2023-08-05 20:56:34
Migrants from eight countries played a soccer “Copa América” on Thursday in the border city of Ciudad Juárez, in northern Mexico; a tournament that became a way to distract themselves while they wait for an appointment to cross into the United States.
The tournament took place in Ciudad Juárez, located in the middle of the Chihuahuan desert in Mexico. | Photo: AFP or licensors
Juarez City
The contest was organized by the Sports Institute of Ciudad Juárez and included migrants who live in two shelters in the city, coming from El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Honduras, Cuba and Venezuela, whose team ended up winning the tournament .
Ciudad Juárez is part of the state of Chihuahua and is the most populated city in it. It is located on the banks of the Rio Grande, which separates the United States and Mexico, in the entire northwestern region of the country.
It is a border and industrial city that, along with El Paso, Texas, makes up the second most populous transnational metropolitan area in Mexico and the United States, with approximately 2.5 million inhabitants.
González explained that the migrants were happy to participate, although he clarified that, to complete the selection of countries that do not have much of a soccer tradition, such as Cuba, players of other nationalities had to be called.
For several of the migrants stranded in the border city, the tournament was a way to distract themselves while they wait for an appointment to request asylum in the United States. | Photo: AFP or licensors
For several of the migrants stranded in the border city, the tournament was a way to distract themselves while they wait for an appointment to request asylum in the United States.
The stress of migration
“I really like soccer (…), maybe one gets out of the routine and the mind is distracted a bit due to so much confinement, so much stress from the appointment,” said José Alejandro Colina, a 26-year-old Venezuelan.
“With faith in God that they give us the appointment soon to be able to pass,” added Colina, who already has relatives waiting for him in the United States.
His compatriot Joiner Uribe, 25, also thought that the tournament is a way to distract themselves while they wait to cross into the United States: “For us it is getting out of the routine to play sports, confinement causes mental fatigue,” he said.
“For us it is getting out of the routine to play sports, confinement causes mental fatigue,” said Joiner Uribe from Venezuela. | Photo: AFP or licensors
The Ciudad Juárez Sports Institute provided the soccer field, the uniforms, as well as the trophy and the medical service.
At the end of March, a fire in a migrant detention center in Ciudad Juárez claimed the lives of 39 people.
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