[dramatic orchestral music] ♪ - Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love... ♪ Known for Benjamin Franklin, Rocky Balboa, and the Philly cheesesteak.

And it's the birthplace of the USA.

And guess what.

We Latinos were here from the start.

[energetic music] Now, Hispanics played a major role in fighting the British during the American Revolution.

Juan de Miralles raised crazy amounts of money for the war and General Bernardo de Gálvez kicked the Brits out of the South.

[gunshot] So we too are the sons and daughters of the American Revolution.

- We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.

[record scratches] - Created equal, huh?

Sounds nice on paper, except for the fact that they totally left women out.

♪ Did you know that Philly has one of the largest Puerto Rican populations out of any U.S.

city outside of Puerto Rico?

And Latinos have been coming here for hundreds of years.

We were even recruited to fill worker shortages during the World Wars.

But I got to tell you, Philly Latinos historically have not gotten a lot of love.

The good news is, though, that times are a-changing.

♪ And that's translating into some good things happening for Latinx community here.

Now, we may be underdogs, you know, like Rocky... [as Rocky] But hey, everybody loves an underdog.

[normal voice] So come on, let's go meet some amazing people and let's get me a freaking cheesesteak already!

Huh?

Where is my cheesesteak?

I can't believe it... [upbeat Latin music] ♪ [orchestral music] - When you Google "what is Philadelphia known for," most of the links it spits out are about one thing, and if you guessed the founding fathers... [buzzer blares] [imitates buzzer blaring] You're wrong.

It's the Philly cheesesteak, baby.

Chopped beef, fried onions, and melted cheese on a bun.

Classic.

Legend has it that one day in the 1930s, an Italian-American hot dog vendor slapped some beef on his grill, threw it on a roll, and boom, the Philly cheesesteak was born.

Or the Philly steak, anyway.

The cheese came later when some other genius improved upon the original.

Now it's time for a Latin remix of the staple, and I've been told just who to go to: Arturo Lorenzo at Cafe y Chocolate in South Philly.

He's taken the classic and given it a Mexican twist.

Sounds bomb, right?

Yo, my mouth is watering already.

- [speaking Spanish] - [speaking Spanish] - Great place you got here.

- Oh, thank you, thank you.

- So you were born in Puebla and then you came to the States?

How did you get started?

- When I came to United states, I ended up in New Jersey, on a small town in New Jersey.

It wasn't easy at the beginning.

- Why wasn't it?

Why wasn't it easy?

- No English.

- Right.

- Different food, different people.

- You were chasing true love.

- Yeah.

- There you go.

That's how you got to Philly.

- Yeah.

- OK.

Now we got the real dirt.

- [laughs] - Spill the tea, my brother.

Go ahead.

She told me, like, you got to put some Mexican food in Philadelphia.

- And that's how you got in the cooking business, because of the love of your life.

- Yeah, because she was working-- - So you just started with a breakfast joint?

- Yes.

- Try to bring a little Mexican flavor because there's a huge Mexican population.

- Yes.

Right, yes.

- And the rest of the Latin people also.

And then our fellow gringos will love it too.

- Yeah, so... - That's right.

Despite never having worked in the restaurant biz, Arturo and his wife, Maricela, launched right into one of the toughest industries there is.

And guess what.

Their place is a hit, in large part because of their tenacity, and of course, their Mexican cheesesteak.

Everybody's waiting on line out there.

Everybody talks about your Philly cheesesteak with the Mexican twist.

- Yeah.

Do a remix on the Philly cheesesteak?

- It's always a challenge.

- Oh, yeah, I would think so.

- Because a lot of people in Philly, they like the-- - They take crazy pride in that.

- Yes.

- As risky as it was to mess with the OG, Arturo and his cooks felt like it was time for a fresh take on the old standard.

- Yes.

- A little kick, a little kick.

- A little kick on the sandwich.

And, well, a lot of people love it.

And--yeah.

- I can't live without it.

I need my spicy food.

♪ - Arturo takes your classic cheesesteak, beef, cheese and onions, and, you know, Latin-ifies it, uses pan Portugués and adds chipotle mayo and serrano peppers.

Give it a little hot, hot spice to it, a little bam.

You guys getting hungry, right?

