La Vida Voices: Maria Torres of the LA Times

This past winter Maria Torres moved from the Kansas City Star to the Los Angeles Times, leaving the Midwest for the West Coast. Moving is nothing new to Torres, however. The Puerto Rico native grew up mostly in south Florida before moving to Georgia as a teenager.

Moving multiple times as a young Latina gave Torres experience adjusting to life in a new place and meeting new people. It also provided insight of the particular experience of moving from a Spanish-speaking society (Puerto Rico) to a predominantly English-speaking one in Georgia.

The moves provided Torres an opportunity to develop bilingual skills. Just as important, as someone who experienced multiple moves, it helped her become empathetic. Personal experience and empathy have thus served as basis for reporting on baseball and, more specifically, Latino players.

La Vida Baseball caught up with Maria Torres recently and she shared how her journey influenced her ability to cover baseball, engage Latino players, and write.

Adrian Burgos, Jr: What sparked your love of baseball? What is something passed down through your family? Who were your favorite baseball players (or team) growing up?

Maria Torres: My dad worked in public relations for the Criollos de Caguas of the Puerto Rican winter league during the 1980s. He never forced the game on me, but he watched it often throughout my childhood. I finally invested myself in the sport when I attended my first Atlanta Braves game in 2005. Things just spiraled. I annotated Braves calendars with milestones, and scrapbooked ticket stubs. I kept a binder of the best quotes I read or heard on the broadcast. I stayed up past bedtime once to call into the radio station after a game and tell listeners that the Braves would be stupid to trade Andruw Jones before the end of his contract because he was too valuable to the franchise.

AB: You’re a Latina raised partly in the U.S. South, grew up an Atlanta Braves fan and went to college at the University of Georgia. How has the experience of being a Latina in the South shaped how your approach to stories about Latinos in baseball?

MT: I moved to Georgia in sixth grade. The population of Caribbean immigrants around me was smaller than in South Florida, which is where my family first lived after relocating from Puerto Rico. But I met a lot of Central and South Americans and went to school in an ethnically diverse area. It became even more so when people from Louisiana fled New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and settled in the Atlanta area. The natural exposure to different cultures just kind of made it easy to gain perspective.

AB: As a Latina working the baseball beat, why is important to have bilingual writers and, more specifically, Latinas covering baseball? What stories are you particularly proud of for the way you were able to shed a Latino perspective?

MT: This is not unique to being a female bilingual writer, but I’m an empathic human. It helps to be willing to understand the perspectives of the others and try to see things from their angle. Being brash never works. I think that helped carry me when I visited the Dominican Republic in January 2018 to write a follow story on the one-year anniversary of Yordano Ventura’s death.

AB: Tell us more about your experience traveling to the Dominican Republic to do the Ventura story. What was it like traveling to this part of the DR? What did you learn beyond the story about the circumstances of where Ventura came from?

MT: My mom is from Santo Domingo in the southern part of the Dominican Republic. Las Terrenas is located on the northern coast of the country, about two hours from the capital city. It’s a scenic route carved out of the mountains. Once you approach the Samana peninsula, the views of the ocean are stunning. But as you start to weave into the resort town of Las Terrenas, things get cramped really quick. European tourists and locals crowd the narrow streets; mopeds speed by cars. The architecture is on the whole rather crude; most buildings are constructed out of cement blocks and roofed with zinc panels. The surroundings made it obvious Ventura had been brought up in a lower-class household. It’s why he rushed to sign with the Royals the times that he did, so that he could earn at least enough money to improve the lifestyles of his loved ones. His kindness was tragically taken advantage of.

AB: Prior to your move to the Los Angeles Times you covered the Kansas City Royals, a team that had a real Latino flavor with Dominican and Venezuelan players. Did your experience migrating from Puerto Rico to Georgia as a teenager dealing with cultural adjustment provide insights into the experience of what these players underwent in the minors and in MLB?

MT: My parents sought better lives for themselves in the United States. Their parents and many of their relatives chose to stay rooted. I got to see both worlds. So I definitely understood what many of the Latino players in the Royals clubhouse went through. I got to know one teenage minor leaguer, Seuly Matias, who came from a very poor barrio in the Dominican. He grew up in a small house similar to the ones in Las Terrenas, where rain leaked through gaps in the zinc roof onto the two mattresses that eight people shared at night. Once he figured out he could make a living playing baseball, he, like Ventura, balled out so he could help his family. He signed for $2.25 million, a sum that could help multiple generations of his family. His mom has a nice three-bedroom house now. I wouldn’t have been able to tell that story in such detail if I hadn’t sat and spoken with him in Spanish for two hours.

AB: Now that you are covering the Angels, what more have you learned about Albert Pujols as a person and presence in the clubhouse? How has being Latina enabled you to develop a relationship with Latino players on the Angels and write better stories?

MT: Pujols doesn’t spend much time with reporters, but it’s easy to see the influence he wields. He’s eager to help. He crosses barriers well. We were interviewing Shohei Ohtani, and Pujols was passing by. Instead of remaining quiet, he greeted him with a loud “Ohtani-San!” In general, I’m better able to relate to many of the Spanish speakers because we share similar backgrounds. My mother is Dominican, and I was born in Puerto Rico. The players know I know what they’re talking about when they mention the remote communities they’re from or the dishes they love to eat. It sounds simple, but there’s a lot of context missed when people in a conversation don’t speak the same languages fluently.

AB: The Red Sox recently had their ring ceremony celebrating their 2018 World Series championship. So as we move fully into the 2019 season what are the Latino storylines you are following for this season?

MT: There are plenty of Latino coaches who are managers-in-waiting. Joe Espada and Álex Cintrón of the Astros are the first ones that come to mind. Carlos Beltrán and Omar Vizquel seem poised to get a shot someday, maybe soon. I’ll always root for a storyline like that. But I’m most looking forward to watching Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Fernando Tatís Jr., Victor Robles and Eloy Jiménez blossom. We were so spoiled with the seasons Juan Soto and Ronald Acuña, Jr., put together in 2018. It’ll be fun to watch that next wave of young players crest.

AB: Thank you so much for sharing your stories. Maria Torres is the Los Angeles Times beat writer covering the Angels, you can follow her on Twitter at @maria_torres3.