There’s been a lot of talk in Los Angeles about the Dodgers this year. Specifically, if Latinos should continue to support the team after their part in the city’s ICE raids. 

While I respect and understand those who decided to stop supporting the team, I cannot. Why? Because the Dodgers are a part of my immigrant story. 

When I came to Los Angeles at eight years old in 88, my cousin was waiting for me. He was wearing a Dodgers hat and holding a baseball mitt. I didn’t know a word of English or understand baseball. But that morning, I got to play catch, badly. And I got to feel like things would be okay in this new home. 

The next summer, I attended my first game at Dodger Stadium. I was there with my cousin and our uncle. At some point during the game, my uncle said I was up on the big screen of the stadium. 

I was in awe of the whole experience. There I was, new to the game with my very own batting helmet (that game’s freebie) and a moment on the big screen. In my young mind, the team was welcoming me, a skinny brown kid from El Salvador who didn’t know the game just one year before. 

I didn’t know then the weight of the history of baseball or the Dodgers. I didn’t know how the Dodgers came to be in Los Angeles and the thousands of brown kids the city pushed out in favor of Dodger Stadium. 

I didn’t know that as a result of that displacement, many Latinos in L.A. shunned the team and saw baseball as a “white man’s sport.” I didn’t know that changed in 1981, when Fernando Valenzuela swung the gates open and told the Latino community the sport was also for them to enjoy. 

To me, the Dodgers welcomed and unified the people of Los Angeles. Each time I went to the stadium or watched on TV, I saw people of all parts of the city, all colors, and all backgrounds. If there was any animosity, it would be to people wearing Cubs hats, Braves hats, or the worse possible option, Giants hats. 

That part remains with me. The Dodgers are a uniting force in Los Angeles. We can see it when walking out to the parade route or the stadium after each of the two recent championship victories. The city comes together to paint the streets blue. 

This is why I cannot turn my back on the Dodgers now, at 45. The Dodgers are a symbol of unity in Los Angeles. I root for the players who play to the very end of every game and for the hat that welcomed me when I was a fearful kid unsure about what my new life would bring.