Rocky Rodríguez has played for three different NWSL teams—Sky Blue FC (now called NJ/NY Gotham FC), the Portland Thorns, and now Angel City—and she has good memories from all three. But life in LA has offered her a new experience: the chance to embrace and be embraced by Southern California’s vibrant and multifaceted Latine community.
“Even something as small as spending time after games connecting with fans,” she says, “[Latinidad] is part of the culture here and I value that so much.”
One way Rodríguez has gotten to connect with the Latine community is through her involvement with Las Fotos Project, a Boyle Heights-based nonprofit that offers photography programming for girls and gender-expansive teens of color. In July, she attended a Las Fotos Project sports photography workshop in Lincoln Heights where participants got hands-on experience shooting live soccer—courtesy of a group of players from another Angel City community partner, Girls Play LA—with instruction by Angel City assistant photographers Jen Flores and Bailey Holiver.
In addition to the photography instruction and practice, the workshop included a panel discussion featuring Rodríguez, Flores, and Holiver, moderated by ACFC photographer Will Navarro and Senior Manager of Community Impact Erika Sanchez.
The workshop was a great opportunity for the young photographers to learn about shooting sports and to meet one of the players they get to watch at Angel City games, but it was a special experience for Rodríguez, too.
“What really got me was that the workshop was made for people who actually need it,” she says. “Even if these girls are not going to be photographers, I feel like the message that they're getting—because they’re working with really quality equipment, and people like Will [Navarro] and Jen [Flores] are going and spending time with them—the message is that they matter.”
Rodríguez knows firsthand how vital that message is. “When you come from a certain culture, you get stigmatized,” she says. “I know what it’s like to feel like you don’t belong or that you’re so far behind that you can’t [catch up]. So I just felt like the workshop was really empowering.”
The Costa Rica international has been nominated for the 2024 Lauren Holiday Impact Award, and chose Las Fotos Project to receive the $30,000 prize money if she wins. In addition to the overall prize, the award includes a fan vote, the winner of which will receive $5,000 for their chosen community partner.
Meeting Rodríguez made a big impression on the workshop participants, too. “She was just so humble and sweet,” says Eztli de Jesus, one of the 2024 Artists in Residence (Artists in Residence, part of Las Fotos Project’s partnership with Angel City, is a program where four young artists get paid experience shooting ACFC games). “I think it's amazing that she chose to nominate Las Fotos Project, and it was really amazing to hear her talk about her experiences.”
“I think it was just a great bonding experience for everyone to meet her,” de Jesus continues, “and it felt very validating as well to know that the team sees us as part of the ACFC family as well.”
You can cast your vote for Rocky and Las Fotos Project here. Fans are allowed to vote once per day throughout the month of October.
