Baala Shakya, Contributing Photographer
“Good luck finding any.”
This was the overwhelming sentiment expressed to me by my peers as I searched for Latine student-athletes to interview.
Despite growth in Latine enrollment in recent years, Hispanic students are still one of the smallest demographics represented on campus, according to the 2023–24 Yale Fact Sheet.
Last year, the News found that a “disproportionate number of student-athletes are white.” Of the athletes who responded to last year’s survey, more than 55 percent identified as white. In comparison, white students make up approximately 33 percent of Yale College overall.
Nonetheless, the athletes who represent their Latine culture stand proud.
Marco Borrego ’26 is a goalkeeper on the Yale men’s soccer team and a proud Latino, with family roots in Mexico and Colombia.
“I grew up in the rich culture and values from both countries,” he wrote to the News. “It’s a big part of who I am, has shaped my identity and worldview … To me, being Latino means being a part of a vibrant and truly resilient community.”
He described his Latino heritage as a big reason why he began playing soccer. It led him to Yale, which he describes as “an incredible honor.” Borrego believes diversity in athletics is crucial and everyone, regardless of heritage, deserves to play at “the highest levels of competition.”
Because staying connected to his “culture at Yale can be challenging,” Borrego takes advantage of the opportunities to connect with other Latine students on campus, participating in events at La Casa, the Hispanic and Latine cultural house.
Borrego wrote that there are certainly “times when it’s hard because the environment is different,” but he believes that Yale Athletics has made strides to foster unity.
“In athletics, I’ve seen support for diversity through social media campaigns, initiatives like ‘The Long Talk,’ and events to promote inclusion,” he wrote.
A Long Talk was started to “eradicate racism and dismantle systemic oppression in America,” according to its website. The goal is to help organizations engage “in an ongoing conversation focused on truth, understanding, and problem solving, leading to individual and cooperative activism.”
Great-grandparents and grandfather of Natalie Dominguez ’28, a catcher on the Yale softball team, fled Fidel Castro’s Cuba in the 1960s. She describes herself as “honored to be the granddaughter of people who took risks with the hope of having a better life in the United States.”
She finds beauty in seeing her family celebrate certain aspects of their culture here in the United States that they previously could not under Castro’s regime.
Here at Yale, things are not much different from home for Dominguez. On campus, she has yet to celebrate any major holidays, which she says are her main ties to her culture. However, she wrote, being apart from her dad, who speaks Spanish, listens to Cuban music and makes her favorite dishes — empanadas and picadillo — are parts of her home she cannot get anywhere else.
Like Borrego, Dominguez believes Yale Athletics strives for inclusion.
“I think the Athletics program does a pretty good job at celebrating diversity,” she said. “I participated in Yale Athletics’ Hispanic Heritage Month media day, and thought there were some insightful questions that were proposed to each athlete, which were then broadcasted at sporting events.”
Pablo Rodriguez ’27 is a Mexican-American baseball player for Yale.
His family began their move with his two paternal great-grandfathers, who used U.S. temporary work visas to fill labor shortages caused by World War II. He recalled his family’s journey of finding stability in the United States as “backbreaking, as [his grandparents would] spend half or more of the day working field jobs to sustain my parents and their siblings.”
Rodriguez describes his connection to his heritage as an important part of who he is. From seeing his cousins in Mexico to listening to Mana and Vicente Fernandez, to eating traditional Mexican food like carne asada and ceviche, he believes it’s “important to keep in touch with my family’s culture to honor the hard work of the generations before me.”
He credits his success to the hard work of his parents, grandparents and great-grandparents, who put him in a position to focus on something bigger than “picking strawberries” like they used to do in California.
“I hope that, as a Latino Yale student-athlete, I can set an example for other kids like me back home. I hope to teach them that, whether you’re coming from a public school like I was or a prestigious private school, whether you’re the child of immigrants, a first-generation immigrant yourself, or your family has lived in the U.S. for six generations, you can be successful by working hard and making the most of your opportunities,” Rodriguez wrote.
Sumarha Tariq ’27 is half-Peruvian and half-Pakistani. She is also a cheerleader at Yale. Reflecting on her heritage, she spoke about the broader context her culture is connected with.
“It’s really difficult to go into a space and know that you’re looked down upon because of the way you look. It’s historical, it’s foundational in the world we live in; it’s implemented into our systems, and it permeates through the lives of marginalized communities every day — explicit or not,” Tariq told the News.
She knows that there is room for more than just representation at Yale and that Latine athletes “deserve to be in these spaces.”
Cheerleading is a predominantly white sport. However, Yale cheerleading, she says, has been a diverse, inclusive community, and a “refreshing experience” that has come to feel like home.
“For me, that held such an important factor in my integration to this school because it became a place of home, Tariq said. “Having my identity acknowledged in a very positive way and connecting with other people who I can relate to has been amazing.”
Hispanic Heritage Month ends on Oct. 15.
Megan Kernis contributed reporting.