Presumed Entitled: Mexican Soccer and the Mexican Middle Class

This morning I woke up at 5am because I could not sleep any longer. I think I was excited to find out the result of Mexico’s soccer match against New Zealand. The game was played on the Kiwis’ home turf, so the game occurred live at midnight local time. My excitement came from the fact that this would be the final opportunity for the Mexican Men’s National Team to qualify for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

The Mexican team was playing the second of a two-game playoff to decide which of these national teams would advance to the finals next summer. Mexico has long been a soccer powerhouse in the North American region, qualifying easily at the top of the list of its competitors. The expectation at the beginning of the qualifying stage for the upcoming World Cup was no different. The Mexican Under-17 team won the World Cup for that age group in 2011 and in 2012 the Mexican Men beat Brazil with authority at the London Olympics, enabling them to bring home a gold medal. Given that some of the very same players who brought home these championships would be playing for Mexico in the lead up to the tournament for the ultimate soccer prize, hopes were justifiably high. But the team seemed to implode, scoring infrequently, losing numerous matches, and most notably for true fans, playing really ugly soccer; the game after all is known as the “beautiful game,” as just as much credit is given to teams who play artfully and tie or even lose, as is given to victors.

Mexico’s biggest soccer embarrassments this year related to the United States. First, they lost twice to the United States at Azteca Stadium, a location where the Mexican team had never lost before to ANY team. The embarrassment was compounded by several facts. The U.S. team has historically been very weak at soccer, although in the past 20 years, since the U.S. hosted the World Cup, the team has slowly but surely improved, giving many world soccer powers a run for their money. Within the past 10 years they emerged as Mexico’s main competitors in the North American soccer region, also known as CONCACAF. This rivalry, like many in soccer, had lots to do with politics and history off the field. Mexico has had to live in the shadow of the United States since half of its territory was taken during the Mexican-American War. Many Mexicans see its poverty, corruption, drug problems, and the outmigration of its citizens as more than a little bit related to American imperialism.  The one area where Mexico has been able to maintain supremacy has been on the soccer pitch; however, that all changed this year with the U.S. qualifying at the top of the region. And to add further insult, Mexico was all but eliminated from the tournament with a resounding loss to Costa Rica, and was only saved in the very last minutes by the fact that the Americans beat Panama. The U.S. win did not allow Mexico to qualify, but only to play New Zealand in the playoff for an at-large spot at the World Cup.

So, in the wee hours of the morning, before work and before the kids woke up, I watched as Mexico regained its footing, albeit against an opponent that had very little chance of winning. After a first game win of 5-1, Mexico won again with a score of 4-2, thus sending them to Brazil. In the post game analysis, one of the ESPN announcers noted that a big part of Mexico’s lackluster effort appeared to be psychological. Having tasted recent high profile victories, Mexico lost one of its greatest attributes: hard work.

Many of the players who played on the national team for most of the tournament were remarkable because they represented a truly elite level of play measured by their club teams. Mexican players usually play only in Mexico’s league. The Mexican Soccer League (La Liga MX) is one of the better leagues in the world, but it is not among the elite. The elite leagues include the English Premier League, Spain’s La Liga, and the Italian Serie A. These leagues pay in the tens of millions of dollars for the best players from around the world to play in their countries. Mexican players only recently have been represented at this level on sizable scale. The Mexican coach for most of the qualifying round understandably relied on these players as the backbone of his team. While these players had immense natural talent, they seemed to sleep on the field, indifferent and dispassionate to the reality that they were regularly losing. This ultimately cost the players a space on the roster and the two coaches who stood steadfastly by them their jobs.

The ESPN analyst said that the iteration of the team that existed prior to the New Zealand matches surely had skill, but suffered from what he called, “entitlement.” They thought that they didn’t have to work to get to the finals. They had become accustomed to being winners and no longer had the hunger to strive or struggle.

In Spanish, a term that is used to characterize the affluent is “presumido,” which literally means presumed. More figuratively it means arrogant or conceited. But, to presume that one is great before having put in the work is fitting here.

