Come for the baseball; stay for the FIESTA
For the first time in Utah, professional baseball players from Mexico’s Liga Mexicana del Pacífico (Mexican Pacific League) play ball at Smith Stadium. Salt Lake Bees’ VP of Development, Dustin Dehlin, welcomes everyone out to the ball game and fiesta Saturday, Oct. 5, and Sunday, Oct. 6, at Smith’s Ballpark. Beginning at 10 a.m., the fiesta features live music, food, entertainment, and a drone show after dark. Dehlin says that both the national anthems of the USA and Mexico will start the games, and the games will be called in Spanish and English.
State Sen. Luz Escamilla and Salt Lake Bees joined forces to bring the top professional Mexican baseball teams to Salt Lake City. Los Venados (deer) of Mazatlán and Los Charros (horsemen) of Jalisco will load the bases and the ballpark with Mexican enthusiasm and pride to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month. See all the details and buy tickets at https://beisbolensaltlake.com/
For our “LGBTQ+ brothers and sisters, we recognize that inclusiveness means everyone,” said Escamilla. “This type of event is about embracing everyone.”
Escamilla said that the event is a great place to embrace the diversity of skin tones and preferences. LGBTQ+ people and Hispanic/Latino people are both minorities and ‘pride’ is an important driver in our sense of belonging, she continued. She said you can feel comfortable speaking Spanish or meeting people who can relate to some of your history. Inclusivity brings us together even though we maintain our individual identities and heritage. It’s important to ‘integrate’ rather than ‘assimilate.’
“You don’t have to lose who you are in order to be a part of something bigger and stronger, and the more we bring of our own history and our own cultural identities, I think the richer the community becomes,” she concluded.
