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Speaker 1: Nineteen thirty nine, Texas. The two best high school basketball

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Speaker 1: teams in San Antonio are spurring off in the championship.

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Speaker 1: On one side, the home court Eagles from Brackenridge, an

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Speaker 1: all white team with fans packing the stands. On the

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Speaker 1: other side, the Vokes from Lanier High School, an all

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Speaker 1: Mexican American team from the city's west side. A game

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Speaker 1: that starts out like any other sports tournament but ends

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Speaker 1: in violence. From Futuro Media and PRX, It's Latino USA,

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Speaker 1: I'm Mariano JSA today, the story of an all Mexican

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Speaker 1: American high school basketball team that shot for the stars.

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Speaker 1: Their journey would impact San Antonio for years to come.

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Speaker 1: Nearly a century ago, there was a historic basketball game

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Speaker 1: between the Eagles and the Vokes, and it ruffled some

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Speaker 1: feathers because even though this happened almost one hundred years ago,

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Speaker 1: it was also a time of tremendous anti immigrant sentiment.

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Speaker 1: The nineteen thirty nine matchup in Texas provided a striking

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Speaker 1: image tall, lanky white kids playing against a team of

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Speaker 1: mostly short, skinny Mexican American players led by their star

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Speaker 1: Tony carthonin all five foot one inches of him, It's

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Speaker 1: a tie game in sudden death overtime. The next basket

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Speaker 1: is going to win the championship. The brack and Ridge

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Speaker 1: Eagles have the ball and as they get close to

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Speaker 1: the Lanier.

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Speaker 2: Loop, bracken Rich got the ball. They went down and

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Speaker 2: they missed the shot.

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Speaker 1: This is professor I Naso Garcia, a former Lanier student

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Speaker 1: and the author of When Mexicans Could Play Ball. It's

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Speaker 1: a book about Lanier's team.

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Speaker 2: Joe Trivino, who was the big center, just went up

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Speaker 2: gobble the ball, passed it out to Villi Sadanielle. He

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Speaker 2: sees Tony Cardona, who was the star player, running toward

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Speaker 2: the Brackenridge basketing throws the ball in a beautiful pass.

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Speaker 1: Producer Noah Hassenfeld is going to bring us this story,

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Speaker 1: which we originally aired in twenty eighteen, and no IM's

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Speaker 1: going to take it from here.

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Speaker 3: What happened next shocked a lot of people, but to

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Speaker 3: understand exactly what was at stake, we need to zoom

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Speaker 3: out of it. You see, Lanier wasn't just a Mexican

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Speaker 3: American high school. It was also one of the first

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Speaker 3: vocational schools in an urban center in the country. That's

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Speaker 3: actually where they got their name. Vokes short for vocational,

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Speaker 3: and being a vocational school meant that students were taught

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Speaker 3: one of seven trades, including auto painting and sheet metal welding.

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Speaker 2: The idea was, these kids can't go to college, but

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Speaker 2: they're really good with their hands.

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Speaker 3: Teaching students' trades was a way to get them a job,

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Speaker 3: not a way to prepare them for better paying white

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Speaker 3: collar work or leadership roles. But bringing Mexican American students

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Speaker 3: from Laneer into the workforce also had a deeper motivation.

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Speaker 2: And if you could assimilate them into the workforce, then you

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Speaker 2: were assimilating them into American society.

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Speaker 3: And this wasn't exactly subtle at Lanier, the messaging was explicit.

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Speaker 4: Every Monday, the school would issue you a ribbon that said,

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Speaker 4: I speak English, I'm an American.

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Speaker 3: Joe Bernal, a former Linear student who played for the

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Speaker 3: Vokes in nineteen forty four.

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Speaker 4: If I heard you speak in Spanish, they would go

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Speaker 4: and say come here, and they take your pen away

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Speaker 4: from you to get your name and your homeroom teacher,

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Speaker 4: and you got the merits.

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Speaker 3: And Joe says it wasn't just the school.

