The 2024 Copa América beats with the hearts of migrants

They arrive three hours early, paint the stands the color of their country with their shirts and put together a rumba that shakes the solemnity of the stadiums in USA, whose citizens don’t appear much. The migrants are the heart of the Copa América 2024.

The Colombians turned the NRG Stadium in Texas yellow for their team’s debut, the Peruvians filled the Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas with red and white. The Venezuelans and their vinotinto filled the stands of the Sofi Stadium in California and the Mexicans, who almost play at home in the United States, also take over the stadiums.

“Thousands of compatriots who have arrived tell me: I come from Florida, I come from New York, from Atlanta, from everywhere. “Everything that unites a football game”says Alejandro Quintero, 48, a Colombian who has lived in North Carolina for three years.

“Although one is here in exile (…) these types of events help us to have hope”explains Alejandro, who requested asylum in the United States due to security issues in his country.

The United States, host of this tournament that brings together 10 teams from CONMEBOL and six from CONCACAF, faces and has faced different waves of migration in recent decades, mainly from Latin America. Those who arrived many years ago have children born in this territory who tend to preserve their traditions.

“I have been living in Houston for two years. We as Latin Americans add more excitement to the Copa America matches”considers Álex Angulo, 39 years old, Colombian, who lives in the United States with his wife and two children.

The population of Latin origin in the United States exceeded 63 million people in 2022, according to official figures (a 19% of the national total). Their purchasing power is growing at a faster rate than that of other communities, details a report from the NGO Latino Donor Collaborative.

According to a UCLA study released last year, if Latinos in the U.S. were a separate country, their GDP would be the fifth largest in the world, above the United Kingdom or France.

Stadium, party, food

Outside Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City, the Peruvians offered their famous cuisine, which soothed the spirits after being left out of the tournament.

Peruvian Lourdes Pino arrived in the United States in 2014, “looking for an opportunity to grow and prosper”. He lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, and traveled to both Arlington, Texas, and Kansas City to suffer alongside the red and white.

“Having the national team here has been one of the greatest emotions, I have postponed my work, my things,” says Lourdes, who works in the construction industry.

“In Portuguese we have a word, saudade, which is a mixture of nostalgia and love” And that’s what he feels when he watches his team, admits Brazilian Luiz Gustavo, 30, who arrived in the US two years ago and attended the game between the green and yellow team and Costa Rica in California.

And the locals?

Although Americans go to the stadium to support their team, soccer fanaticism is just growing.

“There is a lot left to do, it needs to grow MLS [Major Soccer League] because the great players are still in Europe, there are the biggest contracts”“That’s what we’re doing,” says Alex Beliz, an American soccer fan who watched the opening match of the Copa America (Argentina-Canada) from a bar in Los Angeles, California, where he lives.

César Vidrio, a 51-year-old Mexican locksmith, has spent half his life in the United States. “American soccer doesn’t have many fans, like Latin soccer does, where people believe much more in their national team,” he said.

For Jorge Ortiz, a Costa Rican who lives in Fontana, California, “We Latinos ‘effervesce’ more for football”. He welcomes the fact that stadiums have been chosen “more accessible” for migrants.

Latin engine

“The growth of the fans in recent years has been incredible and unparalleled in the history of football in this country. “This has a lot to do with the Latin community, which supports soccer as part of its culture,” MLS sporting director Alfonso Mondelo tells AFP.

“At least a third of the fans in the stadiums are of Latin origin. And the American fan sees that party atmosphere, that fun atmosphere, and wants to be a part of it too.””, he commented.

Mondelo said women’s soccer in the United States, with Olympic and world champions, also helped boost fan growth.

Lionel Messi, the Argentine star who now plays for Inter Miami, has also driven growth. “Many children in the future are going to get hooked on football and want to be ‘Messis’”Mondelo explained.

For the Beliz fan, “Messi transcends the boundaries of sport, he is like Michael Jordan. Maybe what soccer in this country needs is an American Messi.”

It may interest you

• Green cards for undocumented spouses of Americans: “A hope for many”
• Peru vs. Chile: the ten predictions that bookmakers pay the most
• The millionaire difference in the value of the Peruvian and Chilean squads: the most expensive players