Statue of Roberto Clemente | |
---|---|
Artist | Maritza Hernandez |
Year | 2013 |
Medium | Bronze sculpture |
Subject | Roberto Clemente |
Location | Roberto Clemente State Park, The Bronx, New York City, U.S. |
40°51′18″N73°55′12″W / 40.855°N 73.92°W |
In 2013, a statue of Baseball Hall of Fame outfielder Roberto Clemente was unveiled at Roberto Clemente State Park in Morris Heights, The Bronx, New York City. The statue was commissioned Goya Foods and was created by sculptor Maritza Hernandez. It was the first statue honoring a Puerto Rican to be unveiled in New York City. [1]
The statue depicts Clemente doffing his baseball helmet after hitting his 3000th and final career hit, a double. It stands on four-foot base upon which there is an inscription of a quote by Clemente: "Any time you have an opportunity to make a difference in this world and you don’t, then you are wasting your time on Earth." [2]
Though best known for playing with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Clemente was a hero for the large Puerto Rican community in New York City. When Clemente signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers, before being drafted by the Pirates under the bonus rule he was signed under, he did so in part because of the large number of his countrymen living in the city. [3]
After Clemente's death in a plane crash in 1972 and his election to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1973, the first Latin American ever to be elected, the Harlem River State Park in the Bronx, the center of the Nuyorican community in New York City, was renamed to Roberto Clemente State Park in his honor. [4] An annual "Roberto Clemente Week" is also held at the park. [2]
Clemente's statue, created by Latin-American sculptor Martiza Hernandez, is the first statue honoring a Puerto Rican in New York City. [5] Unveiled in 2013, forty years after his election to the Hall of Fame, it was sponsored by Goya Foods which had a connection with Clemente who had done Goya-sponsored baseball clinics in Puerto Rico. Cristobal Colon, a close friend of Clemente's and the man who drove him to the airport the night he died, had been a Goya executive in Puerto Rico. Bob Unanue, President of Goya Foods, was a baseball fan and agreed to sponsor the statue. [3]
Amongst the attendees at the unveiling were Clemente's sons Luis and Roberto Jr., the latter of whom gave a speech in which he said: "For the children who use this park, who play here, this is a great way for them to see who the man was… They will see the statue and be able to learn about Roberto Clemente, not only the baseball player but the human being." [2]
Roberto Enrique Clemente Walker was a Puerto Rican professional baseball player who played 18 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Pittsburgh Pirates, primarily as a right fielder. In December 1972, Clemente died in the crash of a plane he had chartered to take emergency relief goods for the survivors of a massive earthquake in Nicaragua. After his sudden death, the National Baseball Hall of Fame changed its rules so that a player who had been dead for at least six months would be eligible for entry. In 1973, Clemente was posthumously inducted, becoming the first player from the Caribbean and Latin America to be honored in the Hall of Fame.
Carlos Juan Delgado Hernández is a Puerto Rican former professional baseball player and coach. He played in Major League Baseball primarily as a first baseman, from 1993 to 2009, most prominently as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays, where he was a member of the 1993 World Series-winning team, won the 2000 American League (AL) Hank Aaron Award, and was the 2003 AL RBI leader. He was also a two-time AL All-Star player and a three-time Silver Slugger Award winner during his tenure with the Blue Jays.
Nuyorican is a portmanteau word blending "New York" and "Puerto Rican", referring to Puerto Ricans located in or around New York City, their culture, or their descendants. This term is sometimes used for Puerto Ricans living in other areas in the Northeastern US Mainland outside New York State as well. The term is also used by Islander Puerto Ricans to differentiate those of Puerto Rican descent from the Puerto Rico–born.
Hiram Gabriel Bithorn Sosa was a professional right-handed pitcher who became the first baseball player from Puerto Rico to play in Major League Baseball.
Rafael Hernández Marín was a Puerto Rican songwriter and the author of hundreds of popular songs in the Latin American repertoire. He specialized in Cuban styles, such as the canción, bolero and guaracha. Among his most famous compositions are "Lamento Borincano,” "Capullito de alhelí,” "Campanitas de cristal,” "Cachita,” "Silencio,” "El cumbanchero,” "Ausencia,” and "Perfume de gardenias.”
The Nuyorican movement is a cultural and intellectual movement involving poets, writers, musicians and artists who are Puerto Rican or of Puerto Rican descent, who live in or near New York City, and either call themselves or are known as Nuyoricans. It originated in the late 1960s and early 1970s in neighborhoods such as Loisaida, East Harlem, Williamsburg, and the South Bronx as a means to validate Puerto Rican experience in the United States, particularly for poor and working-class people who suffered from marginalization, ostracism, and discrimination.
Puerto Rican literature is the body of literature produced by writers of Puerto Rican descent. It evolved from the art of oral storytelling. Written works by the indigenous inhabitants of Puerto Rico were originally prohibited and repressed by the Spanish colonial government.
Roberto Clemente State Park is a 25-acre (10 ha) state park in Morris Heights, Bronx, New York City. The park is adjacent to the Harlem River, the Major Deegan Expressway, and the Morris Heights station on Metro-North's Hudson Line.
Roberto Clemente Zabala, better known as Roberto Clemente Jr., is a baseball broadcaster and former professional baseball player from San Juan, Puerto Rico. He was born in the Santurce barrio. His father and namesake Roberto Clemente was the first Latin American player to compile 3,000 hits in Major League Baseball history. His mother Vera Clemente hosted a telethon in Puerto Rico in order to raise funds for the Ciudad Roberto Clemente, a sporting complex located in Carolina, Puerto Rico.
Puerto Ricans have both immigrated and migrated to New York City. The first group of Puerto Ricans immigrated to New York City in the mid-19th century when Puerto Rico was a Spanish colony and its people Spanish subjects. The following wave of Puerto Ricans to move to New York City did so after the Spanish–American War in 1898. Puerto Ricans were no longer Spanish subjects and citizens of Spain, they were now Puerto Rican citizens of an American possession and needed passports to travel to the Contiguous United States.
The Puerto Rican Day Parade takes place annually in the United States along Fifth Avenue in the Manhattan borough of New York City. The parade is held on the second Sunday in June, in honor of the 3.2 million inhabitants of Puerto Rico and all people of Puerto Rican birth or heritage residing on the U.S. mainland. The parade attracts many celebrities, both Puerto Rican and of Puerto Rican heritage, and many politicians from the Tri-State area. It is the only Latino heritage parade that takes place on iconic 5th Avenue and is the oldest and longest running Latino heritage parade in all of the city.
The Unanue family of New York City is a wealthy American family of Spanish, and ultimately of Basque, origin. They were the 170th richest family in the United States in 2014 according to Forbes, having a net worth of US$1.1 billion.
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Events in the year 2020 in Puerto Rico.
Roberto Clemente is considered one of Puerto Rico's most important Major League Baseball players and became the first Latin American player to enter the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. As a humanitarian, he became known for his philanthropic activities and for being outspoken in civic issues that affected the Hispanic and Latino communities. In both of these facets, Clemente left a long-lasting legacy that remains socially relevant and the subject of academic study and recognitions over fifty years after his death.
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