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Speaker 4: My parents were very supportive of the school, forcing us

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Speaker 4: in some way to speak English.

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Speaker 3: In some ways, this was a reflection of the time period.

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Speaker 3: Here's Professor Garcia again.

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Speaker 2: Unlike today where you have, you know, fifty five million latinos.

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Speaker 2: There was a perception in the thirties that you had

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Speaker 2: to integrate and assimilate because there really was no Mexican

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Speaker 2: American future in the way we perceive it today.

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Speaker 3: And one of the best ways to speed up that

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Speaker 3: integration basketball, and this resonated with many Mexican American leaders

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Speaker 3: in the nineteen thirties.

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Speaker 2: They felt like, if we can do well in their game,

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Speaker 2: then undoubtedly that dissipates part of that idea there were foreigners.

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Speaker 2: There was this notion that sports can make us good Americans.

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Speaker 3: But Lanier still needed to find the perfect coach, someone

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Speaker 3: who checked off multiple boxes, athlete, teacher, Mexican American, but

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Speaker 3: more importantly, someone who understood how tenuous the line was

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Speaker 3: that he would need to walk every day, someone like

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Speaker 3: William Herrera, or as most people called him, Nemo. Nemo

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Speaker 3: was born in nineteen hundred to a Mexican American mother

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Speaker 3: and a Mexican father in Brownsville, Texas. A city in

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Speaker 3: the Rio Grande Valley just north of Mexico. His family

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Speaker 3: moved north to San Antonio shortly after he was born,

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Speaker 3: and he went to Brackenridge High School. He was the

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Speaker 3: first Mexican Americans student to play sports at Brackenridge, and

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Speaker 3: he was actually the first ever to graduate, and he

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Speaker 3: saw up close what could happen if he didn't fit in.

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Speaker 2: By the time he's in his twenties, part of Operation

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Speaker 2: Repatriation and other massive deportations had occurred. A lot of

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Speaker 2: the Mexican American families said, look, we've got to integrate,

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Speaker 2: We've got to assimilate. We've got to not be seen

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Speaker 2: as different, because tomorrow it could be us.

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Speaker 3: That's Professor Garcia again. And just a note, we're not

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Speaker 3: going to be hearing from Nemo himself in this story.

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Speaker 3: He passed away in nineteen eighty four. So Nemo bought

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Speaker 3: into what Lanier, and to be fair, what much of

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Speaker 3: the Mexican American community at the time was preaching, fully

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Speaker 3: embrace American culture, speak English, don't stand out, and he

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Speaker 3: channeled that message into basketball. Though he had a Spanish

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Speaker 3: last name, he chose to pronounce it with an Anglo

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Speaker 3: accent Herrera, and even though both he and his player

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Speaker 3: spoke Spanish fluently, he made sure to follow the example

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Speaker 3: set by Lanier.

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Speaker 4: I never heard Nimo speak Spanish like we did. He

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Speaker 4: wasn't letting up on the idea that we should all

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Speaker 4: speak English in school.

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Speaker 3: He knew coaching a Mexican American basketball team wouldn't be easy.

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Speaker 3: Basketball might just be the quintessential American game, after all.

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Speaker 3: Unlike baseball and football, which evolved from English sports, basketball

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Speaker 3: is the only major American sport invented from scratch in

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Speaker 3: the US, and white Texans didn't take kindly to a

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Speaker 3: team of Mexican Americans playing basketball and playing it well.

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Speaker 2: They weren't supposed to be able to do that, you know.

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Speaker 2: There was this perception that the Mexicans could not play

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Speaker 2: at that level.

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Speaker 3: People regularly said things like.

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Speaker 2: Their kids know their ex and os as good as

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Speaker 2: they know their free calls and tortillers. They played defense

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Speaker 2: like mosquitoes. They called the Vokes setbacks, dirty Mexicans, greasers.

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Speaker 2: That was common.

