Casual Community Sports
For Latinos, casual sports are also important for building a strong community foundation. Bowling, local basketball, and domino tournaments allow the community to gather and compete for fun and the occasional trophy. They are all great ways of bringing people together.
Locals playing a typical game of dominoes
Dominoes, a casual sport, varies by region, but the basic rules are: going in a clockwise order, players place dominoes that connect by number to the end of another until you’ve exhausted your dominos and win. If a dead end is hit,whoever has the lowest number of dots triumphs. At many Caribbean and Latin American celebrations, you’ll find people huddled around a domino table playing a game.
Independent State Domino League Banner celebrating the 1984/1985 “Domino Queen”
Multiple Domino Leagues exist within the state of New Jersey, some of which are defunct, including the Independent State Domino League, the Domino Association of NJ and the Perth Amboy-based Aguada Social Club. With trophies on the line, these leagues brought high-stakes to a traditionally casual game...
1983 "Domino Queen" passes the crown onto the 1984 “Domino Queen”
...It was tradition for the league to nominate and celebrate a “Domino Queen”, a young girl among the domino players.
Bowling tournament winners pose with banner
Bowling tournaments like this one brought friends and family together to engage in ranked competition and in support of their local bowling alleys. Trophies often celebrate the victors of these tournaments. This trophy was presented to the 1987 winning team by the Independent Dominican Cup, an annual, NYC-based tournament.
Couples Bowling tournament
Bowling tournaments often took the form of couples bowling, where players grew stronger together as couples and socialized with others in their community.
Couples Bowling tournament (cont.)
Couples Bowling tournament (cont.)
Local adult basketball teams, including the 1984 Champions team Fiebre Latina
Basketball is also an important informal community sport. While not as popular a sport as a whole in the Latino community, and lacking representation on the national stage, community members still come together to play in competitions within their own basketball teams. Sporting team jerseys are the 1984 Champions Fiebre Latina.
Local adult basketball teams (cont.)
Valle Amor basketball team
Local adult basketball teams (cont.)
Los Caribenos basketball team