This article provides a social history of the most prominent soccer clubs and leagues by people of Mexican descent in Chicago and Detroit between 1967 and 2002. It analyzes the impact of sport clubs and leisure activities in the formation of Mexican American communities. Based on oral history interviews and using concrete examples, the article proposes that soccer clubs have constituted a way to articulate recreational and leisure activities, gain access to public parks and facilities, and succeeded in creating a social place otherwise denied to Mexicanos in the Great Lakes by persistent patterns of segregation and discrimination. Sport clubs have also played a role in the formation of community leadership, the construction and affirmation of a Mexican identity based on the US experience, and the expression of civic and social needs.
Latino Studies (2004) 2, 352-376. doi:10.1057/palgrave.lst.8600098 |