It's lunchtime, isn't it?

[laughs] You're not going to get any.

And instead of cheese from a can-- yeah, I'm throwing shade-- he uses melted pepper jack.

So it's the ultimate Philly carne queso or Philly queso beefo.

I'll keep workshopping the name.

First I got to try it, though.

- How beautiful is that?

- Por favor, try it.

- Mmm.

Mm-hmm.

There's cilantro and pico de gallo.

Mm!

It really is the Mexican little touches that add a little extra-extra.

- Yeah.

- Mm-hmm.

This is the bomb.

♪ The immigrant MO has always been to build on what's there and to make it our own.

A German immigrant invented the hot dog, then an Italian immigrant upgraded it to the cheesesteak, and now, Arturo and other Latinx immigrants are reshaping the Philly food scene once again.

And trust me, we all benefit.

Well, aside from my cholesterol.

I didn't realize I was that hungry.

[upbeat Latin music] ♪ - One of Philly's nicknames is The City That Loves You Back.

Cute, right?

Unfortunately, I think a lot of Latinos here in North Philly would beg to differ.

Philadelphia Latinos make up over 15% of the city's population.

And though mostly Puerto Rican, Philly's Latinx community has expanded to include Mexicans, Dominicans, Salvadorans, and all the rest of us.

But that doesn't always mean the city has given our community its share of attention or resources, so I'm here in the heart of a Latino community to speak with one of the area's biggest champions, former Councilwoman Maria Quiñones-Sánchez.

In 2008, she became the first Latina to be elected to city council.

OK, only took them around 200 years, but moving on, she knows her community's struggles better than anyone.

Hello, Councilwoman.

- Hello.

- What a pleasure.

- Hello, welcome to Philadelphia, el barrio.

- Bien bonito.

This is an incredible neighborhood with an incredible history, part of our Quaker history with our Puerto Rico flavor.

- That's awesome.

So what's the name of the neighborhood?

- It's Norris Square in East Kensington.

- Norris Square.

What are the issues here?

Because I've always heard, you know, Philadelphia was Murderdelphia.

There was a lot of violence.

And obviously, it's because of the incredible amounts of poverty here.

What keeps this impoverished?

- We're the largest, poorest city in the country.

That's a list we don't like to be first on.

It's historically been like that.

It's generational poverty.

- Yes.

[tense music] Oh, she's not exaggerating.

About one in three Philly Latinos lives below the poverty line.

Think about that.

One in three.

Maria represented a heavily Latino district that included the nearby Fairhill neighborhood, also known as El Centro de Oro or The Golden Block.

Historically home to the Latin diaspora, it now ranks as the poorest neighborhood in the city with a poverty rate five times the national average.

- Philly is a big city.

We've made a lot of strides, but there's still a lot of stuff ingrained in there, right?

- Right.

- Crime is huge.

Gun accessibility is huge.

You had the redlining.

They push Blacks into a certain corner, push Latinos into a certain corner.

Now that this neighborhood is being gentrified and there's an interest in it, there's always a tug and pull.

Right?

- Right.

- Philadelphia really is at that intersection of are we going to be an affordable city for all, or are we going to do what New York and other people have done, which is move the poor out of the city?

- Out.

Yeah, yeah.

Right.

- And that's why neighborhoods like this become so important to preserve.

And everything you do here should really reflect who lives here, right?

- Maria has witnessed the compound effects of decades of inequality in these neighborhoods, from racist home loan practices and not enough affordable housing to even a lack of basic civic services.

It's those inequities that drive her and others to keep fighting for change.

- Then it was sort of like, OK, the money is here, right?

It's about, what is the priority?

And I looked at the budget and the city budget in particular.

When you're this close to the people, that's a moral document.

Who are we, right, and who do we take care of?

Right?

And how do we value people and how we invest?

I still believe in my heart of hearts, Latinos' economic issues are important.

- That's why Latin representation matters so much, because then we're taken care of and our needs are being taken care of.

[soft upbeat music] - There's a lot of resiliency and organizations founded by people who've come here and said... - Don't complain, just change it.

- You can go to any part of the city of Philadelphia and you can find, you know... Who said, no, this is ours.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I wanted to meet one of these neighborhood champions and Maria told me there's no better example than Orlando Rosa.

