Was National Freshman of the Year, All-American, played for Team USA, tied for career school home runs with 49

Baseball financed education

Turned down six figures before attending Vandy

"Gut instinct I needed to come to college"

Family moved to USA from Dominican Republic

"El Toro," "El Matatan"

From Vanderbilt press release:

Pedro Alvarez, third baseman for the Commodores baseball team, was selected as the No. 2 draft pick in the country Thursday, June 5, in the Major League Baseball Draft. The Pittsburgh Pirates picked him after the first draft pick went to the Tampa Blue Rays.

Three years ago, Alvarez was offered almost a million dollars to play for the Boston Red Sox. But Alvarez, 18 at the time, turned down the money and honored his commitment to Vanderbilt--and to his own education--instead.

From the Nashville City Paper:

In 2006, he was named National Freshman of the Year. In 2007, he earned consensus All-America honors. In 2008, despite missing 23 games with a hand injury, he still hit nine home runs and finished in a tie for the career school lead with 49.

From ESPN.com:

At El Nuevo Caridad restaurant in Washington Heights, $12.95 can get you a special of ox tail, rice, pinto beans and lemonade, otherwise known as "the Pedro Alvarez." And though the dish is not quite as renowned as a "Manny Ramirez" (goat stew) or a "Pedro Martinez" (chicken stew with avocado) -- at least not yet -- it's special nonetheless to the baseball-loving owner who serves it.

"Pedro [Alvarez] is the heart of this community," says Miguel Montas, owner of Caridad. "If I've dedicated plates to people that I've met after they were in the big leagues, then why wouldn't I dedicate a plate to somebody I see as a son?"
...
"When I was choosing [whether] to go play baseball or come to college, I just had this gut instinct I needed to come to college," Alvarez says.
...
That judgment is a credit to Pedro Sr. and Luz, whose quiet demeanor was passed on to her son. The family, like many Hispanic families, is extremely close.

Video of Draft Day at home with the Alvarez family, from MLB.com:



From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

In the nearby Hall of Fame club, where a group of 125 season-ticket holders were invited to watch the event on TV, broke out into what one observer called "great applause."

From the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

Nicknames are "El Toro" (The Bull) and "El Matatan" (The Man)
...
Alvarez's parents, Pedro Sr. and Luz, came to the United States from the Dominican Republic two decades ago. Alvarez was 1 year old when the family settled in the Washington Heights section of upper Manhattan.

From the New York Times:

The elder Alvarez handed his son a baseball bat at the age of 3, and Pedro has not let go. Like many others in their mostly Dominican neighborhood — an area that straddles Washington Heights and Inwood — the Alvarezes hoped their son’s skills on the baseball field, if carefully tended, might one day finance a college education.

His parents went to college in the Dominican Republic, but when financial responsibilities intervened, they took jobs and neither graduated. In 1981, Pedro Sr. arrived in New York. His wife and 1-year-old Pedro followed in 1988. Their daughter, Yolayna, was born a year later.

“He always wished that his first child would be a boy,” Yolayna Alvarez said recently, interpreting for her father, “and that he would be able to go to school because of baseball. And that’s exactly what happened.” She just finished her freshman year at St. John’s University, and she hopes to eventually attend law school.

Also from the New York Times:

“He was the only guy who could hit the ball over every single tree,” said Elbert Garcia, his friend since elementary school.

Labels: dominican republic, immigrants, sports

Torres: son of Peruvian immigrants, 3.9 GPA at Austin Peay, Purple Heart and Bronze Star

Espaillat: came to Maury County from Dominican Republic, honors at Spring Hill HS, enlisted week before 9/11

This Memorial Day, the Hispanic Nashville Notebook remembers two Hispanic servicemen who came to Tennessee before their names were added to the lists of the fallen:

Army Lt. Richard Torres was the first Austin Peay ROTC graduate killed in combat since the school began the program in 1971. ... Torres grew up in Passaic, New Jersey, the son of Peruvian immigrants Dora and Gulian Torres, and during his childhood he discovered his interest in military service. ... The Rev. Antonio Rodriguez, pastor at Holy Trinity Church, performed the liturgy in both English and Spanish for those who had traveled from Tennessee, Texas and Peru to pay their final respects. ... entered the Reserve Officers' Training Corps program at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tenn., where Torres got a three-year scholarship and maintained a 3.9 grade-point average. ... "His dream was to retire in the military and get his master's and teach at West Point. He said he wasn't going to stop until he got his doctorate. He said, 'Watch, one day, I'll be the president of the United States.' " ... Richard Torres was posthumously honored with a Purple Heart and the Bronze Star

Air Force Senior Airman Pedro I. Espaillat Jr. came to Maury County in 1993 with his mother and two brothers from the Dominican Republic. His father, an assembly worker at Saturn Corp., had arrived about three years earlier. ... a 2001 honors graduate at Spring Hill High School ... chose to enlist ... one week before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Labels: dominican republic, english, faith, immigrants, peru, spanish

Teen category goes to Audrey Taveras

On Saturday, August 11, 2007, Mariela Flores was crowned Miss Tennessee Latina USA 2007-2008, and Audrey Taveras was crowned Miss Teen Tennessee Latina 2007 at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro.

The event was emceed by presenters Jonathan Camcam (Director of Festival de las Naciones) and Mrs. Jill Rivera (Mrs. Tennessee 2007). Entertainment was provided by Danny Salazar as well as Rachel Lampa.

