Toñita, Baseball, and the Sound of Home
Just wrapped up an incredible mini documentary film as sound designer and re-recording mixer for Major League Baseball (MLB) and REMEZCLA, telling the beautiful story of Toñita and her beloved baseball club that became the Caribbean Social Club — a living monument of New York’s Caribbean and Puerto Rican communities. The film premieres on October 2 at Bori Fest 2025 in New York City, a fitting festival for a story about belonging, heritage, and the neighborhoods that keep those roots alive.
Working with Remezcla Creative Agency, who co-produced MLB’s El Béisbol Es Otra Cosa (Baseball Is Something Else) campaign, meant being part of something that truly celebrates how deep Latin identity runs in baseball and in America’s cultural mosaic. The campaign, narrated by Lin-Manuel Miranda and centered on Latino MLB stars like Ronald Acuña Jr., Francisco Lindor, and Fernando Tatís Jr., honors the rhythm, expression, and pride that immigrants have brought to the sport.
Toñita’s story adds another chapter to that narrative. In the heart of Williamsburg, her bar — The Caribbean Social Club — is more than a nightspot. It’s a sanctuary of memory. For half a century, it has been a bridge between generations, a place for the diaspora to dance, debate, and dream in the language of home. Through her, we see how the world of baseball — often seen through stadium lights — also lives quietly in small corners of cities, where community clubs keep the flame alive.
As an immigrant, being part of this project resonated deeply. Sound carries memory — the laughter, the lived-in silence, the distant echoes of a bat cracking — all of it speaks to what it means to leave one world and build another. Crafting that soundscape felt like blending two homes into one heartbeat.
Baseball has always been a sport of migration, a field of dreams crossed by borders. Venezuelan players, in particular, have played a vital role in shaping MLB’s history — from Luis Aparicio and David Concepción to Miguel Cabrera and José Altuve — carrying not only their talent but the hopes of entire communities back home. Each swing, each cheer, each anthem sung before a game is a reminder that baseball, much like music, is where identity and aspiration meet.
This project reminded me that being an immigrant in the arts — and in America — means finding sound in resilience. It means building a home in the frequencies of memory, whether that’s the hum of a crowded bar in Brooklyn or the roar of a stadium in Caracas.
Being part of MLB’s award-winning campaign Baseball Is Something Else / El Béisbol Es Otra Cosa was more than a professional milestone — it was a reminder that storytelling and sound can preserve culture, connect generations, and turn lived history into something eternal.
Huge thanks to Rafael Simon Urbina Olibar for the invitation to help tell this story — and to everyone at Remezcla Agency for making a campaign that truly understands what it means to belong.
Watch it here: