La Vida Voices: Junot Díaz’s Life

Junot Díaz has vividly depicted Dominican life in the United States, from the semi-autobiographical short story collection Drown to the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and, most recently, The New York Times best-seller This is How You Lose Her. The characters in his stories face the wonder and troubles of the Dominican past, present and future, coming of age while maintaining their connections to Dominican culture. And then, as it holds true for so many dominicanos, there is baseball. More than a pastime, it is a passion, a way of being Dominican, proud and open for all to see and hear. In this interview with La Vida, Díaz shares his thoughts on what baseball has meant to him and his fellow Dominicans.

Junot Díaz

Baseball is more than a game for Dominicanos. How would you describe baseball’s place in Dominican culture, whether on the island or stateside?

As anyone who’s ever spent time anywhere near Dominicans knows: Baseball is one of the pillars of popular culture. At the most basic level, baseball has afforded Dominicans an opportunity to compete and excel at the highest levels of professional sports and has given the average Dominican something to be immensely proud of, which is a very big deal, considering that our history hasn’t always left us with a lot to celebrate. Think about it: Before our baseball ascendancy, we Dominicans were mostly known internationally — if we were known at all — for a brutal dictatorship.

Baseball is also big business in the DR and one of the few paths to superstardom for your average poor Dominican kid. The narrowest of paths without a question, like winning the lottery, but when you’re facing the kind of poverty that is endemic in the DR, even the most outside chance for a good life looms very large indeed in the imagination.

For some Dominicans, baseball is nigh a religion — but it’s also more prosaically a site of play, of release, of community, of socially sanctioned competition, and the way many men distinguish themselves.

Given how baseball forms a central part of Dominican family life, do you have a favorite baseball memory from childhood? How is attending or watching a Dominican League game a unique experience that captures baseball’s place in Dominican culture?

I was playing baseball even before I could remember playing baseball. I never went to a game before I came to the U.S. — we were too poor for that — but I do remember listening to Licey play on the radio with my grandfather and those games made me a liceísta for life. It wasn’t only the play, but also the intensity and reverence of the people listening. Made a huge impression on me.

As an adult, I’ve watched plenty of Dominican league games, both on tv and in person. When it comes to U.S. games, the gap between what you’re seeing on the screen and what you experience in the stands is big, but in the DR it is fucking astonishing. I always feel like I’m in another damn world when I’m at a Dominican game. There is a lot more joy and a lot more jokes back home than in the U.S., and the barrier between the world outside a lot thinner, too. But, hey, maybe that’s me.

You grew up in Parlin, N.J., and now live in the Boston area. You’ve been able to witness both the Yankees and Red Sox — as well as their fans — in action. Does either team inspire your rooting interest? Why?

Sorry. Mets fan for life. My father was a Yankees man and that was enough to make me a Mets fan. Besides, there’s something about the Queens underdogs that always spoke to my own heart. And, in those days, I was all about Rusty Staub and Félix Millán. I used to try to hold the bat like Felix did, which was crazy, really. It didn’t matter that the Mets completely imploded in the late ’70s. Once you pull for a team, you pull for them for life.

And, of course, as a Dominican I pulled for the Red Sox while Pedro, Manny and David were playing. Red Sox fans thank Manny, Pedro and David every day because without them they’d still be moaning about being cursed. I’ve seen a lot of games at Fenway, and it’s a great park, but for my money I’d rather watch a game at Yankee Stadium — way less racial bullshit.

Who is your favorite Latino ballplayer? Do you have a favorite Dominican player? If you had a choice and could only see one perform, who would you prefer to see play: Manny, Big Papi or Pedro? Why?

My favorite Dominican player when I was young was Moisés Aloú. My man was just nasty. Always hard to define why you like a player who ain’t a dominant superstar. If you say you love Pedro or D. Ortíz, everyone gets it. I don’t know, I just always clicked with Moisés; he comes from a baseball dynasty. I think the world of his father Felipe; Felipe is a Dominican baseball titan and maybe that got me — here’s a dude playing in the shadow of his father and yet he did it, he didn’t seem to let that mess with him or anything. Moisés played for what — almost 20 years? That in itself was so amazing. Dude was never a defensive star; he was all bat (at least that’s how it seems to me) but, like Alfonso Soriano, he always had a place in my heart.

And since we’re dreaming here, I’d rather see Manny, Big Papi and Pedro play again as a team — that was truly the Golden Age of Dominican Baseball. I doubt we’ll see the likes of that trinity anytime soon.

Your novels and short stories powerfully depict life growing up in the United States as a Dominicano as well as portray what it’s like to visit family in the Dominican. From a creative writer’s perspective, which baseball player might you find inspiration for a short story or perhaps even a novel?

Probably Juan Marichal. His generation were the trailblazers and what happened between him and Johnny Roseboro is one of those sickening turns that I’m still reflecting on. Doesn’t hurt that I’m a fan of the brilliant Roger Guenveur Smith’s one-man show called “Juan and John” about the entire incident. What that play made clear is how deeply baseball lives in the hearts of the fans and how that terrible moment, little known by most casual fans, speaks volumes about the sport and the country as a whole.

Vlad Guerrero was just elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. The parade in the Dominican Republic celebrating Vlad’s election went from the airport to his hometown of Don Gregorio. Why is Vlad’s election such a special moment for Dominicans?

All you need to do is spend time in the DR and see how little the average person has to celebrate, how small and meaningless our politicians and our elites make us all feel — when someone like Vlad is on the field, you know that no matter how much money he has now, he began as one of us, and there he is swinging for all he’s worth; he’s one of us and he’s ‘made it’ and he’s free and he’s the greatest in the world at what he does — and that is a dream come true, a gift really — and to players like Vlad and David and Pedro, we are grateful for giving us that exaltation when so many others have given us nothing.

Featured Image: Ricardo Hernandez / AFP

Inset Image 1: Mark Wilson / Getty Images News

Inset Image 2: La Vida Baseball