The participants competed in personal presentation, modeling, evening wear, and the Miss Tennessee Latina category competed in swimwear as well. One of the primary roles of the future queens is to be a positive role model for the Hispanic community by way of community service.

The two winners will participate as representatives of the Latin beauty of Tennessee in the national Miss America Latina pageant, which will take place next year in Mexico.

In the MISS TENNESSEE LATINA category, the winners are as follows:

* Mariela Flores: Miss Tennessee Latina 2007-2008, of Mexican descent
* First Runner-Up: Karla Neal (Mexico)
* Second Runner-Up: Maryin Chaves (Nicaragua)
* Miss Community Service: Lucia Muñoz (Ecuador)

In the MISS TEEN TENNESSEE LATINA the winners are:

* Audrey Taveras: Miss Teen Tennessee Latina 2007-2008 (of Dominican descent)
* First Runner-Up: Deborah Posada (Nicaragua)
* Second Runner-Up: Cheyenne Garcia (Mexico)
* Miss Teen Community Service: Daisy Garcia (Mexico)

Bios follow:

MISS TEEN TENNESSEE LATINA 2007-2008
Audrey Taveras
16 years old
Morristown, TN
Both parents are Dominicans
She is a Junior at Morristown Hamblen East High School, with a GPA of 3.6.
Her favorite class is Newspaper, where she serves as Arts & Entertainment Editor. She is part of the Downtown Dance Company in
Morristown She is involved in two community service groups.

MISS TENNESSEE LATINA 2007-2008
Mariela Flores
21 years old
Mariela currently works as a personal assistant to one of the most productive real estate agents in the city. She plans to attend college at the beginning of next year. One of her biggest dreams is acting.
Mariela was born October 2, 1986 in the city of Queretaro, Mexico. She is the daughter of Pedro and Irma Flores. In her free time she likes to read, travel, enjoy time with her family and do community work for the Hispanic community.

Photo (Left-Right): Miss Teen Tennessee Latina Audrey Taveras, Miss Tennessee Latina Mariela Flores

Labels: arts, dominican republic, ecuador, immigrants, mexico, nicaragua

The Nashville Scene published this review of Murfreesboro road restaurant Los Happy Belly's:

LOS HAPPY BELLY'S
895 Murfreesboro Road,
356-7757

...

Co-owner Jose Santos arrived in Nashville about five months ago from New York, where he immigrated as a teenager from the Dominican Republic. His business partners are fellow Dominican Alexandra Abreu and Guatemalan brothers Alfonso, Santos, Chavelo and Danny Perez, who came to the U.S. about a decade ago.

While none of them is from either Cuba or Puerto Rico, the owners would all be familiar with the flavors and ingredients that weave throughout the Caribbean and find their way to Los Happy Belly’s. Beans and rice are a primary feature of the buffet table, which usually holds moro rojo (red beans and rice), arroz con gandules (white rice with peas), congri (rice with black beans) and plain white rice.

...

Los Happy Belly’s offers a handful of specialties that are interesting, even delicious. Among them is the yuca frita (fried cassava root). The thick, deep-fried exterior of the tuber chunk melts in the mouth, and is made even more intriguing by a drizzle of garlic-infused oil.

...

Los Happy Belly’s opens 11 a.m. Tuesday through Sunday and closes 6 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 10 p.m. Friday and Sunday. Saturday is Caribbean Night with dancing from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m.

Read the full review here.

Photo by yasmapaz

Labels: cuba, dominican republic, food, guatemala, puerto rico

Painter, sculptor, and architect, Freddie Cabral, aka “The king of metal” has relocated from Boston, MA to Nashville, TN where he will continue to give us with the product of his tasteful industry. Cabral, who during the seventies started his career in plastic arts and architecture at the prestigious universities “Autonoma de Santo Domingo” and “APEC” in his native Dominican Republic also lived in Paris from 1980 to 1985, completing his studies on monumental arts in the Ecole Nationale Superioure des Beaux-Arts.

Cabral's meticulous works, made from various metals, mud and wood as well as scraps, address the essential components or common fabric of all human beings, as well as the correlation between humans and their environment. It also links sources such as the ova and the sperm (two key elements of the biological creation during its initial phase), putting in perspective the similarities and differences of the cellular and the cosmic worlds. Opposing ways, yet concurrent.

In his creative universe Cabral uses items from everyday life such as nails, cans, and bottle tops, which would most likely be discarded. He transforms them into stars, astrals or other parts of the micro world, raising their category and degree of importance. The tenuous lights that emanate and flow from the interior of his work piece produce an optical illusion of closeness and distance, and cast a special effect of displacements of all participating elements which is most effective in dim or darkened rooms.

Freddie Cabral has presented 13 personal exhibits, the most recent one being “Prenumbras” (shadow cast) based on the year he spent at the University of Massachusetts in Boston as well as numerous collective expositions in different countries throughout Europe and America. Among these are France, Italy, Holland, Mexico, Cuba, Ecuador, Canada, and the sculptor’s homeland, the Dominican Republic.

In 1992, Freddy Cabral received the “Escultura de la Bienal” prize in his native Santo Domingo and in 1978, he was awarded the “Escultura Casa de España“. His creative work has been widely depicted in books and magazines that specialize on art of the different countries of the world.

“Cabral and Associates” has a workshop in Nashville, where they elaborate custom made pieces based on their clientele's ideas. Among these are murals, interior designs, metallic structures, jewelry, paintings, drawings, and sculptures in a wide array of materials. For more information, please call (615)513-8991.

Labels: arts, dominican republic, immigrants