Nationalism and Identity in Futból: Deconstructing Rivalry Between Central American and Mexican Immigrant Communities

Martin Alejandro Pineda is a graduating communication studies major. His work consists of the ways in which people identify with soccer and how rivalries form through it. His paper came to life by the passion he has for the sport and his Honduran culture. Post-graduation, Martin would like to dedicate his time in empowering Latinos and investing his time for a greater good.

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ABSTRACT

Soccer is one of the most influential sports played and watched around the globe. Many people use this as a distraction tool, and the sport has a powerful influence that ignites rivalry and stirs a sense of nationalism between different people. The following essay focuses specifically on Central American and Mexican migrant communities' relations within the diasporas where scarce resources lead to tensions between these groups. Furthermore, competition for scarce resources, media representation, and the symbolic annihilation of one's culture is what I conclude to be the primary fuels of this rivalry that is often released through the sport of soccer.

Nationalism and Identity in Futból: Deconstructing Rivalry Between Central American and Mexican Immigrant Communities

By Martin Alejandro Pineda

Immigration is a term used to describe the action of moving to another country or region, and this is the decision that people around the globe have to make. Many of the causes of this migration pattern come from economic inequalities, civil wars, family separation and wanting a safer place to live (Reis, 2004). Soccer is the world's most played and watched sport, and this game has the power to help unify participants of this subculture across borders. This particular sport has the power to trigger various forms of strong emotions such as anxiety, anger, joy and depression. For Central American immigrants living in the United States, some recognize that a major rivalry exists between the Mexican community that embraces nationalism and a symbolic annihilation that exists in the sports media that does not resemble the population (Aria, 2003). Through a critical transnational analysis, one can examine the manner in which futból embraces nationalism, rivalry, and sparks conflict narratives, yet helps individuals create identities through this sport with people who have left their native countries. The research I have conducted will look at the causes of tensions and rivalries between Central Americans and the Mexican community who constantly have to be competing with one another. Throughout my lifetime, I was too naive to see how my parent's Central American culture was being annihilated as a result of being in a predominantly Mexican community. I have analyzed how the sport of soccer is a powerful tool to unite and help coexist with people of other cultures, but at the same time can cause many complications and tensions.  

Migration and Adaptation  

Immigration is an issue that is often talked about negatively and portrayed as a problem, but the reasons people flee their countries are never looked into. For any individual taking on the decision to leave their native country, is never an easy choice to make. Many unpleasant conditions in the homelands of Central Americans help accelerate these life decisions (Aria, 2003). During times of civil war in Central America, conditions were tough to live in and many would rather risk the dangerous journey to the United States than continue to live in those conditions. Although the wars have ended, in various Central American countries they are not at peace due to the evolution of some of the world's strongest gangs and organized crime which continues to make people want to migrate. 

Central Americans that migrate to the United States must travel through Mexico, and the journey itself becomes quite a complicated experience for these immigrants. Traveling through Mexico often creates many complex tensions between people. Many Mexican people are extremely helpful to people passing through the land, and there are various organizations like FM4 Paso Libre that offer help to migrants throughout their journey through Mexico. Many reports show that there are large amounts of theft, injuries, kidnappings, extortions, and sexual assault throughout their travels for these migrants (Fm4 Paso Libre, 2016). Numerous amounts of these migrants suffer traumatizing experiences on their journey to the United States whether while riding La Bestia (The Beast) the train that travels throughout Mexico or other unfortunate experiences.  
 

Soccer has destroyed and made many friendships. The rivalry goes a long way outside the beautiful game into a sense of cultural representation.

