In 2002, I was teaching a class on Mexican-American history at the University of Michigan and supplementing my income by working as a carpenter. A co-worker asked me if I had read Laura Hillenbrand’s Seabiscuit: An American Legend. I said, no, and right then and there he gave me his copy to read. I came across Joe’s name in the book a number of times. He was described as a race caller, a sportswriter, and a handicapper. Knowing the history of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans, I wondered how Joe could have accomplished this at a time when a number of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans were being repatriated to Mexico due to America’s Great Depression.
Had you ever heard of Joe prior to this?
No, never. I was raised in Texas and while I went to the races at Ruidoso Downs in New Mexico throughout my life and I raised greyhounds for the dog races, I never heard of Joe Hernandez.
How did you come to the decision that you were going to spend the next five years of your life working on this project?
Well, first of all, I had no idea that it was going to take five years to research and write. When I found Joe’s obituary in The New York Times and discovered that he had called 15,587 races in a row at Santa Anita before fainting at the microphone I knew that I was going to write his story.
I’ve read that you traced down Joe’s son, Father Frank Hernandez, and that he agreed to meet with you.
That’s correct. I called Catholic Answers in San Diego, a Catholic apostolate, and asked them if they had a number for Father Frank.
At the time, did you know that Joe had grown up in San Diego?
No, I had no idea.
Did they find a number for Father Frank Hernandez, Joe’s son?
They did and I immediately sent him an e-mail asking if he was Joe’s son. I noted that I was interested in writing Joe’s life story and then did my best to impress him by letting him know that I held a Ph.D. from Texas Tech University and a Master of Arts in History from Eastern Michigan University. I wrote that my work had been published by the University of Michigan Press, Arte Publico Press, and Alpha Press/Pearson Education Press of New York.
Was he impressed?
Apparently, it was enough to get him to write back. In time I interviewed him in Ann Arbor where we sat down and spoke for several days. I thought it was going to be a simple matter of collecting facts about Joe’s background, but what I found was that Father Frank knew little about his father’s early childhood. For example, he did not know when and where Joe was born.
So you decided to push forward with the project despite this fact?
I did and during my last talk with Father Frank, I promised him that I would tell him when and where his father was born before the book went to press. Like I wrote in the book, I made this promise out of stupidity, or the over-exuberance of starting a new project.
Did you keep your promise?
I am proud to say that I did. It took me four years of searching, but I found where and when Joe was born.
Joe told people early in his career that he was born in Missouri and then later told them that he was born in San Francisco. Which was true?
Actually none of them, Joe was born near San Francisco, but like I wrote in the book, not the City by the Bay, but a mining village in eastern Arizona near the San Francisco River.
In one of the early chapters you describe how you and Father Frank traced down where and when Joe was born. As more than one person has written it would have been unbelievable were it not true. Without spoiling it for readers can you tell me how you and Father Frank felt at that moment?
It was unbelievable, an unforgettable day. When Fortunata, the ninety-seven year old woman who was born in the same mining village and on the same day as Joe shared her story with us we were both shocked and overjoyed to learn the truth about Joe’s past.
I understand she also told you all about Joe’s family.
She did. She told us how Joe’s mother and father passed away and how Joe was orphaned and how he was separated from his blood sister, Josefa, and his half sister, Esperanza.
So how did a boy from a small mining town in Arizona end up in San Diego?
I’m not sure. There is a span of time – from 1915 to 1920 – that I cannot account for. His story picks up in 1921 when he registered for sixth grade at Washington Grammar School in San Diego. Before that it is obvious that he had spent time in school because he could speak English, read, write and understand mathematics.
Was it while he was in San Diego that he became interested in horse racing?
Yes. During his first year at San Diego High he landed a job as a copyboy for the San Diego Tribune. He eventually met Lanny Leighninger, the legendary sports editor and handicapper for the newspaper. It was Leighninger who introduced Joe to horse racing at “Sunny Jim” Coffroth’s Tijuana race track.
Is that where he became interested in race calling?
Calling races was introduced at the Tijuana track in 1927 and Joe called a race as a teenager, but he did not become interested in becoming a professional race caller until the early 1930s.
Did he get his start in California?
No. Joe actually recreated horse races in Chicago.
In Chicago, how did he end up there?
From San Diego, Joe had landed a job as a sportswriter for Hearst newspapers. He was sent to Chicago to hone his skills. While there he saw Bob Elson, the hall of fame radio announcer for the Chicago White Sox, recording a game on acetate discs. Joe thought he could do the same for horse racing. He sold the idea to Chicago tracks. This gave him an opportunity to learn the art and craft of calling races.
Did he then get his start as a caller in Chicago?
No. When he returned to California in 1931, he became Johnny Longden’s agent and then in September of 1932 he was offered the position of race caller at Tanforan.
How did this come about?
Joseph A. Murphy was the track’s steward at the time. He had heard Joe’s recreations of the horse races in Chicago. He remembered Joe and suggested him to the track’s owners.
From there his career took off.
Yes it did. He eventually became the caller at Longacres and Bay Meadows and when Santa Anita opened on Christmas Day 1934, Joe was hired to call the races.
What was it about Joe’s ability to call races that made him special?
First of all he was accurate. Secondly, he brought a race to life. He didn’t simply tell you where a horse was on the track, he described a race in such a way that you felt you were listening to a good story, a life and death struggle in which the outcome was never sure until the horses crossed the finish line.
The book’s title gives the impression that the book tells the life story of a race caller, but this is not true. There is so much to this book than just the story of a race caller’s life.
I’m glad you found that to be the case. I purposely set out to combine the history of the sport with Joe’s life story in order to fill in the blanks for people who might not know the history of the sport. I also wanted to place the story within the context of the emerging role that Mexicans and Mexican-Americans were playing in America’s society.
Were there times when Joe was discriminated against because of his race?
Yes, there were a number of times when Joe was discriminated against because of his race and other times when he was not. Not many know that he was the first race caller at Pimlico and Belmont. While he was there his step daughter, Patsy, an Anglo-American, recalled that her and her mother were stared at because they were with a Mexican-American man. She also shared that they would not have been able to stay in certain hotels, or visit exclusive breeding farms if Joe was not the caller at those tracks. Unbelievably, Joe also participated in 1940 American Bowling Congress Tournament at a time when their bylaws read that people of color, including Mexican-Americans were forbidden from taking part.
Was he allowed to participate because of who he was?
Probably, of course, it did not hurt that on the back of his satin jersey was listened the names of his sponsors, “Charles Howard & Seabiscuit.”
Critics and reviewers have all praised the time and effort you placed in researching this story, and even though this is true, how did you manage to weave this information into what some have described as a “fascinating volume”?
Well, from the very nature of the type of book it is – in this case a biography – it had to be carefully researched. However, I wanted to tell a good story. I was very fortunate in that Joe’s story held all of the elements to tell a good tale --- there was success, conflict, failure, life altering decisions, and pathos. When combined with the fact that Joe was much more than a race caller then you have a story that surprises people as they read from one page to the next. Joe was certainly one of the early trailblazers in shaping a positive image of minorities in America. His voice was heard by millions across the country and they knew that the voice belonged to Joe Hernandez.
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