As a founder of Pivott Boxing Academy, Orlando is channeling the community's resilience into its youth, teaching them to fight for their future, literally and figuratively.

- Hey, John.

How are you feeling today?

- OK.

- Welcome to Pivott Boxing Academy, man.

- Thank you.

This is all yours?

- Yes, sir.

This is our facilities here.

We have about 5,500 square feet.

- And how did you build this up by yourself?

- We built it pretty much out of necessity.

- Right.

- You know, I grew up in this neighborhood.

I knew what this neighborhood needed, what the city wasn't providing to the Latino community, and I decided to just get a building, put it together, and build this with my own hands.

- After years of boxing and managing fighters, Orlando and his team opened Pivott Boxing Academy in February 2020.

Yeah, that's right, one month before the pandemic shut the whole world down.

Yeah, pretty bad timing, huh?

But he didn't let that stop him or his mission to give neighborhood kids a safe place to learn important values.

- You know, this being one of the poorest areas in the city, and we have been pretty much forgotten about.

- Mm-hmm.

- What they're doing right now is that they're not helping facilities like mine for the simple fact that the whole neighborhood is getting gentrified.

I have over 200 kids in this facility.

- 200, that's huge.

- OK?

[upbeat music] Kids from, you know, low income homes.

- Yeah.

- These kids come here.

This started as a boxing gym, it has turned into, you know, help with homework, problems in school.

I got principals communicating with me.

- You're a therapist, you're a father figure.

you're a big brother.

- Yeah, all of the above.

All of the above.

This neighborhood made me who I am today.

You know, I believe that if I would have grown in any other neighborhood, I wouldn't have been able to build this place.

I wouldn't have been able to rebuild after the fire.

That toughness came from this neighborhood.

- As if the pandemic wasn't enough, in January 2023, Orlando woke up to the news that a building fire had destroyed all of his equipment and ravaged the gym.

He worked his city connections looking for help.

But in the end, it was donations from random strangers near and far that got them back on their feet.

- Thank God we had politicians like Maria Quiñones, Quetcy Lozada, and Danilo Burgos, who were in here with me with their boots on when this whole place was full of water, full of smoke.

What's funny is that I have companies in England, companies in Japan, and friends in other states that were sending me boxes of gloves, sending me jump rope for the kids.

The city of Philadelphia never gave us a bottle of water or a can of paint to fix this place.

So we built it.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Like I said, we have that neighborhood toughness.

And we'll continue to do it on our own.

- Yeah.

By creating a safe haven for hundreds of local kids, Orlando is showing them another path and a different way of life away from the gangs, drugs, and violence right outside the door.

Hey, what's up?

How you doing?

- This is Juan Marrero.

Juan also was actually one of amateurs here, won multiple tournaments.

He's another kid that is actually a product of this neighborhood.

- Where would you be without Pivott Boxing?

- Probably out running around in the streets doing things I'm not supposed to be doing.

I hang around with a lot of people my age that aren't doing the right thing, so I really don't know where I'd be without Pivott Boxing and Uncle Orlando.

- Because it's easy to get pulled into the wrong places.

- Yes, sir.

- Well, John, how about if we just lace you up, man, go out here, and let's get some rounds in this ring?

- No, no.

- Yes, we are.

Let's do it.

- No, we're not.

I'm not going.

Help me, somebody.

Help, help.

[rock music] ♪ [cheers and applause] - He's a boy and he knows that he's fast, he's big.

- You told me he's going to be short and small.

- Well, he's not.

- No, no.

[John laughing] [upbeat music] ♪ - Let's go, Guillan.

Get him.

[boxing glove thumps] [cheers and applause] - Getting knocked down is part of life.

And God knows this community and this gym has been dealt a lot of blows.

But seeing them show up for each other again and again in big ways and small gives me hope that they'll never be down for long.

Me, on the other hand-- - Fighting from the north side of Philadelphia, let's put our hands together for Juan, the one, Marrero.

- Oh, hell, nah.

Yo, MSNBC, I didn't sign up for this.

[bell rings] [upbeat Latin music] ♪ I need oxygen.

Oxygen?

[cheers and applause] Throw in the towel in, coach!

[bell rings] Hey, he threw in the towel.