Upon arrival to the United States adapting to a new culture is not always simple for many immigrants. Many migrants live with extended families that offer moral and financial help during their adaptation to a new land (Ganong, Coleman 2014). During the adaptation process, many Latinos try to find a way to connect with other people of similar cultures and one commonality is sports. Tim Wallace, president of a soccer league in North Carolina, explains how the immigrant community and U.S. American locals don’t adapt to each other. During his time as president of the soccer league, Wallace made many discoveries on the power the sport has on the Latino community and how it differed to the U.S. interpretations of the game. When Wallace was president, there was a strong anti-immigrant rhetoric going on in the country and this did not help the integration between cultural groups. Even in the Latino community, there seems to be various rivalries in the leagues between each other. Many of the teams consist of players from the same countries and hometowns. Soccer has destroyed and made many friendships. The rivalry goes a long way outside the beautiful game into a sense of cultural representation (Wallace,2009). Despite rivalries, Latinos prefer to play with other Latinos and whites prefer to play with other whites. Latinos argue that U.S. Americans don’t take the game seriously, and don’t interpret the rules of the game correctly.  

On the contrary, U.S. Americans that play, often claim that the Latinos have no respect, they are obnoxious, dirty, and, focus too much on the social aspects (Wallace, 2009). Different social groups have distinct practices and although soccer is often called a universal language you can see transnational differences. When analyzing transnational ethnic differences you can observe how U.S. Americans and Latinos interpret playing in different ways. For some societies, it's just a game like any other, but to others, it’s a vast sub-culture made up of many different social elements. For example, many Central Americans have cultural norms of bringing entire families to games having some beers and socializing with each other after the games. These meeting places where people of similar backgrounds come and get together is an example of a transnational cultural space (Delugan, 2012). We can see these spaces in different types of scenarios where people come together to share mutual interests. 

Soccer is a large part of Latino culture and involves many different emotions that can have the ability to unite and create conflicts. Dr. Kirk Bowman, in his book about identity and politics in soccer, gives many examples how unlike any other sport soccer serves many purposes in staying connected with one’s culture abroad or in a way as an adaptation process, “The game provided a social and competitive outlet but more importantly contributed to identity building at the neighborhood, regional, and national levels,” (Bowman, 2014). Many Latin American countries practice this sport as a hobby, so while living abroad playing soccer helps to reconnect with nostalgic memories of home and can ease the adaptation process in a new country.  

Nationalism, Rivalry, Conflict Narrative 

As the world's most played, watched, and emotionally driven sports, soccer has many different influential powers. Jorge Valdano, a retired Argentinian soccer legend has a famous quote that says, “'Futbol is the most important thing of non-important things,’’ this quote "hits home" because although a sport is a leisure activity and there are greater problems in the world when you put it in perspective, this sport is influential. The Central American national teams of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and with the exception of recent years Costa Rica aren’t world recognized teams with expensive players or wealthy federations. All of the North American teams belong to the CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football) and the teams play each other frequently whether it’s a friendly match, Gold Cup, or World Cup Qualifiers. Despite not being recognized on a worldwide scale Central American teams have some of the most loyal fans especially fans that have migrated to other places outside their homeland and are considered to be a part of the Central American diaspora. Reaching the World Cup is always the goal of every Fútbol nation and the main one for Central Americans. This is a dream for many of these countries because it doesn’t happen very often. Honduras and Costa Rica are the only two Central American countries that have participated in a World Cup in the past thirty-five years. Guatemala, Panama, and Nicaragua haven’t been able to take part in the world stage. To qualify for a world cup, you have to play the top teams, and only three to four teams make it. The two that make it tend to be the United States and Mexico. For Central American immigrants, when their national teams play against the United States and Mexico these fans bring out the pride of their roots of their countries they once left (Aria,2003).   

Nationalism is a strong patriotic feeling over other nations, and this often appears in the soccer world. Dr. Steven Osuna has written on Intra-Latino/relations in Los Angeles and has emphasized Salvadoran and Mexican encounters. Central Americans, especially ones in Los Angeles, aside of dealing with profiling of White America have to also deal with a predominately Mexican community (Osuna ,2015). Competition for work is the main concern, and in many situations, Central Americans have to pretend as if they are Mexicans to be able to considered for a job. When talking about nationalism, one must understand that only means feeling a pride of one nation, but having to deny your nationality and fake a new one is problematic. Scholars argue that much of the tension that rises between the Mexican community and mainly the Salvadoran community is composed of scarce resources.  Once tension builds, it distributes in many different aspects. Arguments arise in the way these two different ethnic groups speak, and they correct each other as if one is superior or right over the other. Each group's style of Spanish has different accents and vocabulary. Osuna says that differences among the languages create arguments about which style of language is superior to another. In the context of Central Americans who have difficulty trying to adjust, they have to "Mexicanize" themselves and it is the frustrating process where their culture begins to be annihilated and underrepresented. One of the few ways many individuals who don’t have an enormous passion for soccer often feel prideful of their roots and show support to their national teams is when they are playing something of importance or gathering around people participating in the same cultural practices (Sepal, 2010). You do not have to like the sport but when you see your country of origin being represented you have some type of identification and national pride.  

