By Ed White and Joe Brock
LOS ANGELES, June 23 (Reuters) - Father‑and‑daughter soccer fans Jose Roman and Jacqueline Damian were among a stream of supporters in green Mexico shirts pouring into Los Angeles Stadium for a recent World Cup match, passing Spanish‑speaking vendors selling Mexican beer, flags and hats and grills smoking with bacon‑wrapped street dogs.
The only thing missing was the Mexico team - the game was Switzerland versus Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Even with Mexico playing all their matches
on home soil in a World Cup co-hosted by the U.S., Mexico and Canada, their supporters are a constant presence at games in Los Angeles, effectively a de facto third team in a county home to nearly 5 million Latinos, the largest such community in the U.S.
"It doesn't matter what team is playing here, there are always Mexican fans," said Damian, 26, who lives in Anaheim, home to Disneyland, and works as an analyst at Northgate Market, a U.S.-Mexican grocery store chain.
Even at the U.S. team’s opening game, Mexico shirts rivalled Team USA colours at the 70,000-seat stadium, though many Mexico supporters also wore U.S. hats, scarves and other symbols to signal solidarity.
The effect extends across America’s second-largest city, home to generations of Mexico fans, from U.S.-born descendants to Mexican-born immigrants and others living in the U.S., who are determined to play host to all World Cup fans.
WATCH PARTY
At a Mexico watch party in Boyle Heights, a historically Latino neighbourhood east of downtown Los Angeles, Mexican fans mingled with dozens of Koreans and Korean Americans. Mexico fans waved small Korean flags, a nod to the 2018 World Cup, when South Korea’s win over Germany helped Mexico advance.
"We love the Koreans!" said Andrew Gomez, a 20‑year‑old born in the United States to Mexican parents.
"It's so electrifying. The community! The community! Everyone feels like family," added Gomez, who was wearing a green and red Mexican wrestler's mask.
Alejandra Garcia, 31, and Carolina Reynoso, 33, stood beside jogging strollers carrying children Elle and Logan, their hair adorned with lace and ribbons in a traditional Mexican style, as they shared a joyful glimpse of their Mexican American heritage with the next generation.
"It's very exciting to be able to share this with our kids," said Garcia.
'MEXICO IS FOOTBALL'
Many Mexican Americans are quick to point out they also support Team USA, but wear green and red to signal pride in a community that has often faced poverty and periods of anti‑immigrant sentiment in the United States.
"I am a proud Mexican and wherever I go I go with my flag and with my Mexican shirt," said Luis Canton, 20, draped in a green flag. He lives with his family in Guadalajara and was attending the Switzerland v Bosnia and Herzegovina match on a day Mexico were playing in his home city.
California was part of Mexico until the U.S. seized the West Coast and Southwest in the 1846 to 1848 war, leaving a lasting imprint in place names such as Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego. Today, Los Angeles is home to one of the largest populations of Mexican origin outside Mexico.
"Our culture runs deep and we're not afraid to come out and show it," says Alejandra Navarro, a 29‑year‑old nurse from Los Angeles whose parents are from the Mexican state of Michoacan.
Damian, her arm draped around her 48‑year‑old father, said that passion is rooted in an older generation that grew up playing soccer on the dirt streets of Mexico, like her dad.
"Mexico is football," Damian said. "That's why anytime you go to a soccer game in Los Angeles, you'll always see someone repping Mexico."
(Reporting by Ed White and Joe Brock in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Lili Niesner, editing by Ed Osmond)
