BETHLEHEM, Pa. - A mural was unveiled Friday in Bethlehem, honoring an influential athlete.
The mural at the Hispanic Center Lehigh Valley commemorates the life of Roberto Clemente. It was designed by Salina Almanzar-Oree and is located at 520 East 4th Street.
Clemente was born in Puerto Rico and played his entire 18-year, big-league career for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
2022 marks fifty years since Roberto Clemente's death. He was just 38 when he died on New Year's Eve, 1972, in a plane crash off the coast of Puerto Rico. Clemente had chartered the flight to get humanitarian relief to earthquake-ravaged Nicaragua.
He was posthumously elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame a few months later.
Norman Bristol Colón, Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development's Director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, was at the event.
“Roberto Clemente, who was and still is a Pennsylvanian by way of Puerto Rico, has inspired generations of Americans. This mural ignites a great sense of community pride, ownership, and empowerment while embracing and celebrating the rich Latino history in Bethlehem and the Lehigh Valley,” said Colón.
