USA TODAY International Edition
Red, white and boo
Booing during the national anthem might be intense at Monday’s NFL game in Mexico City,
The national anMEXICO CITY them was played for decades at National Football League games without much incident or discussion, but 2016 has changed all that, starting with Colin Kaepernick’s preseason protest.
If the anthem controversy has lost a little steam in recent weeks since Kaepernick has been joined by only a handful of players in taking a knee, Monday night’s game in Mexico City between the Oakland Raiders and Houston Texans could add a dimension to the conversation.
“I am ready,” Hector Diaz, 24, said as he prepared to attend Monday’s game at the cavernous Azteca Stadium with a group of friends. “When they play the anthem … I am going to boo.”
For sure, there are conflicted feelings in Mexico about its neighbors to the north after the presidential campaign and last week’s election of Donald Trump. In addition to wanting to build a wall along the border — and insisting Mexico pay for it — Trump has called Mexicans migrating to the USA criminals and racists.
No one is quite certain how feelings about the president- elect will manifest themselves Monday when The Star- Spangled Banner is played before the NFL’s first regular season excursion into Mexico since 2005.
“I will be at the game, and I
think some people will boo ( the anthem),” said Stephen Sanchez, a Raiders fan who will travel from his home in Monterrey in northern Mexico. “People will maybe feel there is even more reason to now.”
When the U. S. soccer team has played at Azteca Stadium for World Cup qualifying games in recent years, the anthem has been routinely jeered by virtually the entire crowd.
At major boxing events in the USA featuring Mexican fighters such as Juan Manuel Marquez or Canelo Alvarez, there has been a similar response.
“The booing of the national anthem is actually a misconstrued way of them celebrating their own anthem,” former U. S. soccer player Eric Wynalda said. “I’ve played many times against Mexico, and I think it’s just part of the rivalry.”
By their nature, the growing number of American football fans in Mexico have at least some affinity for the USA, if only an appreciation for the national sport.
“In Mexico, two sentiments coexist,” historian Raul Figueroa Esquer, a professor at Mexico’s National Autonomous Institute of Technology, said. “One historical sentiment ... has an antiAmerican ( basis). At the same time, there is a sentiment of admiration for the most powerful, or one of the most powerful, countries in the world.
“( Trump) has had an effect by making negative comments, calling ( Mexican people) rapists. It is frankly painful that he makes menacing claims about building a stronger wall and having Mexico pay for it.”
Kaepernick’s gesture, intended as a protest of social injustices, has divided opinion in the USA: Many are outraged by the actions of the San Francisco 49ers quarterback and other players, but a large number support his right to freedom of speech and expression.
Outright booing may be seen different.
“Here is the funny thing, I love America, and I go there all the time,” Diaz said. “When it is a soccer game, it just means we want to beat your team. This time, I will be booing the bad parts of America: Trump, intolerance, racism, how some people feel towards Mexicans. But I still love American football, and yes, I still love America.”
In Mexico, there is a clear class and wealth divide between the hardcore supporters of major soccer teams and fans of the NFL. American football, according to marketing expert Manuel Juarez, is very much a middle- class game, while soccer is the sport of the masses.
“I really don’t think and I would not expect the Mexican people would boo when the U. S. national anthem would be sung or played ( for the NFL game),” Juarez said. “I really don’t. It is kind of a different audience than the soccer fans. Sorry, but that’s true. ( Different) education, socioeconomic level.”
Alejandro Morales Troncoso, an author and Mexico’s leading American football historian, hopes Monday night’s game can help bridge the political divide.
“We are brothers, and thankfully, we are only separated by a line,” Troncoso said.
As for the message he wants the Mexican fans to send to the NFL and its visiting teams:
“You are welcome, neighbor,” he said.