Questioning the Conquistadores
By Anthony Salazar
I’ve been a fan of the Everett AquaSox since they became the bottom-rung Minor League Baseball (MiLB) affiliate of my hometown Seattle Mariners more than 20 years ago. The “Frogs,” as they are affectionately known, play in the summer Northwest League, which includes teams in Washington, Oregon and Idaho: from the Eugene Emeralds and Hillsboro Hops to the Tri-City Dust Devils and Boise Hawks.
What generally makes games at Everett fun and exciting is the closeness you feel to the players when rooting them on to victory, both in terms of proximity and how they represent a sense of your own identity.
I like the AquaSox so much that several years and a couple of owners ago, I worked with the team to help market a Latino-oriented promotion geared to the local Hispanic community. We had mariachis and folklórico dancers on the field and the ballpark concourse, plus a host of other things that made the day pretty fun, from Latino food served in concession stands to Latino baseball trivia contests in-between innings.
But thanks to an upcoming promotion, Latino fans of the AquaSox — me included — have to be rethinking their allegiances.
A Different Copa
Recently, MiLB launched the inaugural “Copa de la Diversión” (or Fun Cup) that celebrates minor league baseball communities and their “fun-loving, multi-cultural fans.” The promotion includes 33 MiLB teams in 19 states across the nation. They are creating a season-long event among the teams, with specifically designed promotions that embrace the culture and values resonant with the nation’s Latino communities.
To that end, a number of participating clubs have adopted a name change to further celebrate Latino culture. The Albuquerque Isotopes have become the Mariachis de Nuevo México; the Charlotte Knights will use the name Caballeros; and the Las Vegas 51s will be called the Reyes de Plata, which means Silver Kings — a tip of the ball cap to Nevada’s silver mining past. The more popular name of late has become the Flying Chanclas de San Antonio. The logo depicts what looks like a flip-flop, but those of us who have been targeted by said flying chancla know that such footwear is rather heavy upon impact.
Meanwhile, in Everett, the AquaSox will re-brand this summer as the Conquistadores. Let that sink in for a minute. Conquistadores, or Conquistadors. Or conquerors. Mostly white European conquerors. That’s how the AquaSox will celebrate Copa de la Diversión (or Fun Cup, remember?) and marketing to Latinos. They will don the uniforms emblazoned with CONQUISTADORES across their chest, with a character that more looks like a lizard than a frog, sporting a conquistador helmet.
Oh. My. Goodness. Where to start?
A Not So Complex History
What’s unfortunate to me is the lack of foresight that this image represents. I’m a Latino baseball historian, and, more succinctly, a Latino historian. Promoting a name that conjures up the image of the Hernán Cortés-like character, charging into the southern New World bent on death and destruction of the existing indigenous civilization, is absolutely mind-boggling. I mean, WHAT? That is to say, what in the world were you thinking? And who thought this was a good idea? Surely, a little basic research would have told the Froggies that the conquistadors were the bad guys in Latin American history and U.S. Latino history — they were the ones our forebears fought against in seeking national independence. They were responsible for the death of millions of indigenous peoples from what is now the U.S. West and Southwest through Mexico into Central America and South America.
Let’s consider the impact of the conquistadors on the early 16th century for a moment. The usual suspects include Juan Ponce de León, who touched down in Florida in 1513, but five years earlier had worked his way through Puerto Rico; while his Spanish compatriots Juan del Esquivel looked to Jamaica, and Alonso de Ojeda and Diego de Nicuesa headed to Panama, to occupy those lands. Diego de Velázquez landed in Cuba in 1511 to begin subjugation of that island. In 1513, Francisco Pizarro was with Vasco Núñez de Balboa, who discovered the Pacific Ocean. Hernández de Cordóba came upon the Maya in Yucatán in 1517, while Juan de Grijalva explored the Gulf of Campeche looking for treasure. By 1519, Cortés landed on the Mexican coast, and by 1521, his conquistadors had decimated the Aztec empire.
The genocide of these indigenous people at the hands of the conquistadors resulted in the death of millions. The impact of the conquistadors was, in short, catastrophic.
Whose Conquistadores?
The Everett AquaSox obviously thought Conquistadores was a great name and spent some time and money crafting this image.
On the team’s Twitter account and a blog devoted to the MiLB Copa, the AquaSox said this:
The “Conquistadores” name was selected due to Everett’s historical beginnings, and the exploration of the Pacific Northwest. The first European record of the landing on the Washington coast was completed by Spanish explorer Juan Perez.The Spanish exploration of the Olympic Peninsula and the subsequent land claims pre-date the Declaration of Independence.The AquaSox’s familiar brand icon, Webby, adorns a conquistador’s helmet to represent the past, present and future of Everett’s growing community.
In response to my inquiries, Jason Groshoske, the director of Marketing & Digital Media for the Everett AquaSox said: “We thought about this in great detail while we were researching all of the markets, and potential names for each. In our research, we found the exact sentiment we wanted to convey based on the “literal” definition of “conquistador” versus the historical reference of “Conquistador.”
Groshoske went on to cite a Latino student fraternity at the University of Michigan, Lambda Theta Phi Fraternidad Latina, Inc., “who adopted the literal ‘conquistador’ as its de facto mascot.” The fraternity explained its choice by saying “as Latinos in a collegiate setting one of our main goals is to conquer” by getting a college degree, acquiring an education and surmounting discrimination. It’s substituting the horrific actions of the conquistador for positive ones — through ongoing action to reclaim it.
But it’s worth noting that the use of conquistadors Groshoske and the fraternity reference here — a conqueror as one who achieves a noble victory over an opponent — derives solely from the historical reference and cannot be divorced from it.
While Perez does have a local connection to Everett, he arrived there to claim the land for Spain from the indigenous people living there. These aren’t actions to be celebrated.
There’s an open question as to whether the AquaSox’s reasoning will be accepted by its fans.
In fact, a requirement for participation in the Copa, according to an MiLB press release, was reaching out to the local Latino community. Such efforts should have tested the team’s Latino-branded identity and logo to avoid offending the very people they’re trying to reach. A look at the 2017 demographic profile of Snohomish County where Everett is located shows that Latinos represent just over 10% — 81,613 Latinos out of 789,400 residents. That’s a significant number of fans to lose, not to mention revenue. (Whether this outreach was done is not something I was able to confirm before press time.)
It’s clear the history of the “conquistador” is wrought with murderous connotations that are unforgivable to many Latinos, including me. I really don’t think there is anything fun about this, nor is it possible to reclaim this history.
General manager Danny Tetzlaff told me, via email, he and the organization want to “do the right thing and send the right message to everyone.” To do that, I think the Everett AquaSox must start over and find another identity that better suits its robust Latino community.
Surely as Latinos, and as baseball fans, we deserve it.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this article referred to Juan Perez de Zurita, a Chilean who laid claim to land in Argentina, with Juan José Pérez Hernández, who claimed land near Everett. In both cases, the explorers subjugated the indigenous people of the area. The error was introduced in editing.
Featured Image: Everett AquaSox Instagram
Inset Image: Everett AquaSox Instagram