Get off me.

[upbeat music] ♪ - Since caveman times, people have made wall art as a way to celebrate local heroes or ignite change.

And nowhere does it quite like Philly, AKA the Mural Capital of the World, with over 4,000 murals all over town.

So what do you do if there's no art museum in your hood?

You turn the hood into a museum and bring the art to the people.

And that kind of flipping the script is exactly what artist Roberto Lugo set out to do when he switched from graffiti to ceramics.

I'm told his porcelain vases are amazing.

Wait, wait.

The self-proclaimed ghetto potter makes vases?

Well, I got to check this out.

[knocking on window] Roberto?

Roberto.

- [laughs] Sorry about that, man.

How you doing, bro?

- Don't worry about it.

What a pleasure to meet you, man.

- Pleasure to meet you, man.

- Much love.

- Same, same, same.

- You're the Ghetto Potter.

- Yeah.

- Tell me everything.

I want to know everything.

- OK.

You know, I'm from Philly and I'm from a neighborhood called Kensington.

And I didn't really have art classes growing up, but all my cousins used to do graffiti and so I started to hang out with them and I started to learn how to do graffiti.

And that was really my first art form, through the process of making art.

Like, one of the first things I made was a fire hydrant that was a soap dispenser because when I was little and the water would get shut off, my dad and I would shower in the fire hydrant.

Ever from the beginning, I decided that I would tell stories through my artwork.

[peaceful upbeat music] - And like so many kids in underserved schools, Roberto didn't grow up with art classes, but that didn't stop him from pursuing his calling.

He traded Kensington for the Kansas City Art Institute and learned a lot about making art and more importantly, about making a statement.

He takes the decorative objects historically reserved for the wealthy and uses them to tell the stories of his heroes and his community.

- I reference a lot of the things that make up my heritage, my African ancestry, my Spanish ancestry, my Portuguese ancestry, my Taíno.

And so all these pieces have a combination of things that inspire me with the things that make up my blood.

- I love that.

I love it.

- So that's why my work references a lot of, like, civil rights leaders.

Like, if you look at these pieces, these are like the people that I feel like paved the way for me.

- Mm.

- And so that's how I see myself in my field, like, doing something, navigating a field that, like, wasn't set up for me to be in.

- Right, right.

Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King.

- In this particular piece, this is a scene from the hood.

And so I don't know if you recognize the color.

- Yes, exactly.

Like a Greek urn.

And so regardless of your experience with art, you kind of get that you've seen something like this before.

And this is what-- - But now it's filtered through Puerto Rican-- - Yep, my whole lens.

- Philly hood lens.

I love it, I love it.

- Exactly, yeah.

So here's kids playing in the street, people playing in the fire hydrant.

And it's like representing the community that I come from.

- That doesn't get represented, that doesn't get seen.

By turning "hood art" into high art, Roberto subverted the elitist art world, and now they love him for it.

His work has been exhibited all over the globe and can be found in museums across the country.

He's won multiple prizes and has celebrity fans like Venus Williams, Erykah Badu, Seth Rogen, and now, me.

- I used to be a security guard across the street for the Philadelphia Museum of Art and I would open doors for people.

And I never went into the Philly Museum of Art because I didn't think there was anything in there for me.

- Right, right, right.

- And one of the first times that I went to the museum, probably the second time I ever went was when I actually had a piece in it.

And so for me, that was really touching that my life has come full circle.

[soft upbeat music] - Latinos are severely underrepresented in the art world.

A 2019 study found that less than 3% of the works in 18 major U.S.

museums were by Latino artists.

Roberto is out to change that, and not just by getting his own art into those museums, but by being a mentor and a beacon of possibility for the next generation of North Philly artists.

- When I teach people on the side of the street how to make pottery, it's because I feel like in every culture there are people like potters, there are painters, there are actors, there are, you know, musicians.

But a lot of them never get the opportunity to be those things... - No.

- Because of the fact that they don't have access.

And so I love to figure out ways to remove the obstacles and, like, make it so that people have access to art.

♪ - Access to art is a vital part of any community, and it lets kids know that art isn't just for fancy, rich people.

No, their stories and ideas have value too.

Representation matters.

- Rub it right here so it gets sticky.