It is interesting to me that this recent success has had a paradoxical effect. The soccer team also seems to be a microcosm of Mexican society as a whole. The use of soccer as a metaphor for a country’s collective character and identity is not new; just this Saturday the New York Times profiled prominent Mexican author, Juan Villoro, who is known for using soccer as a metaphor to explain Mexico. The New York Times then ran a piece on Tuesday that focused on Mexico’s emerging, yet fragile middle class. This topic has been in the news quite a bit over the past year. It runs counter to the long-held narrative that Mexico is a completely poor, third world country; rather, now it is truly an emerging economy. But much like its soccer team, there are paradoxical effects, such as increased obesity, a sense of anomie and despair, and quite frankly some frivolous laziness, as was seen in the hit film about a Mexican upper class family, “We are the Nobles.” In that film a self-made father tricks his insolent children into getting jobs, so they can reconnect with the value of self-reliance and work. I hope that Mexico will take this lesson to heart if it is ever to achieve the greatness that seems to always elude it. But based on a recent trip to Mexico, I fear that classism and arrogance may rise, for I witnessed it firsthand, and Mexico will only have achieved a devil’s bargain.

Learning How to Die Through Education

In October 2002, public intellectual, philosophy professor, and activist, Cornel West made his public return to Harvard University after a feud with the then president of Harvard, Larry Summers. Summers had accused West of weak scholarship and strongly suggested in a one on one meeting that he be a more productive scholar. This type of admonition might not be unusual for a colleague or a chair to give to a newly minted Ph.D. at the assistant professor rank; however, West was a University Professor at Harvard, the highest possible rank one could achieve as a faculty member there. He had also published numerous academic books on the serious scholarly topics of philosophy, religion, politics, and race. Summers seemed to believe that West’s forays into rap and poetry, as well as his numerous media appearances (and acting in two of The Matrix films), belittled his, and by extension Harvard’s, esteem in the academy. West did not see it that way. He believed that he had rightfully earned the respect of the highest levels of academia, and had shaped entire fields, particularly African American studies, and that he would now turn to spreading his intellectual gospel to the public, rather than keeping knowledge in the isolated tower of the university. West, rather than endure what he perceived to be an insult and lack of respect that would likely be ongoing during Summer’s tenure, decided to leave for a professorship at Princeton. This October evening in 2002 would be his defiant return, arranged by Harvard colleagues, and I happened to have the good fortune of being present.

The occasion for his return was the monthly “Saturday School” at Harvard Law School. Harvard Law Professor, Charles Ogletree, who is African American, started the Saturday School years before. Law students of color sought Mr. Ogletree out for mentorship and solace at a time when the student body and curriculum of Harvard Law School, and pretty much any law school, for that matter, did not represent the diversity of the country at the time; in other words, there were virtually no black folk to be found in the classrooms or the texts. In an effort to provide solace, camaraderie, and enriching knowledge that celebrated the contributions of minority scholars, Ogletree held these regular Saturday meetings. They eventually became institutionalized and supported by the institution, but they nonetheless maintained their radical flair. The main speaker on this Saturday was Cornel West.

The Saturday School had grown enormously over the years. On this particular night there was much anticipation and an overflowing crowd in one of Harvard Law School’s lecture halls buzzed with anticipation of the return of Professor West. There were easily 200 people crammed into a space not meant to accommodate that many, with people lining the walls and the aisles. When West entered the room from the rear, climbing over people in the aisles, giving high fives and shaking students’ hands along the way, the excitement in the crowd rose and then descended into a dramatic hush as Professor West approached the podium. West spoke in poetic verse, as if he were preaching on a Sunday morning. His tone descended and rose as he emphasized his points. About five minutes into his talk, he began to get very quiet as he meditated on the purpose of education and learning. With emphasis he then said, “Education is learning how to die. It is a setting loose, a giving up.” This is a thought that has strongly resonated with me to this day. That evening and that thought in particular is a very fond memory I have of my time in Massachusetts.

