For Jessy Terrero, the filmmaker behind the new documentary on Miami Dolphins offensive tackle Bayron Matos, telling this specific story was important. But telling Dominican stories, in general, is also important. Remezcla talked to Terrero about Bayron Matos: Orgullo de Los Mina showcasing Matos, how it came to be, and what it means for a Dominican to be able to tell Dominican stories.
“I think as a Dominican filmmaker, Dominican American filmmaker, I always look for stories of ours that are not being told. I always try to figure out ways to give us a voice in places where we’re not being heard,” Terrero shared, adding that “I’ve been working with the NFL for the last couple of years doing a lot of different content, and even though as Latinos make up a big portion of the fan base, a lot of us are not on the field,” which means that our stories don’t always get the same level of publicity.
“There are a lot of people, different types of Latinos that had different journeys into the NFL, and those stories need to be told. And I think when you look at Bayron’s story coming from a place like the Dominican Republic where they assume that baseball is the only route, that it’s interesting because if they was access and if kids thought there was a path from the Dominican Republic to the NFL, you would see a lot more football players.”
As a general message for the Latine community and for Dominicans in particular, Terrero found in Matos the perfect athlete to uplift. “This kid who came from humble beginnings and a neighborhood in the Dominican Republic that is sometimes riddled with violence, and see how he kind of overcame it, and sports was what saved his life.” Terrero shared. Matos’ Miami Dolphins contract can be traced back to the NFL’s International Pathway Program, which a lot of people don’t even know about and which Terrero hopes to showcase.
“We wanted to shine a light on this program because, because there are so many people in so many countries that still look at football as an American sport, and don’t feel like there’s a path, and I think we wanted to showcase the IPP (International Player Pathway Program) so that, you know, these young kids who love football abroad can say, wow, there might be a path and a potential for me to make it to the NFL.”
Matos is, once again, the perfect vehicle for this story. “As he says in the documentary, had he been born in the United States, he probably would have played football, but because he was born in the Dominican Republic, they put a bat in his hand.” But this, importantly, is a story not just about the IPP or the expansion of the NFL as a whole. It’s a story about Bayron Matos. And that story deserves to be told.
“If you meet Byron, Byron has such a great heart, such a humble kid, and I’m excited for him,” Terrero also said. Because the truth is, the story we’re seeing is only the beginning of Matos’ tale in the NFL. How he was drafted, how his family and the Dominican Republic reacted—how some of them couldn’t even travel to the US to see him because they didn’t have visas. “We’ll come back later and maybe show how his career progressed, but the story is making it. Just being a young Dominican kid from this kind of area and being able to walk on the field with a Dolphins jersey, it’s a success that’s worth a story.”
Watch Bayron Matos: Orgullo de Los Mina below.