And you're going to grab this like a baseball and you're going to try to throw it as hard as you can right there in the middle so it sticks.

[Roberto laughs] - I missed?

- A little bit.

[laughs] - That's why I don't play for the Mets, because I got no aim.

- That's why?

OK.

- [laughs] There's a lot of other reasons.

[upbeat music] - All right, so the first thing you're going to do is put your hands like this, like a bird.

And you're going to do what's called centering the pot.

So you're trying to get this clay even in the middle.

And what you're going to do is you're going to take this part of your hand and hold it steady.

You slow down your wheel a little bit, it'll be easier.

Don't be afraid.

'Cause if it messes up, you can start over again.

- ...., I did mess up.

- That's pottery.

- I wanted to make a ring.

- [laughs] - I wanted to make a-- - You wanted to make a bracelet.

- I want to make a bracelet.

That's what I meant to do.

Let's see a master do his thing.

I want to see you.

- OK, do you want me to make something?

- Yeah, yeah.

You feel like the community made you who you are, so you feel like you can give back.

- Like, when I first moved back, I didn't want to move back to the neighborhood that I grew up in because, you know, I faced a lot of trauma there.

But then I get to still participate and figure out a way to, like, engage with that community and just be present, and it just means the world to me.

Because I look at all those people like there's another little me out there somewhere.

- Right, right, right.

- Just doesn't have the opportunity.

♪ - I'm so impressed by this guy.

Many would have left and never looked back, but not Roberto.

He knew he was needed here.

He's like some kind of Latin superhero.

But with great power comes great responsibility, right?

Well, Spider-Man's got nothing on the Ghetto Potter.

[upbeat Latin music] - A thriving neighborhood needs a thriving commercial hub.

For Latinos in Philly, that's North 5th Street, or La Cinco, or at least it is now thanks to a major revitalization program with a revolutionary idea: put businesses into the hands of the people who live here.

I'm about to meet the man who made it all happen, Reverend Luis Cortés, the founder and CEO of Esperanza, a nonprofit dedicated to educating, empowering, and investing in the Latino community.

From the potter to the preacher.

I love it.

- Mostly everything is Latino.

- Yeah.

- The folks who live here, the businesses that are here, the relationship between the housing and these businesses.

We work together.

- Amazing.

- We're working together through Esperanza.

[soft upbeat music] - Esperanza means hope.

And that's exactly what Reverend Cortés and his organization have been providing to Latinos in Philly since 1986.

And what started as faith-based advocacy grew into what could only be described as an empire.

Real estate, charter schools, a college, work training programs, mortgage counseling, an art center, a line of cologne.

OK, that last one was a joke.

But this guy is seriously prolific.

- The advantage of that is that the businesses cater to the economy and the people who live here build the businesses.

- Right.

- And so for us, part of the struggle will be-- - How do we stay here?

- Can we raise enough money to purchase enough of the neighborhood so that we control it?

- I like the way this guy thinks.

And it's clear that when it comes to this neighborhood and this community, he knows what he's talking about.

- Come on over.

Have a seat.

We were talking about stores, right?

And let me get you something first.

- So to me, the issue becomes how do we begin to control institutions in our neighborhoods?

This business got started a while ago.

You could see right here, this is a grocery store.

And then after that, we helped him start his second business.

- Which was?

- The smoothies we're about to have.

There you go.

- Cheers.

- Cheers.

So then he started doing smoothies, right?

- Mm-hmm.

- Third piece, food truck.

Helping businesses grow is an important part of what we do.

- Absolutely, because it helps you stay in the community.

- Right.

- And not get kicked out.

- It helps us to maintain the community.

It also creates more jobs for our community.

♪ - Esperanza supports more than 200 small businesses with everything from grants to education to street cleaning, serving those who serve their community.

- Today, Esperanza has 650 employees.

- Amazing.

- We have a $70 million budget.

We're building a $30 million elementary school.

We're going to continue to help build this neighborhood because we're planted here.

We've invested over $100 million in this neighborhood.

- That's wild.

This could be the model.

Yeah, buying it.

- That's our hope.

You have to buy the hood.

These neighborhoods are very important, John, because we will receive the first generation.

- Right.