Having been through a great deal of formal education, I sometimes feel that I have died a thousand times. Coming from a Mexican immigrant family with parents who had high school degrees, who had limited familiarity with American colleges, who while middle class in income, were still pretty working class in their trades, a hairdresser and phone repair supervisor, university life was a bit different from the intellectual life I had at home.  Pierre Bourdieu, a French sociologist, reflected on his own working class roots in Southern France and the acculturation process he had to go through as a student at the University of Paris. A brilliant scholar, he likely was intellectually equal if not superior to his classmates, yet he struggled at times because he did not possess the insider knowledge, values and practices that were the implicit currency of the most favored students. He termed this knowledge of how to be, of what to value, and how it is tied to status, power, and perceived intelligence, as much as raw individual abilities, "cultural capital." In other words, knowing the secret rules of the game can help you win, even if you are not a naturally good player. Cultural capital along with social capital, the social connections that generate status and power (who you know, not what you know), dictate a lot of success in life. We could probably easily point to more than a few politicians with limited individual intelligence, but who know the rules and have the social connections that have taken them to the highest levels.

There are rules of the game that students need to learn. It does not mean that they are rules that work well for all games or that this particular game is better than other games. To speak directly to culture, no particular culture is better than another, necessarily, but in certain contexts, it is good to know the particular practices of the culture you are in. When in Rome, do as the Romans.

Some misinterpret this though. They take it to mean that a culture that is useful in a certain context is useful in all contexts. Basically, one culture is better than others. And those who believe this have taken this idea to a logical extreme. If one culture is best, then the other cultures are pretty useless. One notable person who made that argument is Richard Rodriguez in his memoir on his own education, “Hunger of Memory.” In that book Rodriguez argues that language minority children should discard their native tongues, or at best hide them, kept at home in private. This is the only place they are useful, communicating with the otherwise useless and ignorant ways of family.

This is point that I certainly don’t agree with, although I must admit at times that it seemed easier to just join the crowd and never look back. And the pull to give up one's own culture is strong in the United States. One must be conscientious about maintaing culture in the face of a school system that typically does not value diversity in its curriculum, in its staff, or in the way that it allocates resources. Being intentional about maintaining culture thus means going against the institutional tide, which is hard.

But, a recent article in Inside Higher Education notes that knowing the dominant culture relates to success in college. So, why would we not give that powerful knowledge to students? They may gain a lot. But, the fear is probably about what they might lose.

There is much to be lost in terms of family connections, traditions, wisdom and knowledge by giving up one culture for another. But there is a danger in reifying what we are familiar with as well. Coming from an immigrant family and having spoken with hundreds of children in immigrant families, especially Mexican, one of the most frequent admonitions I hear parents tell their children is “don’t be like me.” They say to aspire to something better, something different, something more. Isn’t that the nature of being an immigrant? To move? To change? And likewise, isn’t that the nature of education? To move beyond the past self. To die and be reborn anew.

Talent More Important than Looks? Not if You're Latina

“Naya Rivera Sizzles On Rolling Stone Flip Cover Featuring The Latin Hot List 2013” blared the headline on the Huffington Post’s "Latino Voices" section, followed by the lead “Naya Rivera is hot - if you had any doubts just check out the latest issue of Rolling Stone.”  Both the Rolling Stone cover story and the HuffPost’s coverage of it seem aimed at celebrating Rivera’s success borne from her singing talents.  Unfortunately, neither accomplishes this and it is bad for Hispanic and Latino women.


For those unfamiliar with her, Rivera is one of the many stars of the Fox network's dramedy/musical “Glee,” which centers on the lives of current and former members of a high school glee club.  Rivera portrays Santana, a former cheerleader, glee club member, mean girl starting her post-high school life in New York City with other former classmates.  Rivera’s success on “Glee” has enabled her to start the musical recording career that Rolling Stone seems to want to discuss.

