Los Angeles Dodgers player Joe Kelly made a cultural fashion statement earlier this month when he showed up to the White House wearing a charro jacket.
Kelly, whose mother is Mexican American, joined his teammates at the White House, where President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris congratulated them for their 2020 World Series victory.
A few days before the trip to the White House, Kelly traded his baseball jersey for the charro jacket with Grover Castro, a trumpet player with Mariachi Garibaldi. The mariachi band was performing at Dodger’s Stadium for the Dodgers-Cubs matchup. Kelly connected with him before the game to make the trade.
“Wanna trade?” Kelly asks in the video. “Your jacket for my jersey?”
Kelly explained that he wanted the charro jacket because “they’re beautiful pieces of work with outstanding embroidery on it.”
“It’s one of those things where I thought in my head, ‘These things are sweet,’” Kelly said. “After I made the trade, I wasn’t planning on wearing it to the White House. I totally forgot we were even going to the White House.”
On their Instagram page, Mariachi Garibaldi reposted photos of Kelly in the White House wearing the charro jacket. They referred to him as a “new member” of their band.
“New member alert,” the band wrote. “Mariachi Garibaldi de Jaime Cuéllar in the White House! Check out what Joe Kelly wore to meet President Joe Biden at the White House! ¡Que Vivan Los Dodgers! New fashion trend?”
This past weekend, Kelly was also gifted a customized bobblehead wearing the Mariachi Garibaldi charro jacket. The gift was from Dodgers fan Pablo Vallin.
“I was able to give Joe himself my custom mariachi bobblehead,” Vallin wrote. “He loved it.”