- People who are coming from Honduras, Guatemala, la República Dominicana, Puerto Rico, non-English speakers.

The philosophical challenge is can you have a neighborhood that isn't upper-middle class that gives the community what it needs?

- Yeah.

- Right?

- And the answer is yes.

- I love what you do, Reverend.

- Thank you, bro.

- Cheers.

- Cheers.

- Salud.

♪ Amen.

I wanted to see the reverend's work in action, so he recommended I check out a clothing shop called Latin Fashion.

With the help of Esperanza resources, Colombian-born owner Patricia Arcila was able to renovate her storefront and grow her business.

I hear she specializes in women's undergarments, so this could get awkward.

- [laughs] - It's booming, the whole community.

A lot of signs, a lot of businesses.

Why do you stay here?

- The products that Patricia specializes in are called fajas, Colombian girdles that make Spanx feel like sweatpants.

- Claro.

- [laughs] Mira.

♪ ♪ - It's definitely a look.

[laughs] - Pull it up in the back.

- I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

- How tight you want to be?

- I want to be like Superman.

- OK, let's try.

- [laughing] She's trying.

- Let's try.

[chuckles] - It's not that difficult.

[thumping electronic music] [Patricia laughs] - I may not be able to breathe, but damn, I look good.

And you know what?

It feels real good to know you can buy Latin-made products from a Latin-owned business in a Latin neighborhood.

It's a big deal.

The approach of Reverend Cortés and Esperanza to give residents a financial stake in their own neighborhoods and instill a sense of opportunity allows everyone to stop fearing their future and breathe a little easier.

[snarls] I want to look great.

♪ - Stretching for almost ten blocks in South Philly, the Italian Market has been a celebration of immigrant culture for over a century and the market has evolved to make room for more recent arrivals from Jewish and Southeast Asian to enough Mexican joints to earn it the nickname Puebladelphia.

I'm headed to Casa Mexico, owned by James Beard award-winning chef Cristina Martinez, who is as famous for her immigration activism as she is for her barbacoa, a traditional dish of slow-cooked lamb.

First beef, now lamb?

I'm going to have to tell my doc not to watch this episode.

- The first step is to grind three types of corn kernels into masa.

If I want to help make 2,000 tortillas, I'd better be getting a meal at the end of it.

- I'm earning my lunch.

- [laughs] Cristina learned how to make barbacoa at age six from her father in Mexico, who was known as the Barbacoa King.

In 2009, she brought her secret family recipe to the U.S., sneaking across the border in a harrowing journey through the desert.

And despite the many challenges she's faced as an undocumented immigrant, she remains optimistic.

- God love you for the liar that you are.

- Through the magic of television, I made the perfect tortilla on the first try.

Aren't I so talented?

Look how beautiful my tortilla is.

- Ooh.

- Don't be jelly.

- She's got technique all over the place.

- After landing in Philly, Cristina worked in restaurants as a prep cook and a pastry chef.

She met and married an American and started selling barbacoa out of their home in 2014.

By 2018, her first restaurant, South Philly Barbacoa, had a small storefront and a devoted following of foodies.

In 2022 when she accepted the James Beard Award for Best Chef in the Mid-Atlantic, she took the opportunity to talk about the critical role of undocumented immigrants in the restaurant industry.

[upbeat music] - Now she's expanding her menu offerings at Casa Mexico, where we're going to put our homemade tortillas to some good use.

- Cristina has been surprisingly outspoken about her immigration status.

She's willing to be the public face of a movement advocating for the right to making a living no matter how you got here.

- I made these, by the way.

- Next time you're eating at a restaurant, take a look at your plate.

Chances are high that an undocumented Latino immigrant picked those vegetables, processed that meat, washed that dish, and prepped, cooked and plated that meal.

Christina and thousands like her are the backbone of the food industry.

And we'd all do better to remember where we'd be without them.

Hangry, that's where.

[upbeat music] ♪ - From Roberto Clemente to Mariano Rivera to Albert Pujols, you'd have to have your head in the sand not to notice the impact Latinos have had in baseball.

In fact, Latinos make up a third of all Major League Baseball players, a number that keeps going up.

Latinos also rank as the most avid baseball fans.

I should know.

I'm one of them.

Go Mets.

Yeah, Philly, I said it.

