U.S.-Mexico divides loyalties

Updated: Monday June 17, 2002 08:49 a.m. ET

McALLEN, Texas (AP) -- In a south Texas city that is more than 85 percent Mexican-American, World Cup allegiances Monday weren't so clear.

Rejoicing over the United States' 2-0 win over Mexico was politely muted. The disappointed struggled to keep their chins up, and the streets stayed quiet.

"This is a pretty important game here, this being a border town," said David Lozano, a 44-year-old who drove around frantically after the bars closed before finally finding a television set at a 24-hour taqueria. "There's a lot of rivalry around here."

Like other cities in the area along the U.S.-Mexican border, McAllen is a place where sentences are begun in English, finished in Spanish. Families have some children that are U.S. citizens, others Mexican.

Lozano supported the United States, saying he was a U.S. citizen and a veteran.

His sympathies put him in the minority.

Mexican team jerseys sold out at the sports stores while U.S. jerseys went untouched. Cars sported Mexican flags. Families made plans to watch the match with relatives on the other side of the border, where victory parties were sure to be spilling out into the streets.

Ninety percent of the inmates at the Immigration and Naturalization Service _which bent the rules and kept the television sets on -- supported Mexico, said David Valdez, a security guard, no matter where in Latin America they were from.

"Soccer is more of a Mexican sport, Hispanic," he said.

"I don't think anybody's in a quandary down here," Cameron County judge Judge Gilberto Hinojosa chuckled before the match. "Everybody's going to be supporting Mexico. For them, it's, 'Those are my mother's and father's countrymen."'

"Tradition, I guess, the roots ...," said Ana Flores, who was watching the game before beginning her shift in a hospital lab at 4 a.m. Andre Flores, her Mexican-born husband, pushed his chair in quietly, eyes glistening, at the end of the match.

A table of police officers argued playfully over whom to back.

"Mexico, man," said Sgt. Marisa Guerra. "Because I'm Mexican, I was born in Mexico."

Lt. Francisco Durango, likewise born in Mexico, differed.

"I'm 100 percent gringo," he said. "I served in the Army, this is my country."

Photographer German Garcia, of Mexico City, wore his autographed Mexico jersey to the match.

He was clearly disgusted at the outcome.

"This is the worst thing in the world that could happen," he said. "You don't understand. Mexico's not supposed to lose with the U.S. With anybody but the U.S. That's one of the few things that Mexico can feel superior with the U.S., with soccer," he said.