Dec

4

Bragging Rights: Stickball Stories Documentary

December 4, 2007 |

(Proof that this blog can do more than pan cans of crap…)

Just when you think everything’s gone over to monoculture (aka “American Processed Cheese Food Product”)… you run across a little gem like Bragging Rights: Stickball Stories. The distinctively New York stickball subculture (with offshoots in Cocoa Beach, FL, Puerto Rico, San Diego and some other places) is the subject of Sonia Gonzales’ documentary, that shows a profound affection for and intimate knowledge of the game, the peoples who played it from Depression-era New York (when it served as a bridge among Italians, Puerto Ricans and African-Americans) through today, when new and old generations try to keep the game alive and spread it. Bronx, Brooklyn, and Harlem (especially Spanish Harlem) stickball teams and players past and present all figure in the story. (And New York being New York, even September 11 figures in the story of stickball– though in a way that is neither gratuitous nor maudlin.)

It’s easy to look at America through the eyes of its mass media and think all the regional difference is dead. And surely there’s less of it than there was. Even with all the homogenization and pasteurization of the US, somehow culture holds on. In this case, Chica Luna (via PBS) has given us a taste of it. 

Cheese of the day: queso de hoja– a Latino cheese that does not melt. (And to honor the New Yorkers of other backgrounds who contributed to the sport, what could be more American, or more authentically New York, than the mozzerella found on the classic slice of New York pizza?)


Comments

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

Speak your mind