Philly has its own Latino baseball hero in Rubén Amaro Jr.

Not only did he play for the Phillies twice, but he also served as their general manager from 2009 to 2015, at the time, only the second Latino to perform that role, and I'm so excited to meet him.

- Great to meet you, man.

- Nice to meet you.

Pleasure.

- Let me have you check out my home away from home.

- This is your home away-- it's a pretty big home.

- Yeah, this is it, this is it, yeah.

[upbeat big band music] If you want to know a little bit about the history of the Philadelphia Phillies, one of the coolest spots is here in the Hall of Fame Club here.

- This whole thing, this is a Hall of Fame Club?

- Yeah, check this out.

- Look at this.

This is incredible.

It's amazing.

- Yeah, so obviously, we have the two World Series here, 1980, 2008.

I got to be on both the floats after these unbelievable championships.

- That's incredible, man, to be a part of that.

- My dad was actually one of the coaches on the 1980 team.

- Your dad was?

- My dad was a first base coach.

- Wow, that's incredible.

When Rubén Jr.

was born in 1965, his dad was a Philly shortstop.

When the Phillies won the World Series in 1980, father and son were there together as coach and batboy.

When they won again in 2008, Rubén Jr.

was there as an executive.

- So pioneers and pinstripes here for the Phillies.

And if we work our way around the corner here, we see Pops.

There he is, right there in the corner.

- Ah, Rubén Amaro Senior.

I see where you get your striking looks from.

- Oh, yeah, right?

So 1964, he wins the Gold Glove Award.

That was a kind of a tough year for the Phillies, but a pretty fun year for a while.

- So he's Cuban, Mexican.

- Yep.

So he was born in Mexico.

His grandfather was Cuban and a hall-of-famer, Santos Amaro, El Canguro.

- And a hall-of-famer in Cuba.

- Hall-of-famer in Cuba and in Mexico, both as a player and as a manager, believe it or not.

And then my dad-- [chuckles] I don't think my grandfather wanted my dad to play baseball.

He wanted him to be a doctor, but my dad said, "To heck with this.

I'm going to go sign."

- Yeah.

- He goes and signs with the St.

Louis Cardinals and worked his way up to the Major Leagues with the Cardinals and then ended up getting traded to Philadelphia, which is where, you know, he started our family.

- That's incredible.

- But he went through some struggles, man.

- Oh, did he?

Like what?

- Oh, yeah.

There were times when he could not, you know, stay in the same hotels as his teammates.

- Oh, wow.

- You know, it's kind of sad.

But even in Clearwater, where they are now, one of the team's hotels would not allow players of color to stay in that hotel.

And I know that my grandfather is probably the best Amaro of all of them.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- And we had a chance to be like a three-generation family because we would have all played in the major leagues.

But because of his color, he could not come to the States to play.

- Incredible how racism keeps people from achieving their dreams.

- Yeah, and that's exactly what happened until, of course, Jackie Robinson jumped on the scene.

- Right, and changed the whole game.

- Yeah, and changed the world.

- Just a few years after modern baseball took hold in the U.S.

in the mid-1800s, it spread like wildfire to Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic.

Soon after, white or light-skinned Latinos like Esteban Bellán were playing here professionally.

But it wasn't until racial integration in 1947 that darker skin and Afro-Latinos were included.

And although they faced racism from reporters, fans, and even teammates, Latino players continued to dominate on the field.

- So you seem like a pretty athletic dude.

Let's see if you can swing the bat a little bit.

- All right, let's go.

- Come on, check it out.

- Let's go test me out.

Let's see what happens.

♪ - This is the place.

- It looks it, man.

- Yeah.

- I love a batting cage.

- There's nothing like hitting a baseball, brother.

- Whoo, yes.

- I'm going to see exactly what you can do.

- Are you scouting me?

- Yeah.

I'm going to be watching.

- I think I've aged out a little bit.

- Let's get it done.

Let's see what you got.

- All right, let's see.

Let's see.

- We're going to start with a little work off the tee.

So you look pretty athletic, but I'm-- not like that blue color.

What's with the blue color?

- The blue color's bothering you?

You know why I wore this blue?

- Yeah, it's bugging me a little bit.

- I put on my Mets blue.