Dr. Kirk Bowman is a professor at Georgia Tech who has conducted profound research on the importance that futból has in bringing in national identities and adaptation to immigrants throughout his work. Bowman has critically analyzed the ways this sport has been used as an identification tool to individuals throughout Latin America. The firm support and attention this game gets has been used as propaganda for the government. In his book, Identity, and Politics in Latin America, Bowman claims,  “The beautiful game contains all of the elements championed by scholars of identity formation. The stadium is the mythical and sacred homeland. The hundreds of chants and songs belted out for the entire game is the vernacular of the imagined community. And the players and hooligans are the soldiers going out to war”. The phrases “Sacred Homeland”, “imagined community”, and “players and hooligans are the soldiers going out to war” create strong imagery that helps understand the cultural space these stadiums become and how these people connect with one another with how these are their soldiers who will fight for their countries honor. People identify themselves as a fan of the team they support and in many ways are invested in. Individuals who identify as a fan express in various manners that range from stressing about the outcome of a match, celebrating, attending the games, working with a schedule to be able to participate in the match, and their choices to wear game attire. Dr. Bowman claims that fútbol has all the elements in forming many human identities especially in regions where populations are growing people feel the need to connect with the sport to feel a part of something. In Latin America, playing futból on the streets is another scenario where gender roles of masculinity form. This is a favorite pass time for many males throughout the continent and often involve competition, aggression, and other stereotypical gender performance roles that stimulate the identity of masculinity. Bowman has brought considerable attention to how this sport is a vehicle to forming identities in cultural spaces, how people invest their life into their passions, and a shared space where gender roles can be established. 

Many first generation Central Americans often argue that growing up as part of the diaspora is a confusing situation, and it becomes difficult to establish one’s identity. Finding one's identity is often difficult because some parents came when they were young or don’t want to remember much of the countries they left behind for one reason or another. Some went through horrible experiences of civil war that they prefer to forget. Many do express the culture of the homeland they come from and marry someone that is not from their respective nationality. Raquel Josefina Gutiérrez is a poet from Los Angeles that expresses her experiences on being both Mexican and Salvadoran. In her poem, "Part-time Salvi", she communicates the complications of forming her identity. The minor Salvadoran culture she knew was because of her mother, but she didn’t have any more associations with El Salvador than that. She wanted to seek an identity where her Salvadoran side would be represented, “I don’t want to suppress my Mexican side in favor of my Salvi-ness. It’s just recognition I crave, from within the predominately Mexican community, and from within myself, but is it wiser to sit on my mother’s side to cheer the Salvis on in a soccer match against my father's superior Mexican team?”. Guitierrez’s poem hits home with the situation that many first generation immigrant children go through, some have two cultures and are often feel forced to identify as one. Central American culture is not one to be often represented to make a connection with when you aren’t living there. Guitierrez’s even mentions there are no Salvadoran heroes or pop culture stars to even admire in mainstream media. Mexican culture overpowers all other Latino groups. This is very problematic because representation is important in forming identities. 

When you are always labeled as something you are not, you begin to resist and fight for your identity. In many situations, Central Americans living in Los Angeles are given the notion that they are all Mexican and this isn't taken lightly. Osuna makes a valid point that Central America is in between North America and South America, although it belongs to North America these group of countries is often forgotten (Osuna, 2015).  The geographical region that is Central America is often confusing because it is part of North America, but these countries are a lot smaller in comparison to Mexico, the US, and Canada. Countless times Central American migrants have to explain that being Honduran, Salvadoran, etc, is not the same as being Mexican.  