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Speaker 3: Even though they kept winning games, the Vokes were never

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Speaker 3: seen as equals by their white competition. Here's David Rodriguez,

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Speaker 3: a former Linear student who played on the Vokes from

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Speaker 3: nineteen forty three to forty five.

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Speaker 5: I don't think they ever felt like we were Americans.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, But no matter what the players thought, Nemo's response

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Speaker 3: was always the same.

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Speaker 5: At the beginning of the year. He always set us

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Speaker 5: down and told us, you know, we're gonna play, We're

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Speaker 5: gonna win, and you're not going to listen to the

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Speaker 5: crowd and don't listen to the taunts, the remarks they make.

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Speaker 4: You know, anybody's saying anything ugly to you, the way

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Speaker 4: you show them is to outplay them.

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Speaker 3: Let's go back to where we started, the nineteen thirty

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Speaker 3: nine San Antonio Championship game between the all Mexican American

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Speaker 3: Lanier Vokes and the all white Brackenridge Eagles.

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Speaker 2: The newspaper people have really played it up. This is

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Speaker 2: the perfect matchup. Two teams that have played each other

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Speaker 2: twice and they've both scored the same amount of points

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Speaker 2: with each other. They've gone to the other person's home

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Speaker 2: and they've won. What more a sort of dream game

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Speaker 2: can you have than this.

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Speaker 3: It's a hard fought, physical game, and even though the

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Speaker 3: Eagles have a height advantage, the Voks respond with Nemo's

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Speaker 3: brilliant game plan of quick passes. But the Voks also

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Speaker 3: have a secret weapon, Nemo's protege, Tony Cardona.

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Speaker 2: He was so about five to one, five to two,

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Speaker 2: and he was so fast, and he was undoubtedly the

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Speaker 2: best player in the city.

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Speaker 3: Led by Tony, the Vokes keep the game close, trailing

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Speaker 3: by only two points. In the final minute, the Voks

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Speaker 3: get the ball with a chance to tie the game,

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Speaker 3: and somehow the ball ends up in the hands of

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Speaker 3: little use back up the Lonzo Rodriguez, whose miraculous shot

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Speaker 3: ties it up. It's almost poetic. The two teams who

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Speaker 3: each beat each other once earlier in the year, who

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Speaker 3: scored the same exact number of points, and two plus

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Speaker 3: games to this point have played each other to a standstill.

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Speaker 3: The clock hits zero, with the score tithe, the game

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Speaker 3: will go to overtime.

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Speaker 2: Of course, over time. Back in those days was whoever

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Speaker 2: gets the ball and scores first wins the game, So

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Speaker 2: you could win it with one shot within seconds.

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Speaker 3: The Brackenridge Eagles get the ball to start overtime and

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Speaker 3: work their way to the hoop. They get close, but

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Speaker 3: the shot misses and the Vokes grab the rebound out

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Speaker 3: of the corner of his eye, Billy Saldonia sees Tony

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Speaker 3: Cardona streaking down the sideline straight to the Eagles basket.

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Speaker 3: Billy heaves beautiful pass across the court. Tony catches the

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Speaker 3: ball in stride and puts the ball up and it

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Speaker 3: goes straight through the hoop. The Lanier Vokes are San

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Speaker 3: Antonio High School champions, an all Mexican Americans starting five

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Speaker 3: defeating an all Anglo team in basketball in nineteen thirty nine.

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Speaker 5: This was huge.

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Speaker 3: It might not seem like a big deal, but this

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Speaker 3: was almost ten years before Jackie Robinson broke the color

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Speaker 3: line in Major League Baseball. At the time, even more

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Speaker 3: than baseball, basketball was a white man's game. But before

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Speaker 3: this could all sing in for Tony and for the

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Speaker 3: rest of the Vokes.

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Speaker 2: Someone from the stands came down and he hit Tony

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Speaker 2: Cardona in the back of the head.

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Speaker 5: There were not too many Laneer fans there, and they

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Speaker 5: were outnumbered, and the Brackenridge people more or less ganged

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Speaker 5: up on him. You know, they were surrounded by Brackinich fans.

