Política de Mexicanos

Lore & Background

The source article does not mention any legendary forward named 'Carlos Panza Valdés' or 'Carlos El Chicharito Hernández' from the policy era. The only player discussed is Jesús Padilla.

In Their Own Story

The bus pulls into the Estadio Akron parking lot at half past seven. The players step out into the November chill of Jalisco, and the sound hits first — a low, rolling thunder from the south stand where four thousand voices have been chanting since the tunnel doors opened. A kid in the third row, maybe nine years old, holds a hand-painted sign: 'MÉXICO JUEGA AQUÍ.' His father, in a faded red jersey with the number 14, doesn't look at him. He's looking at the pitch, where the ball boys are lining up, all of them local, all of them Mexican, just as they've been for eighty years. The goalkeeper stretches his arms. The crowd swells. No one needs to explain why there's no foreign name on the sheet. It simply is. It always has been. And tonight, it will be again.

Reader's Guide

The source article does not provide a guide.

Did You Know?

• Chivas has fielded players like Jesús Padilla, who was born in the United States but considered Mexican under Article 30 of the Mexican Constitution because both his parents are Mexican.
• Padilla made his professional debut for Guadalajara on August 8, 2007 in a 1-0 loss to Deportivo Toluca.