The joy of Mexicos soccer triumph in the Trump

Brenda Jaimes pushed her manner through an ecstatic crowd in downtown Santa Ana Thursday night time, stopping in the center of Fourth Street and calling consideration to herself by shouting, “Me! Me!”

An hour earlier, Mexico beat South Korea 1-0 in the World Cup. Jaimes, a 22-year-old Santa Ana resident, was one of hundreds of people who crowded into the neighborhood’s many bars and eating places to watch the thrilling victory then spilled onto the streets to celebration.

Fans blew horns and spun noisemakers, chanting “México!” and “¡Sí se puede!” They brandished the Mexican flag seemingly all over the place: on banners, painted on cheeks, emblazoned on Jaimes’ tube top. They stood on the back of vans and boogied.

An Orange County Fire Authority truck flashed its sirens to cheers. A line of drivers cruised down Fourth Street — the historic cultural and financial coronary heart of Latino Orange County — to high-five the crowd and let people shake their automobiles as if everybody was inside a bounce home.

Jaimes needed one thing more dramatic.

She lay down in the arms of some males sporting inexperienced Mexico soccer jerseys. They counted to three, launched her a good 8 toes upward, then effortlessly caught the laughing Jaimes.

Scenes like this replicated themselves across Southern California after the match, from Koreatown to Boyle Heights to Pacoima to Huntington Park — actually, wherever with a big Latino population. It occurs any time Mexico wins big in soccer. But the pachanga was even more pronounced in Santa Ana.

Korea and Mexico followers react as Korea nearly scores against Mexico during a watch celebration for the World Cup match at Seoul International Park on Thursday.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

A 12 months earlier, Fourth Street was empty. Federal immigration brokers had been seizing people across the metropolis. The National Guard set up a roadblock full with an armed Humvee for over a month, just a block away from where Jaimes and so many others celebrated.

One of the most Latino big cities in the nation trembled in worry. On Thursday night time, Santa Ana erupted in joy.

“This here is the antithesis of the raids last year,” said Sandra De Anda, who wore a Stetson and a Tigres Mexican soccer membership jersey and waved a South Korea flag. She’s the director of coverage and legal strategy at the Orange County Rapid Response Network.

Last June, the Santa Ana native joined hundreds as they marched down Fourth Street for days demanding that ICE and the National Guard go away city. Through the relaxation of 2025, she and others in the Rapid Response Network fought la migra in courthouses and through fundraisers for immigrant detainees and their family members.

“They tried to take our community down, but they had no chance,” De Anda added as her boyfriend rushed off to be part of the celebration. “We Mexicans always get beat down, but we have pride. Tonight, you see how we stand up when we need to.”

Jaimes agreed.

“It’s so important to do this especially after last year,” she told me after her short flip as a Cirque du Soleil performer. “We don’t care what Trump can say about this. It was his birthday recently — who cares? This right here is real.”

Another younger girl shrieked as she sailed above us. Jaimes pointed at her, then regarded at me. “Throw yourself también [also], bro!”

I caught to slapping the hoods and home windows of so many automobiles that my hand turned black with soot.

Mexico soccer followers shake a car cruising down Fourth Street in downtown Santa Ana after Mexico’s 1-0 World Cup win over South Korea on Thursday.

(Gustavo Arellano / Los Angeles Times)

Seeing Mexico turn into the first nation to win its World Cup group can be thrilling any 12 months. But in 2026, when Trump continues to meddle in Latin American affairs while his migra goons keep launching raids across the nation, the satisfaction hits that a lot more.

Few issues irk Trump and his followers more than Mexicans succeeding at something. Eleven years in the past this week, he announced his presidential marketing campaign by stating that Mexico was “not sending its best” immigrants but instead, people he claimed had been largely rapists and drug sellers. Trump has spent his two phrases obsessing over the U.S.-Mexico border, attacking something that reeks of range and demeaning Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum as if she had been a junior govt at one of his many failed firms.

Conservatives and more than a few liberals always get livid when Mexican Americans wave the flag of their ancestral homeland — but rooting for Mexico’s soccer staff particularly brings out the venom. Fans far outnumber supporters of the U.S. soccer staff during matches in this nation, which brings on accusations of treason against Mexican Americans even though other diasporas do the same, with nowhere close to the same opprobrium.

hostilityrs don’t get why so many Mexican Americans root for El Tri. The staff embodies what it means to be Mexican: They’re a good group of people who always appear to get unhealthy breaks and never appear to win against the powers that be — but never stop combating for a better day, while having enjoyable doing so.

That’s why Americans of all ethnicities ought to back Mexico along with the U.S. aspect in this World Cup, which Trump has already sullied. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security denied a Somali referee entry into this nation because he allegedly was “talking to some very bad people,” per the White House World Cup activity power. The Trump administration is forcing Iran’s squad to base its training camp in Tijuana, which suggests gamers have to fly to matches in Los Angeles and Seattle instead of taking every other staff’s short bus journey.

Mexico followers watch a FIFA World Cup soccer Group A matchup between Mexico and South Korea in the Boyle Heights neighborhood on Thursday.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

Every Mexico victory ought to give solace to the underdogs of the world and affirm the perception that a communion of nations engaged in pleasant rivalries is better than Trump’s proclivity for launching indiscriminate raids and bombings. To cheer for Mexico is about as American as you may get proper now.

Sydney Tran took her flip at the Fourth Street procession in a Honda Civic packed with pals. The crowd shook her car with such vigor that the 23-year-old Westminster resident couldn’t flip up the music like people shouted at her to do.

“This is crazy!” yelled Tran, who wore a Mexico soccer jersey. “I’m Vietnamese, but this is wonderful to see my Mexican friends so happy. They deserve to be happy — it’s been rough for them. It’s been rough for all immigrants.”

Mexico followers have fun a objective while watching a FIFA World Cup soccer Group A matchup between Mexico and South Korea in Boyle Heights on Thursday.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

The festivities had been still going strong when I left. Restaurants that had been often closed by 10 p.m. had strains out the door. Dance events sprouted on sidewalks. Rancheras, funk and oldies blasted all over the place. The police had been nowhere to be seen, not like last 12 months, when they broke up the anti-ICE protests with rubber bullets and tear gasoline.

Cynicism shot through me for a second. Mexico, which received on a fluke objective and two miraculous saves, stands just about no likelihood of beating soccer titans like France and Argentina once the knockout stage of the World Cup begins. Trump’s immigration staff vows that more raids are forthcoming. And I can only hope that the overwhelmingly younger crowd will take the ardour they confirmed for Mexican soccer to the poll box this November.

Then I chilled out.

Everyone around me acquired to breathe and scream and let loose their frustrations about our nation in the most pleasant manner conceivable. Reality would return the next morning — but for one night time, for a few hours, life was fantastic for Mexican Americans, and better days forward appeared attainable. Sí se puede, certainly.