Colorado in the late 1500s. That's 500 years they've been in the USA. I don't identify as a Spaniard. I'm American. USA USA USA!!!!! Ted Williams was American.

    • @losangeleslakers1650
      @losangeleslakers1650 Год назад +2

      @@carlt8188 USA ? My family has been here before USA was even a country. Learn your history sir.

    • @carlt8188
      @carlt8188 Год назад

      @Los Angeles Lakers I know my history. My Spanish ancestors came here in the 1500's and my Pueblo Indian ancestors long before that. USA USA USA USA!!!! I'm a proud American, and yes, I'm also a proud Native American!!!

    • @slowmojo9355
      @slowmojo9355 Год назад +1

      ​@@carlt8188i was born in the USA but i first considered my self Mexican. No matter how hard you try to be a white person to them you will always be consider Mexican.😂

  • @theesotaricitalian6338
    @theesotaricitalian6338 11 дней назад +1

    Ted williams admitted this later in life. He didn't bring it up because he was scared they wouldn't let him play in the majors. He said everything your saying himself. His father also was only part white. On his fathers mothers side he was cuban and Mexican. So he was probably like 65% Hispanic.

  • @1987ragon
    @1987ragon 6 месяцев назад

    Awesome

  • @selfreaction9706
    @selfreaction9706 4 месяца назад

    Yoooo where you at bro you need to do more of this

  • @bjbarr5
    @bjbarr5 8 месяцев назад

    Fascinating stuff. Thank you for your service.

  • @DoubA01
    @DoubA01 2 года назад +1

    Keep these videos coming. SF brother!

  • @carlt8188
    @carlt8188 6 месяцев назад

    Ted Williams was an avid outdoorsman his entire adult life even as young man playing for Boston.

  • @fnava1
    @fnava1 Год назад +1

    thank you sir for the lesson

  • @donatoramirez6132
    @donatoramirez6132 7 месяцев назад +1

    Wow thank you....

  • @kauster
    @kauster 2 года назад +8

    cant blame him about hiding it. look what the mlb and los angeles did to chavez ravine. and most of those people were american citizens as well.

    • @TheBatugan77
      @TheBatugan77 9 месяцев назад

      You wanna make an omelette, you gotta CRACK SOME EGGS!

  • @Tony-xc4sw
    @Tony-xc4sw Год назад +1

    Well done, sir!

  • @josedejesustorresmunoz588
    @josedejesustorresmunoz588 9 месяцев назад +1

    Well, there are plenty of reasons to call him out for denying his roots. Ricardo Montalban never rejected his roots, and he was successful. It’s a matter of upbringing. Ignorance fuels fear and shame. Ricardo Montalban was proud because he had knowledge, Ted had plenty of time to embrace his background and chose to not acknowledge it… It was his loss☝️

  • @831farmeros2
    @831farmeros2 2 года назад +3

    🇲🇽⚾️🇺🇸 👍🏻

  • @johngonzalez8313
    @johngonzalez8313 4 месяца назад

    👊🏾👊🏾👊🏾👊🏾👊🏾

  • @Castulos4
    @Castulos4 Год назад +1

    Fucking Beautiful!!!! Loved the ending. Brown and Proud! Hispanic causing Panic!

  • @TheBatugan77
    @TheBatugan77 9 месяцев назад

    Ted was part Latino, sure. But when he broke in as a rookie, Lefty Gomez had already won 4 World Series as a Yankee, and would earn another in 1939. 2:26

  • @martinavila6821
    @martinavila6821 Год назад

    I bet Mr.tom yaky did care if his star origin was anything other than Ted Williams. Additionally it filled Fenway.The greatist hitter that ever lived..

  • @carlt8188
    @carlt8188 Год назад +1

    Ted Williams was an American. My first relatives came from Spain in the late 1500s and settled in what is now New Mexico and Colorado. So for 500 years my relatives have been in America. I don't tell people I'm a Spaniard. I'm an American.

    • @slowmojo9355
      @slowmojo9355 Год назад

      Hahaha good try there buddy, to whites you will always be consider Mexican specially if you got darker skin. If you light skin you might be able to get away with it more😂.
      And by the way Ted Williams mother side had been in Mexico for over three centuries can't denied that😂

    • @josedejesustorresmunoz588
      @josedejesustorresmunoz588 9 месяцев назад +3

      There are only two types of Mexicans: those who ignore it and feel ashamed, and those who embrace it through knowledge and are proud. Trust me, we only need the latter, which are people like Ricardo Montalban, Carlos Santana and Anthony Quinn… Those who don’t… well, it’s their right and loss☝️

    • @FreedomFighter2112
      @FreedomFighter2112 6 месяцев назад +2

      He was born in America but his Mother and her parents were born in Mexico...so he's half Mexican

    • @carlt8188
      @carlt8188 6 месяцев назад

      ​@FreedomFighter2112 not necessarily. It depends on his DNA. Both my Grandparents on my dads side are of Spanish heritage. They are both deceased. My dad did a DNA test and his results said he was 40% Spain 30% Native American 13% Basque 6%Portugal 3% Scotland and 1% on a few other things. Ted's father wasn't Mexican and Ted's mother was a mix of Mexican and European ancestry. Ted's DNA would show some Indigenous ancestry from Mexico but it wouldn't be 50%

    • @FreedomFighter2112
      @FreedomFighter2112 6 месяцев назад +1

      @@carlt8188 you are aware the the vast majority of Mexicans have Spanish blood right?

  • @TheOriginalUnoriginal
    @TheOriginalUnoriginal 4 дня назад

    What a shame to the Mexican community, you can tell he wanted to be a gringo.
    I totally understand having to hide it in those times, but his private life says all.
    I love being American, I also love being Mex/Salv.
    Que Viva Mexico 🇲🇽

  • @brichards9293
    @brichards9293 8 месяцев назад

    Williams literally mentioned this in autobiography in the early 1970s. It's never been a secret, he's just always considered himself an American.

  • @mariocisneros911
    @mariocisneros911 2 года назад +2

    I lost respect for him many years , when I heard that he wasn't proud of them . And Latinos were in baseball than . And if your good in baseball , you'll be in it

    • @amexicanfamilystory8053
      @amexicanfamilystory8053  2 года назад +5

      His life was very complicated. I think part of the resentment he had against his family was because of his mother, not just their ethnicity. She left him and his brother alone with their abusive father to work for Goodwill. She spent a lot of nights working in San Diego and TJ trying to “save souls”, but neglected her own children in the process. I have met a nephew of his and am hoping to interview him to get a little more insight on his family’s relationship.

    • @MCKevin289
      @MCKevin289 Год назад +5

      @@amexicanfamilystory8053
      From my understanding to was that he was afraid of the racism and bigotry Mexicans faced from his childhood in California. But his home life wasn’t the best from what I’ve read. Like you said he was left alone for days on end or was with an abusive alcoholic father. I saw in a PBS documentary about him that his parents never went to see him play an MLB game and only cared about his paycheck. I think that should show insight into his upbringing. I think he hid it a lot in order to not deal with bigotry. It was very common for white passing mixed race people to hide their ethnicity to avoid discrimination. If a southerner says they have some “Indian” in them, odds are they have some black ancestry. It was common in the American south to claim to be part Cherokee to explain away why they get so tan in the summer, ie conceal their black ancestry. Ted was white passing and it was his way of avoiding discrimination imo.