Long before the World Cup, soccer brought Pasco’s Latino immigrants together
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Liga 1020 was founded in winter 2012 and has grown to 36 teams.
- Players regularly travel from Portland, Seattle, Yakima and other nearby cities.
- Liga 1020 connects Latino immigrant families and builds community through soccer.
Amid strong winds and a light drizzle on a night when thunderstorms were in the forecast, 54-year-old Moises Enriquez sits in a folding chair waiting for kickoff at the championship match of La Liga 1020, better known as Pasco’s Latino soccer league.
It’s a weekly ritual he has kept since 2018, when he began organizing teams around the sport he first played as a child in his hometown of Guerrero, Mexico.
After moving from California to Pasco in 2001, Enriquez said it didn’t take long to meet other Latino immigrants who, like him, were looking for a place to play soccer.
Back then, though, the sport was nowhere near as popular as it is today. Enriquez believes that has changed because Pasco schools have increasingly embraced soccer, giving younger generations opportunities to play from an early age.
“I remember when it was really uncommon to see girls playing,” said Enriquez, who works at a jewelry store in Pasco. “But when my kids started playing in elementary school, my daughter wanted to play too, and she loved it. She kept playing until she was 19, when she suffered a fracture.”
Gearing up for the World Cup
Like Enriquez, nearly 40 spectators, parents, teenagers and children, gathered at the Pasco Sporting Complex field near Gesa Stadium to watch the championship game between two teams made up largely of young adults in their 20s who were born and raised in Pasco.
Alfredo Alcantara, 29, La Liga 1020 co-founder, said many of those players grew up coming to the fields with their parents, uncles and relatives to watch league matches after its founding in the winter of 2012.
The FIFA World Cup, which kicks off in the United States on June 15, is generating excitement across the country, but Alcantara said that enthusiasm is nothing new for the soccer community in Pasco.
“The World Cup brings attention from people who don’t usually follow soccer,” said Alcantara, who works for Gesa Credit Union. “But the people who love the game have always been here.”
Washington will host six World Cup matches in Seattle between June 15 and July 6. The city of Pasco has organized four public watch parties at Gesa Stadium and the Pasco Sporting Complex.
Immigration helped fuel Pasco soccer growth
Before the championship match begins, an over-30 team plays the final game of its tournament.
One player, Victor, 35, who asked that his last name not be published, walks off the field holding a second-place trophy and laughs when asked about his team.
“I don’t even know the name of the team I played for,” he said. “I just come to play soccer.”
Victor moved to Pasco after living in New York City, where he settled after leaving Venezuela in 2023. He said he never played soccer while in New York.
“In New York I never had the chance. I didn’t know anybody,” he said.
He found La Liga 1020 through a co-worker, who introduced him to her husband, already a player in the league.
“I’ve been playing here for about a year now,” he said.
Finding their community
German Abarca, 37, said the number of teams in the league has doubled over the past 14 years, growing to 36 teams.
After the pandemic, he said, demand surged for 7-on-7 soccer, a faster-paced version of the game played on smaller fields and in shorter matches than a traditional 90-minute game.
Standing across from the field at Pasco’s Highland Park, where he played soccer growing up, Abarca said migration to Eastern Washington has likely contributed to the sport’s growth.
“We have a team made up entirely of Colombians, another of Venezuelans, and teams with Ukrainians and Russians, Hondurans and Salvadorians,” Abarca said.
His cousin, Alfredo Alcantara, added that players regularly travel from Portland, Seattle, Yakima, Kennewick, Richland, Walla Walla, Mabton, Othello, Basin City and Benton City to compete.
Victor said he would like to attend a World Cup match in Seattle but worries about the possibility of encountering Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in May, in a video posted on X, that federal agents would be present outside stadiums every day to help combat counterfeit tickets, human trafficking, drug smuggling and the sale of counterfeit merchandise.
Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson has said local police are prohibited by state law from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement, but that the city can’t prevent federal agents from carrying out their duties.
Harold, 39, a Colombian migrant, said he would also like to attend a World Cup match in Seattle with his wife and three children.
He said he tries not to spend every day worrying about what could happen if he were detained by ICE.
“You can be here today, and a little while later everything can change,” he said.
As teammates gather around him in the stands after the game, Harold shared that he hopes to one day to return to Medellin, Colombia, where one of his daughters is suffering from an illness.
“Like everyone else, I came here to help my family,” he said. “But I arrived at a time when the economy isn’t doing well and prices keep going up. We’re happy where we live, and I don’t want to complain about the United States because it gave me opportunities. Maybe not easily, but it opened the door for me.”
Harold said shortly after arriving in Pasco, a Colombian relative introduced him to other immigrants from his home country. They began playing soccer on small fields along Sylvester Street before one of them invited him to join the Latino League.
That’s where he found a community.
“Soccer is universal no matter where you are,” he said. “For a while, you stop thinking about your problems and just play. You make friends, you meet people. We become part of the community. Sometimes we argue, sometimes we get upset with a referee’s call, but in the end we have a great time.”
