Loyalty: I have never played soccer. I always knew it was a part of my heritage, a part of my Hispanic background, was Mexico's soccer team the best in the world? Far from it, Mexico's national team has not won a World Cup and barely won any serious trophies outside of the World Cup. This is not what makes it so important to my heritage and Mexican heritage as a whole, the thing that makes soccer so important to Hispanics is loyalty. Our loyalty to our team that can't even pass the knockout stage is so strong and as a kid I didn't get to experience that type of loyalty to anything sports related. I grew up doing pretty much nothing. I went to school and went back home and had no passion for anything. I always felt like I was missing something. Then after about 5 years I saw my first soccer game on TV.. Everyone was talking about Mexico playing in the World Cup. I was of course lost i didn't know much of what was happening i walked into the room it was a bit chilly as it started in december so i walked in i smelled food my mom was making in the kitchen and i looked at the tv and i felt nothing but excitement and thrill and joy. I understood the game in under 3 minutes and I knew what I would end up enjoying for hopefully my whole …show more content…
Was I the best at the start? No, I was pretty trashy. But it was fun and I wanted to learn more. I knew I could learn and play better. Then my mom saw a flier to join a soccer team and my mom asked me “do you wanna join this?” and my sister also said “it's a good idea, I know you're new to the sport but you should try it” and I decided to try and see how it went. It went well for me. I enjoyed it. I remember stepping on the field. It was a bit chilly in January so it was a bit cold since it was December a month ago, but despite the goosebumps on my arm and the cold winds and the nervousness in my mind I went and played
From the United States to Hispanic countries like Spain, the countries share their love for the same sports even though they are oceans apart. While they have their similar interests, sports interests differ in each of the countries as well. Without sports in the world, our cultures we know and love would be completely different and dull. They help shape our cultures and the people within them. Sports like soccer, football, and baseball are sports that we know and love in Hispanic and American countries. We all know what they are, but the way they are played, their histories, and our passions for these sports differ and correspond.
Playing soccer has also brought my family closer together. Both my parents and my sisters would come to all my games and support me. No matter the outcome of the game my family was always there for me. My family has been at my important games and the games that I am not so proud of. Even though they have seen the worst of the sport I still love having them watching me play. They have been the reason I have never given up. And I love making them proud. In the past year, my travel team folded and I thought that I would never have another team to play on. It was very upsetting knowing that I would not be playing with the same girls that I have played with my entire life. Yet, I joined an intramural team and started playing again. I played on a co-ed team for two more years before I graduated high school. On the intramural tea...
I played soccer since I was seven, as of the last few years I played at a very high level. I have represented Ohio South two times at a regional showcase, I have been invited to participate in a camp in Manchester, England and attended the camp twice. Also last Season for the Newark High School soccer team I was named first team all league and third team all central district. Soccer was the first sport I truly loved to do, I wanted to be the best. I work hours upon hours to master whatever part of the game I wanted to improve on. Soccer has taught me to have a great work ethic, and that mentality came when I was cut from the state team the first time I tried out. It was the worst thing that has ever happened to me, I was destroyed, and I thought I was not good but I knew I could do better. The next year I worked, I got bigger, stronger, faster, my soccer I.Q. was higher;therefore, overall I was a much better player. The result of that work, was that I made the team, but not only, I made the starting line up. After that I knew I could accomplish anything I put my mind to.
When the league formed there were hardly any foreign players even from Mexico. In the next couple years as it gained popularity players started coming from Mexico. This opened the door for players from all around the world to start coming in and playing soccer here. As of today there are currently 66 different countries represented by players on MLS rosters. This would have been unthinkable when the league first came to be. 60% of the athletes in the MLS are American born players and of that percentage 14% are of a Chicano background (Hispanic Market part of DNA of MLS, 2009). Which is the second largest group of foreign players in the MLS, second only to Canada and there are two MLS teams in Canada. This is something recruiters from the league are starting to lean towards when selecting upcoming talent to fill their rosters. They would much rather have people who were raised watching and playing soccer from a very early age than people who enjoy soccer but aren’t as fully devoted to it as a lot of Chicano people are. This leads them to have a drive and desire to succeed here because their love for the game and wanting to play it at any cost. That spirit and work ethic can be seen from many Chicano people as they strive to better their lives and the lives of their
While I was in high school, I joined the soccer team. There were 15 girls in a team. There were three girls, whose last name was Lepcha. Who think that they play better soccer then everybody in a team and they do play well but not good as they thought they were. They had started playing soccer for one or two years ago. There were two other girls, whose name was Sabina and Dilu. They were my best friends. My one friend Sabina had played soccer for quite long and she played well but she did not have an attitude as Lepcha did. My second friend was Dilu; she was not that good at soccer. It was her first time playing soccer just like me. I do not know other people who were on a soccer team but the one thing I know about them was that it was their
It all started on a warm spring day. I went to soccer practice after school just like I do everyday, but today was going to be special I could just feel it. I went up to the fields behind Gardens Elementary where we play soccer for MYSA. There I met my coach and some of my teammates. We all started to warm up. Once we had been warming up for so long my teammates got
I never realized a sport that you never saw yourself playing could have such a large impact on your life. In my life, soccer was that sport. I grew up believing the same thing that everyone who has never played the sport does. It is a “sissy” sport. I was wrong. My freshman year of high school was the beginning. Sophomore year made me realize what a team was. My junior year brought the hardest times, and finally, senior year made me understand what it was all about.
