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No other item of baseball memorabilia illustrates more succinctly the complex relationship between the Los Angeles Dodgers and their Mexican-American fan base than this unusual artifact -- a flour tortilla bearing a remarkable likeness to former Dodger owner (and now Hall Of Famer) Walter O’Malley.
Purchased from Ernesto Villafon in 1988 by Tom Meyer, the tortilla was subsequently donated to the Baseball Reliquary. According to Meyer, the tortilla was discovered in 1959 by Mrs. Regina Flores, a resident of Chavez Ravine, who presented the object to her nephew, young Ernesto, shortly before her death in 1981. Villafon told Meyer that it was the sight of the Dodger patriarch’s jowly visage on the tortilla that convinced Mrs. Flores and family to abandon their Chavez Ravine home peacefully in 1959 prior to the construction of Dodger Stadium.
After resettling in Highland Park, Mrs. Flores became a zealous Dodger fan, much to the amazement of her family and friends, who, claims Villafon, had never heard her express any previous interest in baseball.
Radio carbon dating indicates that the tortilla is approximately forty years old, lending credence to Villafon’s story. Encased originally in an ordinary picture frame, Reliquary preparators delicately removed the fragile artifact and enclosed it in a glass-covered scientific mount box for display.
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