From track and field to sailing to soccer, Latino athletes stand out.
Football player Joe Gonzales ’25 grew up playing sports in an area with very few Hispanics. Gonzales, a Washington native, is Mexican on his father’s side of the family and a defensive back on the football team. He told the News that he appreciates his team’s “wide spectrum of cultures and ethnicities.”
“I am proud to be a Hispanic athlete and to represent my heritage every time I put on my helmet,” said Gonzales.
His Hispanic heritage, Gonzales said, has “strengthened” his relationship with athletics.
Gonzales’ favorite player of all time is NFL star Tony Gonzalez, whom he respects both on and off the field.
“Seeing someone on a stage like that, in the NFL, with my last name was unbelievable,” Gonzales said.
Gonzales is one of seven Latino athletes who spoke to the News about his relationship with sports during Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs from September 15 to October 15. Yale Athletics held a “Latin Night” at Reese Stadium to celebrate their Latino athletes.
About 40 Yale student-athletes identify as Latinx out of more than 1,000 student-athletes at Yale, according to Yale Athletics assistant director Sam Rubin.
Going from the grill to the docks, California native Ximena Escobar ’25 is one of a handful of Hispanic sailors vying for Yale.
The Mexican-American sailor recently helped the women’s sailing team finish second in the FJ fleet and third in the 420 fleet at the Yale Invite hosted at the McNay Family Sailing Center on September 17.
Escobar’s parents moved to San Diego when she was young and put her and her older brother in an aquatic summer camp that included sailing. Watching her brother become one of the best sailors in their hometown, she was motivated “to take sailing seriously,” she said.
Now, Escobar has worked her way to the top and is on NEISA’s 2022 Women’s Team of the Year watchlist.
Her teammate, Carmen Cowles ’25, grew up speaking French and Spanish at home and has always considered Spain a “home away from home”.
The Hispanic athlete has found that being multicultural has helped her “connect” with competitors from other Hispanic or Spanish-speaking countries.
Carmen Berg ’26, also on the sailing team, feels “wonderful” to be part of an extended Latinx community that shares the same values of hard work and collaboration as athletics does.
“As a student-athlete, we are training and competing as one; working for the win and getting all the teammates on the podium,” Berg told the News.
Berg is part Puerto Rican and commented on the strong role of women in her family. Berg explained that in their culture, “Great Mother, Mother, and Tia are strong role models and worked alongside [their] male role models in business and at home.”
However, Yale Athletics has supported campus-wide Latinx heritage events to further promote inclusion among its student-athletes.
Women’s volleyball freshman Isabella Mendoza ’26 calls Miami, FL home. There, he felt like he was able to connect with various coaches and players because they all spoke Spanish and shared many of the same customs he knows from his Ecuadorian parents.
Mendoza also mentioned the “culture shock” that comes with being Latino on mostly white teams that don’t share these same customs. But coming to Yale has also presented new opportunities.
“I have a unique story to tell people, whether it’s how my parents came to the US or how I learned to speak English,” Mendoza said. “I can also hear new stories and ideas that weren’t there at home.”
Dominican soccer player, Giovanna Dionicio ’23, is an experienced player who also played for the Dominican Republic national team while at Yale.
“Being able to play for my heritage and represent the Dominican Republic has helped me appreciate soccer in a different way and makes me feel more grateful to play this sport every time I go to compete with them,” Dionicio said.
Dionicio said she loves being a Latinx athlete at Yale and has never felt “limited” as an athlete due to her heritage.
Christian Pereira ’25 is Mexican-Cuban and performs in the long jump special event for the Athletics team. Soccer has always been a great sport for Pereira culturally, and he always heard about it on the Mexico team in international competitions. Though he chose to track at the college level, he “will always have a soft spot for football.”
Pereira said he has thought about quitting sports a few times in his life, but his dad encouraged him to stay.
“He thought it would be essential to my self-realization to overcome those challenges, and he was right,” Pereira said. “It must be the Cuban grindset.”
SAAC Executive Board members Chelsea Kung ’23, Ashley Au ’24 and Kaity Chandrika ’26 outlined the organization’s diversity goals in a joint statement.
“It is important that we continue to embrace and welcome diversity among our student-athletes in order to continue to move toward creating an inclusive and equitable community within Yale Athletics.”
Escobar, Cowles and Berg will look to defend their title as the best sailing team in the country this year.
PIGEON VIGIL
