Bretón, Marcos, and José Luis Villegas, Away Games: The Life and Times of a Latin Baseball Player, University of New Mexico, 2000.

Journalists Marcos and Villegas follow the career of Miguel Tejada as he rises from promising rookie to become one of the stars of the American League. (In 2002, Tejada was named league MVP [Most Valuable Player].) Tejada, who as of 2004 played shortstop for the Oakland Athletics, is just one of many Dominican players who left the barrio for the major leagues. The book addresses the impoverished backgrounds many ballplayers come from as well as the language and cultural barriers that await them in the United States.

Howard, David, Coloring the Nation: Race and Ethnicity in the Dominican Republic, Signal Books, 2001.

Howard examines how ideas of skin color define Dominicans' idea of themselves as well as their Haitian neighbors. For decades, the Dominican...