Media Stimulates Rivalry 

 When your culture is being destroyed you feel empowered to want to embrace it even more, and we can see where a lot of the stresses are originated from. With so much tension between Latinos it can get diffused by the soccer abilities of the Central American teams. Many of the frustrating situations that Central Americans face despite their large populations is that they are often misrepresented or under-represented. An outstanding opportunity to come out and embrace a sense of their roots is when their national team plays against Mexico. When Central American teams play Mexico, there is finally some coverage regarding a Central American country for that day because it will be televised and they usually interview rival fans who talk about their culture, or if they are playing in that country, they show nice places. That is it, and it is only because they are playing Mexico or the United States. The Mexican national team is a capital magnet with all the attention it brings. Driving down the freeway in Los Angeles you will always see billboards of La Selección Mexicana in stores, on television, advertisements, and on the news. You are always being drowned in the media of Mexican culture and other minority groups are forgotten. It makes sense if you consider supply and demand. The Mexican team brings in the capital gains, and it works. Central American teams are not as great as the Mexican team, and would not bring in all the capital that Mexico does, but it is difficult when you are constantly being fed a culture that is not yours every day. 

On top of the cultural media attention Central American nations get before playing Mexico another media problem arises called conflict narratives. So much national pride is expressed that it is often over embraced and the media creates conflict narratives in the fan groups. One of the most controversial reporters that triggers many of the conflict narratives between the fútbol nations is ESPN’s David Faitelson. This controversial journalist is heavily criticized for his harsh comments about the national teams of Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Panama. In the past he had made comments such as, “The United States lost to a nobody, and now they are in a crisis” referring to the United States national soccer team losing to Guatemala and “Can you imagine the mediocrity of Mexico losing to a mediocre team like Honduras in the Azteca stadium.” This was a tweet from when Honduras made history in beating Mexico at their home stadium in Mexico City. “ El Aztecazo" is a Central American phenomenon that came about when Costa Rica became the first country to defeat Mexico at home in an official match. Honduras had an obsession to do the same one day, and they did. He even referred to the Honduras national team as an “equipo bananero” which means banana team while holding bananas. It is very unclear what he meant by making these types of comments, but a numerous amount of players from Honduras are of African decent so they took this as a racist comment. Many Mexicans in social media often refer to the Hondurans as “changos” meaning monkeys because of their skin color (La Prensa). When Honduras beat Mexico on their home turf compilation videos were made by Honduras fans to remind Faitelson of his words like “an Aztecaco doesn’t exist and never will only in Hondurans wildest dreams.” He said this after Mexico beat Honduras years prior to the Aztecazo. In these types of videos, there are always altercations between the fans and one fan wrote, “I don’t know what these Changureños are celebrating.” This YouTube user uses a racist, derogatory term to describe the people of Honduras as monkeys. So when Faitelson calls Honduras “un equipo bananero” and with his history with talking down about Central America this raised a lot of questions. Sadly, he has been advised not to visit these countries and doesn’t when the Mexican team visits. He has received many insults and death threats for his comments throughout the years. He always states that he talks fútbol critique nothing else, but never fails to make his remarks to trigger the Central American community. 

Faitelson uses his media powers to trigger people which is an example of what you can call a conflict narrative. Various scholars have researched one of the greatest rivalries in the world between fútbol clubs Barcelona and Real Madrid. Although the worldwide attention that those two teams get in the media doesn’t compare to Mexico vs Central America, we can analyze many similarities. Conflict narratives are often constructed by the media and the power they have to ignite emotions of the opposing team’s fans (Gonzalez, Guerrero, Haynes 2012). These authors explain in various ways how the weeks before the match meeting many conflict narratives are created. For example, in the United States, we get many of our sports sources from ESPN Mexico, Fox Deportes, Univision Deportes, and Telemundo. Most of these sports networks are predominately Mexican ran and only focus on the Mexican national team. If a Central American team is going to play Mexico, they give attention to a Central American team as a rival. Reporters often will ask a controversial question to the player, and they will respond. His response will be focused on the major networks and sometimes over emphasized on the negative aspects, or they seem contradictory to have better content for their audience (Gonzalez, Guerrero, Haynes 2012). We see this back and fourth with media from Central America like Diario Diez a major Honduran sports journalism newspaper. They have a huge effect in creating conflict narratives about the Mexican media and players. Since networks in the United States often lack coverage of teams that are not Mexico they have to look elsewhere to find news, and they read news from their home countries. This is a way that in a transnational setting immigrants are still involved with their countries even if it creates conflict narratives and rivalry.  