Yet, the talent most on display that HuffPost celebrates is Rivera’s ability to dress scantily and pose provocatively, noting, “The 26-year-old strikes a seductive pose as the queen of Rolling Stone’s Latin Hot List…”

Image from Rolling Stone
available at
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/naya-rivera-leads-rolling-stones-latin-hot-list-2013-20131106

This is sad state of affairs for Hispanic and Latino female artists, one that does not seemed to have improved much during the past 30 to 40 years.  Linda Ronstadt, for example, famously has complained about her portrayal on the cover of Time magazine in 1977.  Ronstadt was the most famous and the highest paid woman in rock-and-roll during the 1970s, yet the Time cover seemed concerned only with the seductive image Ronstadt could project under the headline “Torchy Rock.”

Time, 28 February 1977
available at
http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19770228,00.html

That the music and magazine industries have done little to in the way of celebrating Hispanic and Latino female artists for their talents instead of their looks is shameful.  That these industry’s business structures compel women to think they need to use their looks to attract attention to their careers is equally so.  It has been over 30 years since Ronstadt's appearance on the cover of time.  Will it take still another 30 years before the conditions change?

Rise Up and Sing Mexico

This weekend I saw the Mexican band Cafe Tacuba, here in the Mexican capital of the Midwest, Chicago. It is a band I have long loved and it was my second time seeing them, the first being over a decade ago at Slim's in San Francisco.

About 18 years ago while in college I discovered the band. While going through a bit of discovery around my ethnic identity, embracing my Latinidad and Mexicanidad—I still feel strongly for both and for my American-ness, too—and also while going through a very rough break-up, a friend who lived in the residence hall next to mine suggested that the drama I was experiencing reminded her of Café Tacuba’s song, Esa Noche.

The song tells of love lost, but how ironically enough, as you lose your love you find a new one, and just as the old love returns realizing what she had given up, you find that you have moved on.  The song ends on an ambiguous note because it is not clear whether the newfound love is actually a person or whether it is loneliness and solitude that the singer has embraced.

The band Café Tacuba, started in the late 80s as Mexico slowly emerged from financial crisis, is itself a band of ambiguity: from its androgynous lead singer, and his lovingly insulting identity-Pinche Juan (Fucking Juan-among other names that Rubén Isaac Albarrán Ortega has gone by such as Cosmé and Anonymous), its mixture of genres and eras in music, to its embracing of both street culture and slang and high poetry.

There is a whole list of bands from Mexico that are simultaneously modern and traditional. Distinctively Mexican (rancheras, cumbia, mariachi), hip hop, metal, and rock and roll all at once: Lila Downs, Julieta Venegas, Café Tacuba, Rodrigo and Gabriela, to name just a few.

To me this mixture can be seen on other parts of Mexican culture. Daniel Hernandez, the editor of the Mexico City edition of the fashion, art, and music magazine, Vice, describes in great detail the raging Mexican cultural evolution in his book about youth in Mexico, “Down and Delirious in Mexico City.” He describes a fashion scene that rivals Paris, tribes of urban youth with creativity that rivals youth in Los Angeles and New York City, and how this explosion of cultural production is related to Mexico’s struggle to break through into the first world with its growing middle class.

One of the best chapters in the book is about Emo culture. Emos can roughly be described as somewhat effeminate, depressed, youth who perform their emotions through their clothes and taking over of public spaces where other youth hang out such as plazas and malls. There is a strong reaction against them, to the point that they are attacked and beaten. Hernandez struggles to figure out what this reaction is about. He concludes that it is that much of who they are is self-centered and superficial; they are suburban and middle-class, and while they are described as a tribe of their own, there is not much that unifies them at all other than their own existential angst about the banal. Other groups who define themselves more substantively deride them for this shallow attempt at trying to occupy a social space in Mexico. Other groups see them as insincere, as standing for nothing, as copying the styles of others without truly understanding the underlying meaning of those styles. What Hernandez notes most of all is that Emos seem to be representing the emptiness that often comes after all of your basic needs are met—he has a bit of an epiphany when he realizes that many of these youth come from middle class homes and are dropped off at the Zócalo in cars or that they hang out at affluent malls.

Mexicans love their suffering. It is integral to their identity. They rightfully own this privilege as they have long had much to suffer about. They certainly still do, as we saw a weekend where teachers have protested the capitalistic reforms that the government is imposing on schools, a year where students from upper-middle class backgrounds have demonstrated against government corruption and rigged politics in the “Yo Soy 132” movement, where the return of the PRI makes one wonder if the country will ever be able to move to a more democratic system, to the continued drug violence that has ensnarled parts of the country for nearly a decade.