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Speaker 3: It was kind of scary, and things got out of

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Speaker 3: hand pretty quickly.

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Speaker 2: They took it outside they grabbed rocks, started throwing at

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Speaker 2: each other, at cars and the building itself. One young

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Speaker 2: man got stabbed, others got beaten.

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Speaker 3: Minutes after the Lanier Voks scored the winning point, the

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Speaker 3: players started pushing each other. The coaches intervened quickly, but

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Speaker 3: by then the fans had already joined in. As for Tony,

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Speaker 3: who had become a hero only moments earlier.

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Speaker 2: The assistant coach grabbed him, dragged him out and put

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Speaker 2: him in his car, said just lay down on the floor,

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Speaker 2: and all he could hear was let's get Tony, Let's

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Speaker 2: get Tony.

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Speaker 3: Tony stayed hidden, and eventually the police showed up.

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Speaker 2: It took eight police cars and a number of policemen

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Speaker 2: to not only break up the fight, but to allow

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Speaker 2: the bus that was carrying both the Lanear team and

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Speaker 2: Lanier fans to be able to get out of brag

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Speaker 2: and Rich and they got pelted with rocks.

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Speaker 3: Imagine how difficult seeing this riot must have been for

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Speaker 3: coach Nima.

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Speaker 2: It must have looked out there and in scene a fight,

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Speaker 2: and it wasn't just you know, one school against the other.

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Speaker 2: It really broke down and ratio lines and I think

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Speaker 2: that was extremely uncomfortable for Nimo because he was sort

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Speaker 2: of outside of that conflict. He didn't bring it to

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Speaker 2: the locker room, he didn't bring to practice, he didn't

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Speaker 2: bring it home. But now it had intruded in the

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Speaker 2: most important moment at that time of his life.

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Speaker 3: Remember, this is a man who really believed that if

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Speaker 3: he and his players wanted it bad enough, they could

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Speaker 3: fit in, that they could be judged on a level

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Speaker 3: playing field, and his players bought into what Nemo was preaching.

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Speaker 3: Even after being punched in the back of the head,

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Speaker 3: even after being forced to hide on the floor of

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Speaker 3: his car, his star player, Tony, didn't think the attack

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Speaker 3: was racially motivated.

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Speaker 2: His take on it was their team lost and I

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Speaker 2: made the last shot, so they came and they whacked me.

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Speaker 2: That was his take on it.

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Speaker 3: Now has also since passed away, But when Professor Garcia

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Speaker 3: spoke with him, Tony's wife thought it was important to

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Speaker 3: let both of them know what she experienced that day.

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Speaker 2: She interrupted and said, Tony, I said on the stand,

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Speaker 2: and I know what they said about you, and I

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Speaker 2: know what the horrible things that were being said.

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Speaker 3: Tony had bought into Nemo's message of assimilations, so much

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Speaker 3: that he didn't want to see racism even when it

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Speaker 3: literally hit him right in the head. As for Nemo,

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Speaker 3: Nemo was not naive. Nemo and Neil Nemo knew that

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Speaker 3: racism was behind the riot, even though it went against

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Speaker 3: everything he so desperately wanted to be.

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Speaker 2: True, so he chose not to speak to it.

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Speaker 3: For Nemo's whole life, he believed that if he just

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Speaker 3: kept his head down and did things the right way,

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Speaker 3: he'd be accepted by white Anglo Texas. And he found

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Speaker 3: out that wasn't true in the most dramatic way possible.

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Speaker 3: But what's interesting is what happened next. He kept going,

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Speaker 3: he didn't change, he didn't quit. He just went right

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Speaker 3: back to the same message, telling his players to focus

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Speaker 3: on the game, to not stand out, and Lanier kept

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Speaker 3: right on winning. They went on to win not only

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Speaker 3: a city championship, not only a state championship, but two

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Speaker 3: state championships in the next few years. They became the

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Speaker 3: best high school basketball team in the entire state of Texas,

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Speaker 3: and still Texas never quite accepted them. Here's former player

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Speaker 3: David Rodriguez.