Futbol, (or soccer, as we call it in the U.S.), is a highly popular sport in not only Mexico, but Hispanic culture. In 1967, two professional soccer leagues were established in the U.S., and since then, soccer has became more and more popular. Mexican culture has also influenced American culture by encouraging young, American adults to learn Spanish. According to a recent survey, Spanish is the second most used language in the United States; currently in the U.S., there are far more than 40 million Americans who can speak Spanish. Trading with Mexico has not only persuaded Americans to learn Spanish, but has helped the learning process as well.
For them being Mexican is a source of great pride, they are proud of their country and they love where they come from. I was born in the US they felt I was too Americanized, they urged me to accept my heritage but I was young and confused. My family helped me see how rich my culture was during my trip to Mexico. As I sat there with my extended family, laughing about the stories about my parents back when they were my age, I saw that by not embracing my culture, I was also not embracing my family. My parents taught these values to me, just like they were taught in their youth. My values are a very defining part of my personality, they help me decipher from what is right and what is wrong. They teach me what it means to be a person who not only is proud of their culture but also has a good system of
In the poem, “The White Man’s Burden”, by Rudyard Kipling, there are many attributes tied to the theme “stranger in the village”. Strangers who came into a new land were often initially seen as dangerous. Kipling portrayed this early on in his poem by depicting these people as “half devil and half child” (Kipling 8). These people were so used to what they defined as “normal” that they saw anyone else as another form of life.
Public complains event: When I was child, my family used to support a soccer team which I was not sure why they choose this specific team. I chose to support the same team that they supported. I didn't want to go against them and support another team because that might have caused a conflict between us. At the same time I was not sure if this was a good team to support or not as far as my family is good I goo with that. To be liked and close to my family or my group was all that mattered whether they were right or wrong I just was not able to be different.
They also provide opportunities for recognizing and displaying common traits as well as marking boundaries and reinforcing distinctiveness from others. Participation in sports, namely soccer, “helps immigrants retain a symbolic connection with their former ways of life and with their communities of origin, as well as shapes group identity, integrates the immigrant community, and maintains, revives, and sometimes invents “traditional” customs” (Stodolska). Soccer is more than a leisure activity: it is a cultural activity that provides to young players not only a link to “their past life or their parents’ past life and country, but it also helps to serve as a form of integration into a new and foreign culture”
I started playing soccer at age five, at a time when my coach used to repeat the jingle that “if you had fun, you won...and in the end, it’s all about the snacks.” Soccer has since turned into one of the lenses through which I experience the world, quite literally. I’ve taken two, three-week international summer trips with my club team to compete in the massive 1600 team, 80 nation Gothia Cup tournament, in Gothenburg, Sweden. After duking it out on the field with soccer players from all over the world, we’d return to the local schools that served as dormitories to live with these same kids, playing cards and exchanging T-shirts. During my other trips to China, Mexico, Turkey and Greece, pickup soccer was my primary way of interacting with
It was a cold wet gloomy day in the soccer season. It had began to rain as everyone was walking to their position on the wet soggy field. The coaches picked 2 captains to go to the ref and pick whether we were going down field or up field. After a few short moments are captains came back and said we were going down field. Most of the team jumped in the air with joy. Going down hill was an advantage.
When you grow up in a Hispanic family that all grew up playing soccer, it's hard to not get dragged along the train. That’s why I consider it cultural. Next on my list is money, who doesn’t like money right? It’s like a blessing to me.