Fútbol Americano: Immigration, Social Capital, and Youth Soccer in Southern California

248 Pages·2015·1.43 MB·English

by  David Keyes

UC San Diego
UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Title
Fútbol Americano : Immigration, Social Capital, and Youth Soccer in Southern California
Permalink
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4436w58z
Author
Keyes, David Gordon
Publication Date
2015

Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation
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University of California
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO

Fútbol Americano: Immigration, Social Capital,
and Youth Soccer in Southern California

A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the
degree of Doctor of Philosophy

in

Anthropology

by

David Gordon Keyes

Committee in charge:

Professor David Pedersen, Chair
Professor Wayne Cornelius
Professor Robert Edelman
Professor Joseph Hankins
Professor Nancy Postero

2015
©
David Gordon Keyes, 2015
All rights reserved
Signature Page
The dissertation of David Gordon Keyes is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and
form for publication on microfilm and electronically:

Chair

University of California, San Diego

2015
iii
Table of Contents

Signature Page ............................................................................................. iii
Table of Contents ......................................................................................... iv
List of Figures .............................................................................................. vi
Vita ............................................................................................................... vii
Abstract of the Dissertation ........................................................................ ix
Chapter 1. Introduction ................................................................................ 1
Immigrant Assimilation .................................................................................................. 8
Social Capital ................................................................................................................ 15
Soccer and the Place of Immigrants in the United States ............................................. 21
“Father without a son” .................................................................................................. 23
Roadmap of the Dissertation ......................................................................................... 27
A Few Notes on Terminology and Scope ..................................................................... 29
Chapter 2. The Domestication of American Soccer .................................32
Soccer, the Perpetually Un-American Sport ................................................................. 35
The Triple Domestication of American Soccer ............................................................ 41
Domestication Number One: Making Soccer American ........................................... 42
Domestication Number Two: Making Soccer Safe ................................................... 44
Domestication Number Three: Making Soccer Part of the Family .......................... 48
Why Los Angeles? ........................................................................................................ 51
Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 61
Chapter 3. The Two Worlds of Youth Soccer ...........................................63
The Development of Two Soccer Worlds .................................................................... 65
The Suburban Youth Soccer Industrial Complex ......................................................... 74
Latino Soccer ................................................................................................................ 80
Youth Soccer as a Dual Labor Market .......................................................................... 84
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Chapter 4. Soccer in the Latino Community ............................................92
The Aguilas as a Mexican Team ................................................................................... 94
No Money, More Problems......................................................................................... 100
Sports and Ethnicity .................................................................................................... 104
Chapter 5. The Integration of Youth Soccer...........................................115
Two Teams, Two Stories ............................................................................................ 120
The Harriers: From (Nearly) All White to (Nearly) All Latino .............................. 125
The Quake: Leche with a Tinge of Café ................................................................. 128
The Politics of Scholarships........................................................................................ 130
The Growth of Inequality and the Subjectivities of Flexibility .................................. 143
Suburban Soccer and the Habitus of Affluence .......................................................... 154
Cultural Explanations for Economic Problems........................................................... 157
Soccer as Struggle ....................................................................................................... 160
Chapter 6. Go South, Young Man: Pursuing The Mexican Dream .....166
Excavating the Next Generation of Talent .................................................................. 169
The Reverse Migration of Mexican American Players............................................... 181
The Ethical Dilemmas of Global Player Migration .................................................... 189
Chapter 7. Conclusion ...............................................................................196
What Does the Future Hold?....................................................................................... 202
Assimilation: Is There Space for the Decline of Ethnic Distinctions? ....................... 206
Social Capital: It Takes More than a Soccer Field ..................................................... 209
Works Cited ...............................................................................................219
v
List of Figures
Figure 2.1: AYSO promotional poster, 1966 .................................................................... 50
Figure 3.1: AYSO Players, 1965-1974 ............................................................................. 66
Figure 3.2: USYSA Registered Players, 1974-2000 ......................................................... 68
Figure 3.3: Household income of families of core soccer players in the United States ... 69
Figure 3.4: Mean age at entry into organized/team sports by household income and
race/ethnicity ..................................................................................................................... 70
Figure 3.5: Racial/ethnic background of CalSouth players compared to total population of
counties served by CalSouth ............................................................................................. 71
Figure 3.6: Hispanic population in San Diego County ..................................................... 73
Figure 3.7: Median household income in San Diego County ........................................... 74
Figure 3.8: Number of Teams, Total Revenue, and Revenue per Player per Club .......... 81
Figure 5.1: Percentage of Latino players on youth national teams compared to percentage
of Latinos in total population in United States, January-August 2014 ........................... 121
Figure 5.2: Percent of Latino players per club compared to percent of under-18 Hispanics
in MSA, 2012-2014 ........................................................................................................ 124
Figure 5.3: Median income in the United States, 1967-2013 ......................................... 146
Figure 5.4: Manufacturing and Service Sectors as Percentage of Total Workforce, 1950-
1990................................................................................................................................. 148
Figure 6.1: Explaining the Reverse Migration of Mexican American Players ............... 188