That said, Mexico has experienced steady economic growth for several years now, despite the larger downturn worldwide. It has slowed as of late, but it is healthy nonetheless. But there is the ever-present worry of moving backward, and perhaps even scarier is the worry of moving forward into the unknown. This is especially true when that future has its own set of downsides. Suddenly having money, or democracy, or “high art” may seem glamorous, but it comes with a fight to find meaning and purpose or to be faced with no meaning at all.

The crowd at the concert was interesting because it represented many sides of Mexico. There were recent immigrants wearing cowboy boots and leather belts, women with strong indigenous features wearing mini-skirts and high heels, incongruent with what is typically worn at a rock concert. There were children as young as five and some pre-teens there with their parents (at a concert taking place at 9pm on a Friday). There were hipsters with ear gauges, piercings and tattoos, some who appeared and sounded like they had only recently arrived from Mexico and others who spoke only English.  I can only imagine the various social classes from where people came, paying for $50 tickets and $7 beers, for some just another night out, for others their only night out this year.

It was really unclear for a moment what the individuals in this motley crew had in common. But then the music blared-a techno march, a polka, in Spanish, in Chicago, and the crowd heaved up in down, in unison, sweaty, all Mexican, and something yet to be determined. Like the song, love was lost, and a new one has been found, but it is lonely and unknown.

"Mi Soledad siempre he pertenecido a ti
Ay Soledad! siempre he pertenecido a ti"

Que Viva.

Mexico vs. United States Tonight: It Doesn't Matter Whose Side You're On, They Are Almost the Same Team

Tonight is a critical World Cup qualifying match for both the United States and Mexican men’s national teams. They are meeting up in Columbus, Ohio, where the United States team has been undefeated in international play. This is not a guarantee of victory as just a year ago Mexico lost for the first time ever at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City-to the United States. With the possibility of missing out on the 2014 World Cup in Brazil after recent losses by both squads, the stakes will be high and the play should be intense.

While soccer teams typically field 11 players per side, there may actually be as many as 13 or 14 Mexican nationals on the field at some points during the game. This is because there are five players of Mexican-descent on the United States team and several of them have dual citizenship. One of the players, Edgar Castillo (Puebla), even played for the Under 23 national team of Mexico from 2007 to 2008. Due to the fact that he never played at the senior level he was able to switch to the United States team in 2009 according to the rules of the international soccer governing body, FIFA.

Omar Gonzalez (LA Galaxy), Michael Orozco (Puebla), Joe Corona (Club Tijuana), and Jose Torres (Tigres) comprise the other Mexican-descent players on the 23-man U.S. roster. Together they represent 22% of the U.S. team, much higher than the proportion of Mexican-descent individuals in the U.S., which is just over 10%. This is not that surprising given that the U.S. has long struggled to make soccer catch on among the mainstream public and that Mexican immigrants to the U.S. bring with them the passion of their country’s most popular sport.

What is really surprising is that the addition of Latino and specifically Mexican players to the U.S. Men’s National Team is only a fairly recent development. Not too long ago, the great U.S. forward Clint Dempsey, was the closest we could get to Mexican roots on the U.S. team. His claim to fame was that he grew up in Texas and learned his style of attacking soccer playing with his mostly Mexican peers in leagues created and dominated by that ethnic group. While many of these players were never recognized beyond their local leagues, Clint had the good fortune of also playing on an organized traveling team in Dallas, which was how he was recruited to college and eventually recognized by the National Team scouts.

Except for the training in less recognized Mexican leagues, Dempsey’s ascent has been the typical route for United States soccer players. This summer I had a conversation about this with my uncle, who coaches a pretty successful high school soccer team in a largely immigrant and working class Chicago suburb that is predominantly Mexican. He lamented that despite being only a few hundred feet from where a Major League Soccer team plays, a team that sometimes actually used the high school field for practice, the coaches and scouts failed to recognize the immense talent of his players.

