National Wrestling Hall of Fame

All material presented herewith © 2014 National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum. All rights reserved. T HE PRESENCE OF LATINO WRESTLERS in the United States dates back to the first decade of the 20th century with 1908 Olympian Frank Narganez. For many in our wrestling community today, it seems as if Latinos have always been prominent in wrestling in the United States, but the fact is, they have been somewhat of an unknown in our midst. Despite the many trials and tribulations members of Latino wrestling families have had trying to establish roots in this country, many of these immigrant family members were able to find upward social mobility through both education and the sport of wrestling. Our research on successful Latino wrestlers has produced compelling evidence that, although there are Latinos who have excelled in professional sports, parents of Latino American boys and girls prioritize education as the most important achievement that they want to provide their children. The feature stories chosen for this book represent a cross-section of student-wrestlers and coaches from high school, college, and the international levels of wrestling. You will find their success in wrestling contributed to their attainment of high school diplomas as well as baccalaureate, graduate, and/or other professional degrees from higher educational institutions. For the past several years, the Hall of Fame has featured exhibits (African American and Native American Wrestling Experiences) on successful wrestlers from diverse ethnic backgrounds as a way to demonstrate that wrestling is a "Sport for All." The Latino American Wrestling Experience tells a story about an ethnic culture that has achieved success at the youth, collegiate and Olympic levels of competition in the United States. Perhaps with such a documented legacy of achievement in wrestling, current and former wrestlers, coaches, and leaders can attract more Latinos to "take to the mat" in future decades. After all, the Latino culture is the fastest growing population in the U.S., and the sport of wrestling was founded on the principles of accommodating anyone, regardless of one's size, speed, strength, gender or socio-economic status. Latinos represented in this book and its accompanying exhibit are people who trace their ancestry to Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba and other Spanish speaking cultures of Central and South America. You will find in these stories that for more than a century, Latino wrestlers have leveraged participation in this sport to not only gain access to an education but also to merge those character traits and values derived from their culture and from wrestling to forge success in all walks of life, thus underpinning our message that "America Needs Wrestling!" I want to thank the authors of these feature stories, professors Jorge Iber (Texas Tech University) and Robert Lee Maril (East Carolina University) for contributing their time, talent and passion for exploring the Latino American Wrestling Experience through the lives of those wrestlers they interviewed for this book. We are grateful to them for shedding light on how these Americans have helped to shape this sport's past and present, and will no doubt contribute to an even greater role in its future Finally, I would like to acknowledge appreciation to our Board of Governors of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, USA Wrestling, and those who supported this exhibit and made it possible to inspire many more Latinos to follow in the footsteps of an elite group of individuals who have paved the way. 2 | NATIONAL WRESTLING HALL OF FAME & MUSEUM LATINO WRESTLING EXPERIENCE BY LEE ROY SMITH, Executive Director, National Wrestling Hall of Fame FORWARD

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