Greetings, ‘Finders! We’re excited to join our Latine contributors in celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs from September 15th – October 15th here in the United States of America! Since 1988, this cultural heritage month has celebrated Hispanic and Latine contributions to culture, science, history, and art!
This year’s theme is “Pioneers of Change: Shaping the Future”—a focus on Hispanic and Latine people paving the way for future generations. As part of our call for contributors, we asked folks who those pioneers were in their own lives!
But enough from me. Let me turn it over to some of our lovely Latine writers!
Joseph Blomquist (he/him)
¿Qué es la que hay? For those who don’t know me, I’m Joe, a Nuyorican freelancer known for scene-stealing ambiance and annoyingly attractive NPCs (just ask my devs). But today I get to talk about one of the pillars in my family: my granduncle, Rudy.
In 1960, the Washington Senators (eventually the Minnesota Twins) signed the first Dominican-born pitcher in Major League Baseball, Rudy Hernández (beating Juan Marichal by two weeks). Rudy grew up in New York, with our family avoiding much of Trujillo’s reign in the Dominican Republic (despite a few of El Jefe’s diplomats coming from our family). In those days, most of the Dominican and Puerto Rican players were close, playing in the Caribbean winter leagues, and it was his friend, Roberto Clemente, who finally convinced Rudy to become a pitcher. After pitching for both incarnations of the Washington Senators, Rudy continued in Triple-A baseball throughout the 60s. Eventually, he became a scout for the Orioles and Cubs and returned to Puerto Rico to coach for the Department of Sports and Recreation, for Orlando Cepeda’s baseball school, and to run his own baseball camp in San Juan. He passed in 2022.
Baseball wasn’t my sport, but that never mattered to Tío Rudy. For as little time as I got to spend with him, his tireless cultivation of Caribbean Latine talent for the sport he loved inspired my own desires to help grow our community with new and diverse voices. He taught me to persevere despite setbacks and how to set my goals high while still being flexible enough to change the game as needed.
Would you like to know more?
Follow me on Bluesky (@doctormono.bsky.social) or check out my recent Paizo releases: SFS Special #6-99: The End Awakens, PFS Scenario #5-05: The Island of the Vibrant Dead, the Mechageddon! Adventure Path, and more to come orita!
Art by Artur Nakhodkin
Carlos Cabrera (he/they)
Hi everyone! For this year’s theme, I wanted to focus on the person who helped set me on my path: my late father.
To begin, I can say I definitely got my sense of humor from him. We are a mixed-race family, and he used to say that he was Cornucopian because he was so many things and that he came from Cornucopia. In my childhood, I grew up with a younger sister and two older brothers. It wasn’t until much later that I found out I had even more siblings, but back when it was just the four of us, my brothers and I each had a separate video game console. I had an Intellivision, Felipe had a Vectrex, and Esteban (we all call him Rico) had a Colecovision. Later, when I upgraded to an NES and then the SEGA Genesis, I found the game that made me decide what I wanted to do with my life— Flashback: The Quest for Identity (womp womp).
There’s a lot I wish I could show my dad nowadays, but most importantly of all, I want to tell him that it worked. At least part-time, anyway. I’m sure for him it would be more than enough.
We welcome our Hispanic and Latine community members to share their stories in the comments!
In solidarity,
Rue Dickey
Marketing & Media Specialist
¡Feliz Mes de la Herencia Hispana!
Tuesday, October 08, 2024
