LMany Mexican Americans caused in California, I lost an account at a time when my family gathered to watch the match between Mexico and the United States. Be it a friendly qualifier of the World Cup, “Two -Nol“Rivalry attracts the largest crowd to my TiaWatch parties, about a hour south of the San Francisco.
Each clash is felt as a broken embodiment of a Mexican American: the applause and moans of Mexican parents -immigrants and their Americanized children who are reproducing disagreements. The bets are always high, especially since most of my relatives grew up with sports – and are not shy to share their tactical opinions in the middle of the game. Many of them played Pro, Semi-Pro, college and, of course, in neighboring parks.
The biggest name is at our meetings? American men's team Rising Star Diego Luna.
Diego was one of the few members of our family who welcomed the United States about Mexico. This may be understandable: he is an American general Z-Rer, who, for obvious reasons, grew up even further from the migration realities of the older generations.
Now a small child who was running around my Tia house has turned into a key member of the American fans' team, fiery sparks and a regular recovery among sometimes introduced under the leadership of Maurisio Pochettino. Diego appeared in the team 13 of the 14th games of the United States in 2025, and he is again in the team for the upcoming comradely matches of the team against Ecuador and Australia.
Fast education of 22-year-old (with Broken nose The ricks carried in the match against Costa, in this), perhaps forced football experts by surprise, but There has never been any doubts which side is Diego-painted by Jersey’s blood and all that.
His journey to football began long before he was able to dribble the ball.
Concrete Luna – the father of Diego, who married our family – at first had his own unlikely resumption of professional football when he was played out to play for the covered team in San Diego in 1985, despite the fact that he did not have professional experience as a student in Foothill College. Beto just arrived in the Bay area and could not stay with the Sockers for a full time, but he was stuck for a long time to Complete help Since the present, the head coach of the Sounders Brian Schmetzer, breaking through this short work in a run with a wave of miluo and earthquakes in San Jose (during their existence in one of the many league predecessors in MLS).
Fearless opportunist, the eldest moon did not come to this country to become FootballThe field but by the mercy of the football gods, he has become one, and now he Dear coach in the bay areaField
“The passion that we all experience for sports comes from my father,” says Armando Luna, Diego's older brother, the player himself, until the back injury was forced to train him. “The way he threw himself into sports, starting from a later age and working hard to develop his desire and love for football in a new country, inspired us.”
Armando grew especially close to his father, but later became a role model and a mentor for a much younger Diego.
The youngest path of the moon was not at all ordinary, bypassing NCAA and MLS system in favor of the Barcelona Academy of Residency in Arizona, which was followed by its successful stay in the second level of USL with El Paso Locomotive FC. It all started in the family, although. With three older brothers and sisters and his father, who played and trained everything, Diego constantly bounced from the field on the field of both the player and the observer since infancy.
“He trained him all his life,” says Armando. “If he had a training at 17:30, he would have blurted out at three in the afternoon, because the rest had to create other practices and our own games. Since he was always early, he simply practiced and talked around senior players and worked on his skills. Then he had to stay later until other games ended at night. So he really was. Having been in the game. “
Diego joined the football club Palo -Alto at the age of five, the program in which his father and older brother trained and for many years were sent to the development of the regional power plant. At that time, Diego played with much older children, almost half of his age. Physically surpassing the forced Diego to develop a certain field awareness and technical skill in order to compete.
“They say about [Diego] Like he is a street baller. But he never played on the streets. This concept that you develop only the skills that he possesses a Latin American is a game on the streets is nonsense, ”says Armando. – All this was in design. From training. From the promotion of his work on the field, from discipline. He had to quickly study the mental aspect of the game. We never criticized him for trying new things. This is transferred to his game now. ”
In the end, the family decided that Diego grew out the parish highway, so he joined the Academy of Earthquakes in San Joset in 2015 at the age of 13. The inconvenience of a permanent trip at the peak and schedule, which did not coincide with the training of the moon, called problems for a working family, which was already thin in football throughout the Gulf area. In 2018, they looked in another place. The moon itself decided to move to Arizona to play at the Barcelona Academy, where he trained and lived for three years. This prompted him to his first professional singing with El Paso in 2021.
El Paso could not be a more suitable house for the Diego-Mexican-American border city, which is cultural and sociological, covered between neighboring worlds in Mexico and the USA.
In the retention of the football quest of his brother, Armando reads me a quote from the 1997 film “Selena”: “It is difficult for a Mexican American to be a Mexican American … We must prove to the Mexicans how Mexicans we are, and we must prove to the Americans how American we are. We must be more Mexican than Mexicans and more Americans than Americans.
In the biographical film, Jennifer Lopez plays the famous pop -star Tejana from the border city, which well learned to sing in Spanish as a Mexican American to confirm his double identity. This is a familiar story for everyone who knew both sides of the boundaries: the road that inevitably branches in separate directions becomes elderly. Go left in the USA or go directly to Mexico. And be cursed independently.
Like many children of immigrants, Diego never had to resist the problems of crossing his parents and did not know life on the other side of the border. He grew up with football in a relatively comfortable atmosphere in California. Why does anyone give this to his position for what they have no connection with?
“We have never heard anything from the Mexican Federation. No communication. There is no interest. Nothing real, ”says Armando. “Even for us in football, there were no many interests from them either.”
But when this proposal came, admitting that it was easy, even if the reaction was not. Fans in Mexico more and more actively developed the moon and his choice to represent the United States, which caused betrayal in their eyes. Other Mexican-American prospects, such as Julian Araujo (Bornmut) and Davian Kimbro (Republic of Sacramento), received praise for their decision to represent El Three on the international stage, but online trolls got Diego for his alleged inability to speak Spanish (he can, but this is his second language, and he prefers to respond to the majority of media in English).
Nevertheless, Armando tells me how fans from Costa -Riki, Guatemala and especially Mexico enthusiastically approached Diego after his international caps with a request for photographs and autographs. The US citizen, he is still grateful for introducing his nation, and any antagonism that occurred as a result of his choice helped only establish Diego's stamina.
“When he was young, when the Mexican team won, [Diego] Suitable, ”recalls Armando. – He always wanted the American team to win. He grew up here. He knows nothing.