vi
Vita
Education
2015 Ph.D. Anthropology, University of California, San Diego.
2009 M.A., Anthropology, University of California, San Diego.
2005 M.Ed., Early Childhood Education, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.
2002 B.A. Human Development and Social Relations, Earlham College, Richmond,
Indiana.

Publications
2014 Cornelius, Wayne, Alejandra Lizardi, and David Keyes, eds. Return
Migration, Sexuality, and Health in a Transnational Mexican
Community. Guadalajara, Jalisco: Universidad de Guadalajara.
2014 Salgado, Hugo, Isa Haviland, Marcella Hernandez, Diana Lozano, Ruby
Osoria, David Keyes, Eastern Kang, and María Luisa Zúñiga. “Perceived
Discrimination and Religiosity as Potential Mediating Factors Between
Migration and Depressive Symptoms: a Transnational Study of an
Indigenous Mayan Population.” Journal of Immigrant and Minority
Health.
2013 FitzGerald, David, Jorge Hernandez-Diaz, David Keyes, and Geoffrey
Fjotasek, eds. The Wall Between Us: An Indigenous Community in
Mexico and the United States. La Jolla, CA: Center for Comparative
Immigration Studies.
2013 Keyes, David. “The Domestication of American Soccer.” In Soccer
Culture in America: Essays on the World's Sport in Red, White and Blue,
edited by Yuya Kiuchi. Jefferson, NC: McFarland Publishers.
2010 Aguilar, Arturo, Georgia Hartmann, David Keyes, Lisa Markman, and
Max Matus. “Coping with La Crisis.” in Mexican Migration and the U.S.
Economic Crisis: A Transnational Perspective, edited by Wayne A.
Cornelius, David Fitzgerald, Pedro Lewin Fischer, and Leah Muse-
Orlinoff. La Jolla, CA: Center for Comparative Immigration Studies.

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2010 Keyes, David, Cristina Fernández, Norma Rodríguez, Diana Cervera,
and Luis Manzanero Rodriguez. “Reshaping Community Participation:
Tunkaseños in a Binational Context.” in Mexican Migration and the U.S.
Economic Crisis: A Transnational Perspective, edited by Wayne A.
Cornelius, David Fitzgerald, Pedro Lewin Fischer, and Leah Muse-
Orlinoff. La Jolla, CA: Center for Comparative Immigration Studies.

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ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION

Fútbol Americano: Immigration, Social Capital,
and Youth Soccer in Southern California

by

David Gordon Keyes

Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology
University of California, San Diego, 2015
Professor David Pedersen, Chair

In my dissertation, I take up the question of immigrant assimilation in a unique
way, using youth soccer as a lens to investigate the topic. I examine the role that the sport
has played in the assimilation of immigrants, focusing particularly on its potential to
develop social capital between immigrants and non-immigrants.
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