MEXICO CITY — Mexico's improbable World Cup run ended Sunday with a loss to England, but that didn't stop the team's heart and tenacity from achieving success:
A notable increase in Mexican-Americans venturing south to reconnect with their roots, language and culture, according to long-time observers and travel figures.
The trend, which emerged long before the World Cup, gained intensity against the backdrop of uncertainty in the United States generated by what many see as an anti-immigrant climate fueled by the Trump administration's crackdown on immigration.
The sense of being targeted is palpable across the United States, in Mexican-American communities from Los Angeles to El Paso and among American Latinos interviewed in Mexico City.
Despite Mexico's loss in the round of 16 match against England on Sunday, a Mexican fan applauds in downtown Santa Ana.
(Ronaldo Bolaños/Los Angeles Times)
Still, as Mexico progressed in the tournament, an indicator of national pride emerged: record sales of FIFA Mexico jerseys. More than 5 million were sold, half of them in the United States.
“This time putting on the Mexican jersey took on a different meaning,” said Leny Hernández, 32, a businessman and former combat soldier, after Mexico's elimination from the tournament. “I don't see this as a defeat, but as a victory. I still believe in the dream.”
While demographic data does not indicate how many Latinos or Mexican Americans travel to Mexico annually, the travel site Road Genius said nearly 5 million of the 48 million foreign travelers visited the country in December, which is traditionally when Mexican Americans return for religious celebrations and vacations.
For decades, the Mexican government has attempted to build bridges, a soft power initiative known as approach – or join – with its growing global diaspora. It has had some success. But what makes this latest link so compelling is that it wasn't designed by the government.
It is the result of an organic movement in which immigrants and their descendants crossed the border in greater numbers, seeking, some said, acceptance.
The World Cup was the lightning rod, said Carlos González Gutiérrez, consul general of Mexico in Los Angeles. González has witnessed the evolution of ties between Mexico and its emigrants abroad over four decades, beginning as a young consular official in the administration of Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari.
A sense of urgency
Mexico fans ask for a card after committing a foul during a World Cup viewing party in Santa Ana.
(Ronaldo Bolaños/Los Angeles Times)
“What makes this approach Today the interesting thing is that it is more common, with younger people,” González said, pointing to a sense of urgency as a key difference.
“The exciting thing is that this generation is not about wiping the slate clean, but about starting a new one,” he said. “They don't have the same distrust and resentment that their parents and ancestors have against the country that couldn't stop them from migrating north.”
Since the World Cup began in Mexico City on June 11, Mexican Americans have flocked to fan gatherings across the country and walked to the so-called Cathedral of Soccer, El Estadio Azteca, in Mexico City.
In Los Angeles, the consulate sponsored viewing parties at Casa México Los Ángeles in the city center; The Mexico-Ecuador match, which Mexico won, attracted 3,000 fans.
As the game began, images of neighborhoods milling around Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Home Depot parking lots and car washes were fresh in the minds of many.
Far from being the criminals that the Trump administration insists on attacking, the most of those detained are everyday workers with no criminal convictions, according to figures analyzed by TRAC, a data research organization.
Scared, sad and vulnerable
The ICE raid left emotional wounds that will not heal easily for many who described their parents and grandparents, including those living in the country legally, as feeling “scared,” “sad” and “vulnerable.”
“Many of us, our families, have PTSD,” said Daphne Amezcua, 21, a child development social worker at the Casa México LA event. “Mom is still afraid to go out and has her papers in order.”
Mexico reserve goalkeepers Guillermo Ochoa, left, and teammate Carlos Acevedo react after their World Cup round of 16 match against England in Mexico City.
(Natacha Pisarenko / Associated Press)
Next to her was a colleague, Santiago Salazar, 22, dressed in his black jersey from the Mexican World Cup team. “It is not lost on me that a year ago, in June, our community [in Los Angeles] “I was under attack from ICE raids,” he said. After a pause, he added, “When one side rejects you, you look south, to the land of your ancestors, to seek acceptance.”
the beautiful game
Even in majority Mexican-American border cities like El Paso, where ICE and U.S. Border Patrol agents have long blended into the community almost as part of the landscape, some residents are nervous.
Thanks to football, often called the beautiful sport in the world, many found a necessary distraction.
“I haven't been to Mexico in a long time, so being able to do this and support [the Mexican team] “It makes me feel a little closer to home,” said Elizabeth Garcia, 46, who watched the Mexico-Ecuador game in a park in downtown El Paso. “A lot of it has to do with political issues.”
In Mexico City, Mexican-Americans showed their duality as fans by wrapping themselves in the flags of both nations and cheering for the United States when Mexico was not on the field.
Fans in Mexico City react to Mexico's loss to England in the knockout round. The team's jerseys, like the green one on the left, sell for millions in both Mexico and the United States.
(Natacha Pisarenko / Associated Press)
Which underlines their double affinity: two Mexican Americans played for the United States national team (one from Ciudad Juárez and another from El Paso) and two more played for the Mexican team.
“It gives me chills,” said Pamela Huebner, a Los Angeles waitress. “We have players on both sides.”
'I found something else'
In Mexico's first game of the tournament in Mexico City, Alejandro Rodríguez, who had traveled from Houston, belted out the immortal, thunderous song “El Rey” – The King – in unison with nearly 81,000 fans in the stadium. Tears filled her eyes.
“We really needed this,” he said. “Being here, in this moment, away from the chaos” in Texas.
Near him was an effusive couple calling a family in California: “We won!” They shouted in English.
A few rows away, Hernández, the man from El Paso dressed in a black Mexican T-shirt, was high-fiving strangers around him.
Today, although Mexico is out, Hernández says he has a long road ahead. He joined a group of volunteers to provide donations for an orphanage in the Mexican capital. He plans to load a truck with clothing, food and other items and make the nearly 2,000-mile trip south to Mexico City later this year.
'The experience of being in Mexico City changed my mind. I was overcome by the experience, the emotion of being there,” Hernandez said. “I had planned to have a great time, getting lost in the debauchery, the degeneration, but I discovered something else, deeper, deeper.”
Corchado is executive editor of Puente News Collaborative, a nonprofit newsroom covering Mexico and the U.S.-Mexico border. Puente intern Mariana Chávez and editor Ricardo Sandoval contributed to this report.
