.
.
.
A chanting popularized by Mexican fans, which had already been criticized, is under further condemnation recently, and is facing calls to have it eliminated from soccer stadiums. Univisión now displays a disclaimer when broadcasting games, warning about the chant that is considered offensive to the LBGTQ community. This disapproval was raised again after the Orlando massacre, and brought back into the spotlight during this game’s international tournament being held in the USA.
Throughout the matches played by Mexico, a powerhouse in North and Central America, the chanting was used in spite of pleas from their players and officials. At the game played this weekend in Northern California, the crowd even used it against their own players. Mexico draws a large following here in the USA , and this time the expectations were higher:
“Mexico rode into Saturday’s Copa América quarter-final with Chile on a wave of mounting momentum, unbeaten in 22 games and with the biggest support of any team in the competition. They left shellshocked, struggling to make sense of their worst ever defeat in a major tournament. Their fans were fleeing Santa Clara’s sold-out Levi’s Stadium in droves long before this eviscerating 7-0 humiliation was over. Those that stayed took to ironically cheering every Chilean pass with cries of “olé!” while one Mexican journalist described it as “the blackest night in the history of Mexican football”.
Image from Vice News.
The Mexican fans’ passion was sarcastically disputed by commenters in a sports website:
“This may be the first time in US/Mexico history 23 Mexicans crossed into the US legally, and had to sneak back INTO Mexico illegally. That was an absolute turd Mexico left on the field, and of course, the fans had to show, yet again, why Mexico will play 2 games behind closed doors… and after a week of mourning the massacre in Orlando, and the USMNT going out of their way to memorialize the victims, for Mexico to continue chanting ‘puto’ every time the goalkeeper gets the ball is the cherry on top…”
Another commenter responded:
“You have no clue about our culture and the way we use bad words and the way we make fun of everything even death… in mexico the most bad words you say to a friend you have the best relantionship with him and in this particular case is not that bad, it may be as african americans using the N word to other african americans.”
You can read the remaining back and forth of this discussion in this link.
A Mexican LBGQT advocate clarifies the problem here:
“The whole point is that the choice of this word is absolutely linked to a negative, homophobic meaning,” said Enrique Torre Molina, a Mexican who is campaign manager at All Out, an international gay rights organization. “‘Puto’ is the word many gay men have been called in school or even by family members to mock us or put us down. ‘Puto’ is the word many gay men hear as they’re being beaten, sometimes to death, in the daily homophobic crimes committed in Latin America.”
An in-depth exposition takes place in this Latino website concluding that “Mexico’s ‘Puto’ Soccer Chant Is Wrong and This Is What We Can Do About It”.
It is time to drop this chant: Times have changed, and homophobia is no longer acceptable.
Fair point. Now do we really HAVE to root for Chile? 😉
Chile won the Copa America, the second time in a row. The team is considered the country’s golden generation of players, whose soccer style was shaped by an Argentinian coach who left after clashing with the local corrupt FIFA officials.
Most of the players have a humble background. A blogger in Chile writes: “they are the reflection of our awakening, of the frustrations living in 17 years of darkness in this maritine creature…they talk for all of us, for the pain of the Chile of our parents, for our dreams…The poor look upon the players as their own children, they see their sacrificies raising them, and are proud of their accomplishments…”