Up until recent times to watch Central American teams in FIFA World Cup Qualifiers was tough to watch because no one would want to stream them on their networks. Many fans experience, having to find illegal streams to watch a match or pay admission at restaurants to watch it. Central Americans are considered to be a true example of a minority in a country that is not theirs. They have become symbolically annihilated from mainstream media (Klein, Schiff man 2009). When do Central Americans get any recognition in mainstream media? When a natural disaster occurs, something politically major like the Honduran coup, when extreme violence occurs, and of course when they play against the Mexican national team. Eventually, Central Americans become immune to the Mexicanization that they live in.

In the year 2013, I was running for a contest hosted by ESPN called "Dream Job" where the contestant's audition and had to make weekly assignments for a chance to win employment for ESPN and work at the 2014 World Cup.

In the year 2013, I was running for a contest hosted by ESPN called "Dream Job" where the contestant's audition and had to make weekly assignments for a chance to win employment for ESPN and work at the 2014 World Cup. During my time as a candidate, the word got out to Diario Diez in Honduras where they reached out to me to interview me about what I was doing. The interview was great, and I thought the experience was over since it was a less informal conversation. They asked me what I thought about David Faitelson and I said "He's very controversial that’s why I would love to win this so we can have Honduran representation at ESPN” (Orelleana, 2015). When the article was published, I was shocked at the fact that they closed the article with that quote. I found it incredibly irrelevant to include that since I was trying to get hired at ESPN. It felt awkward because I know there is a huge possibility that Faitelson and ESPN employees were going to read that since DIEZ is the major sports newspaper in Honduras. That one quote reflects the constant media conflicts that have been created by Faitelson and Hondurans. When Diez posted the article on Twitter, they would tweet that quote about Faitleson to get people to read the article. This is an outstanding example of how the media stimulates conflict narratives.

As a Honduran-American I constantly find myself with a strong desire to look for positives aspects about my culture that are often mis/underrepresented. I have always heard nothing or negative things about where my parents came from, and I didn’t like that. Throughout my childhood my associations, aside from a small number of cousins and family friends I would see time to time, I wouldn’t coexist with many Hondurans. Many of my classmates, friends, and acquaintances were all of Mexican decent and many times there were many cultural confusions since I couldn’t relate to many of the small things that were different. When I would say I was from Honduras they would tell me that was still a part of Mexico, and that would upset me. When I got older my closets friends were Mexican, and we all shared a passion for fútbol and when Honduras played Mexico that’s when the jokes would come and some bickering. My passion for my Honduras National Soccer team came from the self-exploration of my roots and going against the status quo. What I did notice was as time went on was that on days Central American countries played Mexico there were so many arguments online and controversy in the media and I couldn’t understand why. I was always asked by friends and people “Why do Central American’s hate us”? I never had an answer because I was never aware I always said, "We don’t, just in soccer. That constant question throughout my life is what has led me to research this topic more in depth. 

Fútbol being one of the world's most power and influential sports has various ways of driving emotions out of people. It is a beautiful way of helping immigrants adapt and connect to their roots in a new country. This sport can turn ugly when it triggers conflicts between people and many times between friends. Through soccer, many Central American immigrants are able to release some of the frustration they have towards Mexicanization. Trying to maintain your identity and awareness of roots is one of the largest struggles that Central Americans face with the Mexican/Chicano Community. Soccer is much more than a sport to many people and cannot be taken lightly. Many use soccer as a distraction and a way to feel like they are a part of something so they can find their identity. Finding your identity is the beautiful part of life, but the feeling that Central American culture is being annihilated is a problem that many Central Americans face and it continues to have its affects on the creation of their identities. 

works cited

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