My uncle explained that rather than look at the high school level for talent, or even younger, scouts followed the same model of player development that we see in basketball and football: colleges are the de facto minor leagues and recruiting sites for players. The problem with this is that many Latino players who may not be college bound are overlooked. Their careers reach a glass ceiling in Sunday leagues as they work in blue-collar jobs.

In the United States, soccer has long been a game of the elite, played at prep schools and more recently in highly organized and expensive suburban leagues with a mostly white demographic. This gave rise to the idea of the soccer mom, a highly invested parent who has the abundant resources to invest in the recreation of her children. While the financial and time resources of soccer parents are high, what they do not have much of is a deep understanding of soccer and an appreciation for the artistry and creativity in the game.

For these children, soccer may lead to an athletic scholarship at a reputable university, but more than anything it serves as a way to a free education rather than athletic development as it does in NCAA football and basketball. So, these players move into white-collar jobs debt free, seeing this as their path to prosperity rather than through professional sports. Without a powerful domestic professional league to jump into, it is no wonder that they don’t operate as basketball and football players do. Not that they should, as that model is fraught with problems of exploiting the status of “amateur” students to make money for the university. But there are other ways.

A possibility is to emulate the developmental leagues in Europe and Latin America, where children as young as 9 and 10 play on teams sponsored by professional teams with the idea that talent will be recognized early and youth will be trained into future superstars. These youth teams scout each other and offer paths to the most elite leagues in the world. Lionel Messi of Argentina was recognized this way by Barcelona as an eleven year old. In fact, the MLS has begun to take this very approach.

It sometimes takes a more concerted approach and a strong and wise leader to take advantage of this new infrastructure. The United States seems to have this in Jurgen Klinsmann, the former German soccer superstar and current coach of the National Team. He has noted that he would really like to develop a unique homegrown American style of soccer and that a big part of that is looking to some of the greatest American young soccer talent, Latinos.

Some, like former National Team player Alexi Lalas, have suggested that American (white) players would be excluded with such an approach, but he seems to be missing the point about just who is an American. Focusing on bringing up Latinos may be just what the United States needs to truly develop an American style. And for those Mexican-descent children who find that they may have been looked over in their, they can still have a chance for soccer glory south of the border-it may be just the remedy that Mexican soccer needs as well. And they may already be on this path; they have two American-born players on their squad in Carlos Salcido and Isaac Brizuela. It may not matter who you cheer for at all tonight.

Who is Anthony Calvillo? Latinos in Canada, Mexicans and American Football, The Toughest Chicanos and our Latino Brett Favre

Yesterday Chicago sports fans welcomed the beginning of the new football season for the Chicago Bears. There was an uncharacteristic quiet anticipation to this season in Chicago. 

At the end of last season, we lost one of the winningest coaches in the franchise's history, Lovie Smith, only one of two coaches to have taken the Bears to the Super Bowl. He was also the first African American to ever reach the Super Bowl (by a matter of hours, his friend and former roommate Tony Dungy joined him for that Super Bowl). The Bears then lost their franchise linebacker, Brian Urlacher, who was part of the 2005 Super Bowl team and had played his entire 12-year career with the Bears, being voted to the Pro-Bowl eight times. With these huge changes, Bears fans really did not know what to expect, and likely thought that this year would be lost as a re-building year.

Adding to the air of uncertainty was the unconventional choice of Marc Trestman, the head coach of the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League as the new head coach of the Bears. Trestman won two Grey Cups as coach in the CFL, the equivalent of the Super Bowl. He had a successful career as an offensive coach in the NFL with several teams prior to moving to Canada. Trestman, who was a defensive end as a player, earned a chance at two Viking training camps, but never played in the NFL. So, it seemed that his history was one of always being in the shadows or behind the scenes. Despite his CFL success, not many people saw the experience as equivalent to the NFL and thus held out little hope here in Chicago.

It was a nice surprise then that the Bears held steady, and while not playing spectacular football, they played reasonably well on all sides of the ball and pulled out a clear win, exploiting some mistakes by the competitive Cincinnati Bengals.

