Thursday, July 31, 2008

What's in a name?

Obviously, Stephanie Lopez is still a player of Hispanic descent even if she's gotten married and changed her name to Cox. However, it's simply harder for people to make the connection to her Latina roots without a recognizable name to clue one in.
That's partly why blondie Amy Rodriguez is a welcome sight on the U.S. roster - she's officially the second player of Hispanic descent (Her father is of Cuban descent) to make an Olympic roster for the U.S. team. So while A-Rod can no doubt be an inspiration to fast little soccer forwards everywhere, there's little doubt her last name will catch the attention of a few hopefuls who also find it encouraging that someone with a Spanish name (supposedly Amy speaks a little of the language, too) can reach the pinnacle of the U.S. women's game.

5 comments:

  1. Good article - thanks for the link. It's a bit disappointing that a Chicago-based paper has the article and not the LA Times. Amy is a So Cal through and through...and what do we get in today's LA Times? The umpteenth rehashing of the Messi/Barca/Olympics fiasco.

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  2. Hersh is in Beijing and the LA Times is now owned by the Tribune, so they're not about to send out two company reporters to the same place.

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  3. Then why not use the story with a local angle in the LA Times?

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  4. Not enough staffers left at the LA Times to notice it was a local story?

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  5. Then thank goodness for Sideline Views!

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