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Speaker 5: Again, we felt like we didn't get the notre hiot

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Speaker 5: they would deserved the wins. We had what were wanted

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Speaker 5: to stay In nineteen forty three, there was no parties,

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Speaker 5: no nothing, and.

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Speaker 3: The Voks still had some scary moments along the way. Once,

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Speaker 3: at a regional tournament, they arrived at a gym only

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Speaker 3: to be greeted by a man with a shotgun. Here's

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Speaker 3: Joe Bernalagan.

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Speaker 4: He used some choice words new Mexicans, don't belong here.

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Speaker 4: Get back to where you came from, and he was

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Speaker 4: pointing the shotgun double barrel. I could see those two

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Speaker 4: dark circles right in my face. My thought was, if

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Speaker 4: I'd got explodes, I'm gone.

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Speaker 3: Coach Nemo quickly stepped in, explaining that they were there

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Speaker 3: to play basketball, and.

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Speaker 2: The gentleman said something to the effect that Mexicans don't

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Speaker 2: play basketball.

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Speaker 3: Joe Bernal is nearing his ninetieth birthday this year. Remember

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Speaker 3: Joe is the former Linear player who spoke about the ribbons,

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Speaker 3: which read I'm an American, I speak English. And Joe

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Speaker 3: was actually a student council representative at Linear. He was

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Speaker 3: the one taking ribbons away from the students if he

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Speaker 3: heard them speaking Spanish.

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Speaker 4: As I grew older, you know, and found out that

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Speaker 4: what I was doing back there, which I thought was

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Speaker 4: good and I had marital support for it. The way

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Speaker 4: you did it was a put down just because you

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Speaker 4: happened to be speaking the language your mother tongue.

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Speaker 3: I asked Joe what he would have done if he'd

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Speaker 3: been in charge.

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Speaker 4: I would do it because you grow up being ashamed

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Speaker 4: of who you are.

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Speaker 3: And that's the thing about trying to fit in. It

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Speaker 3: means you have to give something up. And even if

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Speaker 3: you do make that sacrifice, molding yourself to fit into

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Speaker 3: a society that holds you at arm's length, who's to

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Speaker 3: say they'll accept you. They let you go to school,

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Speaker 3: but they tell you what to study. They let you

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Speaker 3: play basketball, but they don't like it when you win.

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Speaker 3: In nineteen thirties Texas, Nemo and Tony must have understood

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Speaker 3: that they would never truly fit in, but they pushed

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Speaker 3: and America pushed back.

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Speaker 1: This story was reported and produced by Noah Hassenfeld and

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Speaker 1: edited by Nadia Raimond and Marlon Bishop. It was mixed

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Speaker 1: by Stephanie Lebau with engineering support from JJ Krubin, with

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Speaker 1: assistant producer Tasha Sandoval's help. He Latino USA team also

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Speaker 1: in Foods Sanna Guire, Julia Caruso, Bernanda Chavari, Jessica Ellis,

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Speaker 1: Victoria Strada, Dominique Ininistrosa Rinaldo, LEANOZ Junior, Andrea Lopez Crusado,

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Speaker 1: Luis Luna, Marta Martinez, Nursaudi and Nancy Trujillo, Benillei Ramirez,

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Speaker 1: Marlon Bishop, Maria Garcia and myself are co executive producers

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Speaker 1: and I'm your host Marie Josa. Join us again on

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Speaker 1: our next episode. In the meantime, I'll see you on

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Speaker 1: social media. Pastela proxima, Ciao.

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Speaker 3: Latino USA is made possible in part by the Tau Foundation,

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Speaker 3: the Ford Foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines

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Speaker 3: of social change worldwide, and New York Women's Foundation.

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Speaker 4: The New York Women's Foundation funding women leaders that build

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Speaker 4: solutions in their communities, and celebrating thirty years of radical

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Speaker 4: generosity