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In the eyes of Natalia Molina and third-generation Mexican American, the crowning moment of the World Series did not occur during the nail-biting final game on Saturday, when her squad executed multiple dramatic comeback act after another before winning in extra innings against the opposing team.

It happened in the previous game, when two supporting athletes, Kike Hernández and the Venezuelan infielder, executed a electrifying, game-winning play that simultaneously challenged many negative stereotypes touted about Hispanic people in recent years.

The moment in itself was breathtaking: Hernández raced in from the outfield to catch a ball he at first lost in the stadium lights, then threw it to the infield to record another, decisive out. the second baseman, at second base, caught the ball just a split second before a opposing player collided with him, knocking him to the ground.

This wasn't merely a remarkable athletic moment, perhaps the key turn in momentum in the Dodgers' favor after looking for most of the games like the weaker side. To her, it was thrilling, politically and culturally, a badly needed morale boost for Latinos and for Los Angeles after months of immigration raids, troops patrolling the streets, and a steady stream of criticism from national leaders.

"Kike and Miggy put forth this alternative story," said Molina. "Everyone saw Latinos displaying an infectious enthusiasm in what they do, acting as key figures on the team, exhibiting a different kind of confidence. They are energetic, they're cheering, they're taking off their shirts."

"It was such a juxtaposition with what we see on the news – enforcement actions, Latinos thrown to the ground and pursued. It's so easy to be disheartened these days."

However, it's entirely straightforward to be a team supporter nowadays – for Molina or for the legions of other Latinos who attend regularly to matches and occupy as many as half of the stadium's fifty thousand spots each time.

A Mixed Relationship with the Organization

When intensified enforcement operations began in the city in June, and national guard units were sent into the city to react to ensuing protests, two of the city's soccer clubs promptly released statements of solidarity with immigrant families – while the Dodgers.

Management stated the organization want to stay away of politics – a stance colored, perhaps, by the reality that a significant minority of the fans, including Latinos, are followers of certain political figures. Under significant public pressure, the team later committed $one million in support for individuals directly affected by the operations but made no public condemnation of the administration.

White House Event and Past Heritage

Months before, the team did not delay in accepting an invitation to celebrate their previous championship win at the official residence – a move that local writers labeled as "disappointing … weak … and hypocritical", given the team's boast in having been the first professional franchise to end the racial segregation in the 1940s and the regular invocations of that history and the principles it embodies by executives and current and past players. Several players including the coach had voiced reluctance to travel to the event during the initial period but either changed their minds or succumbed to demands from the organization.

Business Control and Fan Dilemmas

An additional complication for fans is that the team are controlled by a large investment group, Guggenheim Partners, whose equity holdings, according to sources and its own released financial documents, include a stake in a private prison corporation that runs detention centers. The group's leadership has stated repeatedly that it wants to stay out of political matters, but its critics say the inaction – and the financial stake – are their own type of acquiescence to certain policies.

All of that add up to considerable conflicted emotions among Latino fans in especial – sentiments that emerged even in the excitement of this season's hard-fought World Series victory and the following explosion of team pride across the city.

"Is it okay to root for the Dodgers?" local columnist one observer agonized at the beginning of the postseason in an elegant essay ruminating on "team loyalty in our blood, but doubt in our minds". He was unable to finally bring himself to watch the championship, but he still cared strongly, to the extent that he believed his personal boycott must have given the squad the fortune it needed to win.

Distinguishing the Team from the Management

Numerous supporters who share Galindo's reservations appear to have concluded that they can keep to support the players and its roster of global stars, featuring the Japanese megastar a key player, while pouring scorn on the team's corporate leadership. Nowhere was this more evident than at the victory celebration at Dodger Stadium on the following day, when the capacity crowd cheered in approval of the coach and his players but jeered the team president and the chief executive of the investors.

"These men in suits do not get to claim our players from us," the fan said. "We've been with the team for more time than they have."

Historical Context and Neighborhood Effect

The issue, however, goes further than only the organization's present owners. The deal that moved the former franchise to Los Angeles in the 1950s involved the city razing three low-income Latino communities on a elevated area above downtown and then selling the property to the organization for a fraction of its market value. A song on a 2005 album that documents the events has an low-income parking attendant at the stadium revealing that the house he lost to removal is now third base.

Gustavo Arellano, perhaps the region's most widely followed Latino writer and broadcaster, sees a more troubling side to the long, problematic relationship between the team and its fanbase. He describes the team the popular snack of baseball, "a corporate entity with an excessive, even harmful following by too many Latinos" that has been exploiting its fans for decades.

"They've acted around Hispanic fans while profiting from them with the other hand for so much time because they have been able to avoid consequences," Arellano noted over the summer, when demands to avoid the team over its lack of response to the enforcement actions were contradicted by the awkward reality that attendance at home games remained steady, even at the peak of the protests when downtown LA was subject to a evening curfew.

International Stars and Community Connections

Distinguishing the squad from its business leadership is not a simple task, {