NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release: February 20, 2019
Natalia de Cuba, Women’s Sports Pioneer and NCC Faculty Member
From Ridicule to Respect: Celebrating the First Puerto Rican Women’s National Soccer Team 20 Years Later
February 27 
Garden City, NY – Nassau Community College faculty member and women’s sports pioneer Natalia de Cuba
will speak about From Ridicule to Respect: Celebrating the First Puerto Rican Women’s National Soccer
Team 20 Years Later on Wednesday, February 27th at 9:30 a.m. in Room 252/253 of the College Center Building (CCB).
(download hi res photo)
Twenty years ago, Natalia de Cuba was not a professor in the Language Immersion at NCC (LINCC) program, but was the captain of the first Puerto Rican Women’s National Soccer Team! The untested team participated in the Women’s World Cup qualifiers. Its efforts were derided and ignored by the press and the local federation but as a result of the team’s efforts thousands of Puerto Rican women and girls now play soccer competitively. Recently, the federation and FIFA reunited the team for a 20th anniversary celebration. There were a series of events commemorating the huge uphill battle faced by these women, who built a soccer program in the face of unabashed sexism. Natalia and her former teammates inaugurated the first Women’s Soccer Gallery in the Museum of the History of Soccer in Puerto Rico. They also conducted a “conversatorio” at a gala event at the Olympic Committee headquarters in Old San Juan. Currently, the Soccer Federation is making a documentary about the team’s journey.
During From Ridicule to Respect: Celebrating the First Puerto Rican Women’s National Soccer Team 20 Years Later, Prof. de Cuba will speak about her experience and about how, as she puts it, “grit and determination and a willingness to get your butt kicked for a higher purpose is worth it!”
For more information about this program, which is free, open to the public and accessible
to the disabled, call 516.572.7148. Visitors are asked to stop off at Public Safety
and pick up a parking permit when they arrive on campus.
Media Contact: Kate Murray 516.572.0611; kathleen.murray@ncc.edu
ncc.edu/newsreleases
About Nassau Community College
Nassau Community College is an institution where more than 19,000 full-time, part-time,
Workforce Development and continuing education students start and continue their successful
journey through higher education. More than 80 fields of study are offered on a 225-acre
campus located in the center of Long Island. As the largest single-campus two-year
college in New York State, Nassau Community College maintains a national reputation
for excellence. For more information, visit www.ncc.edu.
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