Search

“Traditional sports build cultural solidarity. In rural North Carolina, Tomás, a retired semi-professional soccer player from Mexico, co-founds an organized soccer league with family and fellow Central and Latin American undocumented immigrants. The common language of the sport forges bonds among the players and across generations, helping to foster more open communication between fathers and sons, and creates mentoring relationships with other adults. Moreover, the league's frequent games promote physical and psychological resilience in a community burdened by the risk of deportation.”

Likely written during or shortly after the Civil War, these song lyrics depict Southern patriotism and duty to maintaining a certain way of life. Using melodic rhymes and repetition, the author emphasizes Southern manhood, justified violence and supposedly benign slavery.