- That's wrong.

- [laughing] Just for you.

- And I'm still allowing you in our cage.

- I know, I know.

- Because it's Philly red.

We're all about Philly red here, brother.

- I know.

We're nemeses.

I know that.

- OK.

♪ [John groans] - Pretty impressive.

- I don't know how I did that.

- This is not coming in at 90 miles an hour yet, but this is pretty good.

Wow!

You're ready to go!

- Damn, he makes me feel like a king.

- Hey, we're taking you to the field.

Let's go.

- All right, let's go.

- Let's get it done.

- I'm ready.

He got me so pumped up.

- [laughs] - What?

[energetic percussive music] Right now, Latino players dominate baseball.

And I think part of it, for us, I think, is metrics, because you can't deny stats.

- But I learned that, you know, there's a certain heart and passion about the game that Latin American players bring that is really tough to duplicate.

Even, like, the American players who were drafted here and get a chance to play over there, I think that really prepares them really well for the passion and the expectation that you have as a Major League player.

- Right.

Despite Latinos making up over 30% of MLB players, translating that to the front office has been a different story.

When Rubén became the Phillies GM, he was the only Latino in that role and one of just a handful to ever hold that role to this day.

So there's not a lot of Latinos at your level that you reach as an executive.

How did you get there?

How did you break down the barriers?

- It was important to me to be aggressive and to make my mark.

I was actually playing at the time and I went to my GM, a man named Ed Wade, who I owe a lot to, and I said, "Hey, man, I would love to stay in the organization."

And he said to me, "What do you think about being my assistant GM?"

And I said, "Excuse me?"

I do believe that Ed and the organization believed that, you know, I could bring something, you know, pretty special to the organization.

And I was fortunate.

- And what do you think that was?

What was that special skill set?

- I don't know.

I just--having the-- the fact that I was a batboy, I was a player, I understood Philadelphia from the-- sort of like the ground up.

- Right, because you were a baseball baby.

I mean, you were born on a field, basically.

- That's right.

- You were a natural leader.

[dramatic orchestral music] - I remember walking in as a GM.

Every single day, I would sit down on one of the seats and sit there and look out on this beautiful grass and beautiful stadium and think to myself, man, I am so lucky to do this.

- That's a great feeling, man.

- It's just amazing.

- It's a great feeling.

And you know what?

Embracing Latinos in the front office, on the field, and in the stands is just good business because we love sports.

Studies have shown we go to more games, buy more merch, and are more loyal than other groups.

And it's not just our wallets.

We bring good vibes, passion, and a spirit that is unmatched.

Dale, MLB.

It's the bottom of the ninth.

What you going to do?

- I know you're a Mets fan, but I got us something really special for you, OK?

- You got a lot of special surprises, man.

- Yeah, well-- - Now taking the field... - Check it out.

- The man known as the pest... [John laughing] The freak, and Benny Blanco, also known as Chi-Chi Rodriguez.

- That's true, that's true.

- That's Jim Baker.

- Check.

- Coming on from Jackson Heights... [John laughing] By way of Colombia, John Leguizamo!

- Whoa!

Yeah, yeah!

Hey, hey!

That's great, man.

- There you go.

Now, that's the uniform you should be wearing right there.

- Hometown hoodie.

Yeah, that's what I should be wearing.

- That's the one you should be wearing.

- Although if I go back in the neighborhood with a uniform like that, I'll get a beating.

- That's OK.

- Oh, that's OK for you to say.

- Did you see your position?

- Yeah.

You were left out.

- I was kind of left out.

I sucked at baseball.

That's why I was left out.

And age, mind your business.

[laughter] I might be starting my baseball career as an underdog, but remember, this is the home of the ultimate underdog.

[festive organ music] [Bill Conti's "Gonna Fly Now"] [triumphant music] ♪ And just like Rocky, you better not count me out.

[music slows down and stops] Wait, that's all we can use of that song?

Damn.

[dramatic orchestral music] Oh, well, where was I?

Don't count any of us out, OK?

Because Latinos have the courage, heart, and perseverance to take on any challenger.

They all stepped into the ring and emerged triumphant.

♪ Oh, yeah, PS, Balboa is a Spanish name, so you know what?

We claiming him.

♪