In the midst of the broadcast one of the announcers began to flesh out Trestman's credentials and his reputation in Canada as an offensive mastermind. As one current Bear noted, the players are in respect and awe of him and see him as something of a genius. The announcer noted that Trestman arranged a meeting between his quarterback at Montreal, Anthony Calvillo, and Bears quarterback Jay Cutler, so Cutler could learn more about how to work with the offense of his new coach.

The name Calvillo (Kal-vee-yo) piqued my interest with the announcer's Spanish pronunciation. It turns out that Calvillo is one of the greatest, if not the greatest quarterback in CFL history. Some of his impressive accomplishments include:

• Most career passing yards (78,494)
• Most career touchdown passes (449)
• Most career pass completions (5777)
• Most career pass attempts (9241)
• Most career passing yards in Grey Cup games (2470 yards)
• Most completions in regular season game (44)

These incredible records compete with the records of some of the NFL's greats including Brett Favre who passed for 71,838 yards and threw 508 touchdown passes in his career. It made me wonder more about his background.

As it turns out, he is Mexican American and from Los Angeles. With marginal grades in high school, he was only able to attend community college at Mt. San Antonio Junior College for two years. He transferred to Utah State University in 1992 where he had a remarkable senior year as the starting quarterback. Despite this he was not drafted by the NFL and instead went to Canada where he amassed his amazing record. A few years ago, the L.A. Times did a piece that showed how easily we forget our own, even when they accomplish great things. Calvillo's own mother almost had to beg them to do the piece, despite his greatness.

Apparently, even I suffer from such Mexican amnesia. Reading about Calvillo left me wondering why we don't have more Latinos or more specifically Mexicans in the NFL. We had the famous Zendejas brothers, but they were all kickers, not the most surprising place for Mexican immigrants in the NFL, whose first love was probably soccer. But, why not more Mexican-descent players taking the center stage on the gridiron?

Well, a quick Google search jogged my memory and I did not have to look very far for Mexican Americans in the NFL. Most recently we had Mark Sanchez, also Mexican-American from Southern California, who has quickly receded this year because of an injury. Given the excellent performance of his replacement, it may be a while before he sees playing time again with the Jets. 

But the list is much larger than this. Some more obvious and recent examples include Jeff Garcia and Tony Romo. Unfortunately, both of these QBs have had inconsistent careers. There have been some real greats, however, that people often forget have Mexican heritage. Jim Plunkett, a two-time Super Bowl winner and MVP and Heisman recipient was also of Mexican-descent, despite his unique last name.

And, he was not the only Mexican-American to play in a Super Bowl, Joe Kapp, who led the Minnesota Vikings to Super Bowl IV was heralded on a Sports Illustrated cover as "The Toughest Chicano." 

So, it turns out that there is a rich history of Mexican Americans serving as the general on the offensive side of the ball in football. Perhaps at a park in Boyle Heights or Pilsen or East Harlem, the next great arm is getting ready.

Oigan Padres! Manden a sus hijos a escuela preescolar en Pilsen!

In a previous post I wrote about how many Latinos do not send their children to pre-school. The interesting findings about this are that Latino children are much better behaved than their non-Latino peers. Spending a lot of time in their mothers' care leads to better social behavior, such as obedience, delayed gratification, and calmness. The downside is that children miss out on the formal education related to reading and writing that are highly valued in U.S. society. By the time kindergarten arrives Latino children find themselves already at an academic disadvantage compared to their non-Latino peers. Add to this that they may not speak English and the gap between them and other groups becomes larger and only grows over time in terms of performance on standardized tests and ultimately graduation rates from high school.

Because cultural values around close family ties and a bit of a suspicion of formal institutions, Latino parents, especially Mexican-descent ones may be inadvertently putting their children at an educational disadvantage.

So, it was no surprise when this morning I read a post on Facebook that stated that Orozco Academy, a public school in the predominantly Mexican Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago first fought to bring free public pre-school to the neighborhood, but is now struggling to meet enrollment goals. If these goals are not met, the pre-school is in danger of being closed.

