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Long before women’s professional baseball became part of American sports history, a group of young Mexican American women in Kansas City was already playing competitive softball. They took their games seriously, drew local support, and were part of a sporting tradition that has received little attention over the years. A photograph from 1939 shows the Lady Aztecas posing on a ballfield, some standing and others kneeling, with gloves in hand and bats crossed in front of them. Across their white jerseys is one word: AZTECA.
The photograph is part of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History collection, credited to Rose Arroyo in memory of Mary Montes. Born in 1918, Montes grew up in Armourdale, a Kansas City, Kansas, neighborhood where many Mexican immigrant families settled. From 1938 through 1941, she played first base and right field for the Lady Aztecas. Historical records also place the team at nearby Brenneison Ballpark.
The Lady Aztecas were not an isolated example. Before World War II, Mexican American women were playing organized softball throughout the Midwest. Researchers have documented Las Cuauhtémocs in Newton, Kansas; Las Gallinas in East Chicago, Indiana; and Las Amapolas in South Chicago. Other teams competed in communities across Kansas, Illinois, Indiana, and Nebraska.
At Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in East Chicago, Las Gallinas sometimes played before the men’s Los Gallos team. Families brought food and stayed for both games. Former players recalled nine-inning contests played largely by the same rules as the men’s games, sometimes attracting hundreds of spectators. Coach Fred Maravilla remembered discussions about putting some of the more talented women on men’s teams. The men laughed, assuming he was joking. “We weren’t kidding,” Maravilla later recalled.
The teams developed within a growing Mexican American baseball culture. During and after the Mexican Revolution, thousands of Mexican families settled in Midwestern communities, finding employment with railroads, farms and industrial businesses. Discrimination frequently excluded Mexican Americans from established white sporting organizations, leading communities to organize their own teams, leagues, and tournaments. Women’s teams became part of that tradition.
Their accomplishments came before the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which was later made famous by the movie A League of Their Own. That league began in 1943, while the Lady Aztecas were already playing by 1938. It would take another three decades for Title IX to significantly expand athletic opportunities for girls and women in American schools.
Montes died in 2017 at age 99. Her family remembered her as a competitive athlete whose involvement in sports influenced younger generations. The photograph they preserved eventually became part of the Smithsonian’s “¡Pleibol! In the Barrios and the Big Leagues” exhibition, which examined Latino contributions to American baseball.
More than 80 years later, the photograph remains a reminder that Mexican American women were competing on ballfields long before organized women’s sports received widespread recognition. The Lady Aztecas were already out there playing, whether the rest of the country was paying attention or not.
