By Ed White and Ian Ransom
LOS ANGELES/SAN JOSE, California, June 25 (Reuters) – There weren’t any whoops of joy among the crowd in the Fuegos Argentine restaurant in Los Angeles when Brazil scored in their 3-0 World Cup win over Haiti.
In fact, French-speaking Haiti were finding more support last Friday night from proudly Argentine customers.
“It is hard for us” to cheer for Brazil, one told Reuters.
“We like them, but football is different.”
Up and down the Californian West Coast, Latin American rivalries are simmering as millions of fans find their emotions pulled high and knocked low by the World Cup.
About 40% of the state’s population is Latino, with 5 million in Los Angeles County alone, but the proportion is higher in a number of districts where a mix of Mexican, Central American, South American and Caribbean communities weave a rich tapestry.
Relations between the nine Latin American nations competing at the 48-team World Cup vary with shifting political ideologies and historical grudges.
A shared obsession with soccer unites them, though, at least until their teams square off.
“(There’s) a lot of Latinos here and we all love football,” San Mateo resident Pedro Jr. Rodriguez Flores told Reuters at the San Jose fan-zone.
Rodriguez, 21, was surrounded by hundreds of yellow-clad fans cheering on Colombia as their group match against Democratic Republic of Congo played on the big screen at San Pedro Square.
But he was in a green shirt, one of many Mexico fans getting behind the Colombians at the square.
“I’m Mexican Latino … And in this World Cup, I’m supporting all the Latino countries.”
German Lopez, a Guatemalan wearing an Argentina shirt, drove two hours from Modesto in California’s Central Valley to come to the San Jose fan-zone and meet his brother to watch his second-favourite team, Colombia.
“Every four years, we have to enjoy, we all get together here,” he told Reuters.
“And you can see people with Mexican jerseys, Brazilian, Colombians. We all get together every four years. No politics involved.
“We don’t necessarily just go for one team. As soon as one of the Latino teams is playing, we’re all going to support them there.”
GRUDGING SUPPORT
The World Cup has been a gift for many Californian Mexico fans, who have turned up in big numbers on match days.
They flocked to the San Francisco Bay Area Stadium to support Paraguay as they beat Turkey 1-0 last Friday, their green shirts scattered among the red-and-white stripes of Paraguayan fans.
Mexican support for Argentina can be a bit more grudging, due to their World Cup match-ups.
The defending champions have a habit of knocking Mexico out of World Cups, including four years ago in Qatar 2022.
“We got a little, I want to say, a rivalry, right? Because they kick our ass all the time,” said Rodriguez. “But we don’t really like them.”
The painful history did not stop about a dozen Mexico-coloured fans cheering Argentina at the Fuegos Argentine restaurant on Monday when they scored in their 2-0 defeat of Austria.
Mexican and Argentine supporters danced together in the restaurant’s parking lot after the game.
“Mexico first, then you have got to go with all the Americas – and that goes all the way from Canada to Tierra del Fuego – before anywhere else,” said Ananias Chairez, 48, an American of Argentine ancestry.
Alex Sasayama, who writes articles about the American community in L.A. that explore soccer’s cross-national rivalries, said friendships and competitiveness collide around the World Cup, creating uncomfortable situations.
“It’s always been a big deal to watch it with our friends, with friends from Mexico. But (if Argentina and Mexico play each other) it always ends up being not fun, because somebody’s upset,” said the Argentine-American.
Three Latin American nations have won World Cups, with Brazil triumphing five times, Argentina clinching a third title in Qatar and Uruguay winning in 1930 and 1950.
Emerson Santiago Diaz Vega, who was selling national team shirts at San Jose’s fan-zone, is hoping for a re-match against Argentina who beat Colombia 1-0 in the 2024 Copa America final, South America’s continental championship.
“We lost by just a little and we’re coming for revenge. We want revenge and it’s football. It’s unpredictable,” said the 24-year-old.
A Bogota native who now lives in San Jose, Vega said his most popular jerseys were Colombia, Mexico and Argentina, and that he had run out of Lionel Messi shirts after the superstar scored all five of Argentina’s goals in their first two group matches.
“Right now I don’t have any left. They sold out. It sells very well,” he said.
(Additional reporting by Elizabeth Mendez in San Jose, California; Editing by Ed Osmond)
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