I sometimes struggle with whether I am being paternalistic, so I can sometimes shy away from outright advocacy, but a simple reality is that while sending kids to pre-school may not be part of the cultural script of Latinos, there is a pressing need to alter that script slightly. In other words, just because Latinos may be leery of sending their pre-school age kids to be cared for outside the home, that does not mean that Latino parents would not be willing to change some of their attitudes if the care was done in a culturally sensitive way and if they saw the significance.

I can vouch for Orozco in that it is a dual language school where both Mexican and U.S. culture and language are celebrated. With a sizable Latino staff and a Latina principal, there is little doubt in my mind about its quality and attention to cultural sensitivity.

And, while Latino parents value togetherness, they also value the dream of saliendo adelante, or getting ahead, a big reason they came to the U.S. in the first place. Understood this way, sending their kids to pre-school will be an important first step on that path.

Here are the details I obtained via the Pilsen Portal Facebook page if you or someone you know is interested in enrolling their child:

Orozco Acadamy is looking for families to participate in their preschool program or CPS will close the service!

Orozco opened up a preschool classroom this year and needs help recruiting families and students into our program. The program runs for three hours (8-11 and 12-3:00) and 95% of instruction in the morning is done solely in Spanish and a mix of Spanish and English in the afternoon. Students will also be able to test into the bilingual gifted program for kindergarten, which is housed at Orozco.

There is open registration at the school Monday-Friday 8:30-2:30. Parents will need to bring their child's birth certificate, proof of income, and two proofs of residency. Families do not need to live in Pilsen but do have to reside within the city of chicago.

To register, go to Orozco Academy 1940 W 18th St Chicago, IL 60608.

New Year, Same Dangers

During recent weeks, millions of children returned to school to start a new academic year.  Unfortunately, this early into the new school year, we already have another report of a gunman entering a school threatening students and educators while making parents and the community at large worried and anxious.  The recent event in Georgia thankfully ended without any fatalities, which l presume is one reason why we did not witness the point-counterpoint ranting in the national media about gun control that developed in the wake of the Aurora theater shootings, the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings, or other similar headline-making events.  Regrettably, it takes a single massive loss of life for gun violence to enter the national consciousness.  In this way, sadly, loss is relative.  Nevertheless, gun violence in Chicago – which has become an all too regular way of life – is an important local issue with greater significance at the start of this school year.  The recent shooting of five people brings this into sharp relief.

Over the summer, Mayor Rahm Emanuel pushed through his plan to close 50 Chicago Public Schools, arguing that it was necessary in order to, among other things, save money on underutilized schools and have students in so-called failing schools attend quote-unquote better schools.  Emanuel further aimed to ease parental and communal concerns of how the school closings jeopardized the safety students who had been displaced from their traditional neighborhood school and now had to cross boundaries claimed by rival gangs in some of the city’s more dangerous neighborhoods.  The Safe Passage program deploys police and fire department personnel augmented with recently hired part-time city employees to intersections along the routes students travel, escorting them to and from school.

Image from The Chicago Tribune, August 08, 2013; available at
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-08-08/news/ct-met-cps-safe-passage-20130808_1_safe-passage-program-elementary-schools-cps

A shooting along one of these Safe Passage routes, however, calls the entire enterprise into question.  On August 19^th – on the eve of the first day of school - five people were shot in front of the Uptown Baptist Church, with one victim later dying from his wounds.  While early reports described the incident with the catch-all label of “gang related,” it now seems that the victims were innocent bystanders, participants in some of the Church’s outreach programs for the homeless.

Now with the first weeks of school behind us, Chicago Police Commissioner Garry McCarthy calls Safe Passage a success.  Still, two interrelated questions linger.  These are: how long before another shooting of innocents along a Safe Passage route occurs, particularly when asking how long can Safe Passage survive.  Even now, stories are emerging of Safe Passage personnel abandoning their posts or out rightly quitting.

I have written before that schools should be welcoming environments in which students feel safe, but a safety not created through militaristic elements or authoritarian practices.  I wonder, however, what hope is there for school children to feel safe in school when they cannot feel safe on the way to school?