Community Comment : The ‘Real’ Story Behind Violent Soccer Clashes

“From a sociological perspective could you explain the phenomena that is taking place in Huntington Park?” That was a question a reporter asked me amid the commotion sparked by fans of Mexico’s World Cup team. The commotion forced the police to use non-lethal weapons to disperse a crowd of more than 5,000 people.

As a recently elected official and in my capacity as mayor pro-tem of the city of Huntington Park, I was puzzled by the reporter’s question. Not being a sociologist I could only try to describe what had been happening in my city: There was a group of people who were ecstatic that Mexico had advanced to the second round in the World Cup. Fearing for the health and safety of our residents city officials and police had to be prepared to deal with an opportunistic criminal element that loves to create havoc during such events.

The celebrations fueled passions, emotions and feelings in many areas. Quite a number of agendas would capitalize on what was happening. And sadly the residents of this great city were witnessing a party in their back yard that they never intended to host. Furthermore, the party turned unruly, our back yard was trashed and the feeling of community that we are trying to achieve suffered a real blow because of the media coverage.

Many of our residents believe the media promoted Huntington Park as “the place to be” if you wanted to celebrate.

And anti-immigrant forces have used the celebrations to malign Huntington Park and “those Mexicans,” even going so far as to suggest that Mexicans go back to Mexico because they come here only to create trouble.

In addition, an outside criminal element saw a golden opportunity to jeopardize the health and safety of our citizens. Throwing bottles at police, looting and injuring a couple of people. On the three different dates of the World Cup celebrations in this city the number of arrestees totaled 36. Only a handful were residents of Huntington Park, according to police.

During our last City Council meeting on July 5, I witnessed efforts aimed at further polarizing residents into groups. I will not be part of that. I am a Mexican immigrant who was brought here by my parents 22 years ago. I have been a U.S. citizen by choice for almost 10 years. I serve all segments of the community, and yes, even the media.

Huntington Park is a dynamic established community. And we will be a stronger community because of what we have lived through. I’m proud of our residents for their tolerance, our business people and our police for their professionalism.

As for the sociological interpretation of what happened, I’ll leave that to the professionals.