World Cup 2026: How Mexico’s run brought joy after a year of fear

For many supporters, Mexico’s role as one of the World Cup’s three host nations, combined with the team’s run to the knockout stages, created something larger than football: a rare opportunity to celebrate an identity that, for much of the previous year, had been associated with anxiety and uncertainty.

Supporters who only months earlier had worried about immigration enforcement were now singing the Mexican national anthem, waving Mexican flags and wearing El Tri shirts in public fan zones packed with families. For many, expressing their Mexican identity has never been at odds with being American.

Mr Arellano says Mexican football supporters were once frequently portrayed as “unpatriotic” for displaying Mexican flags, particularly during the anti-immigration politics of the 1990s.

“The expression of these fan bases has gotten bigger as America has gotten more diverse,” he says.

Like millions of other supporters, he had hoped Mexico might pull off one more upset.

“The cynic in me says this is what always happens to Mexico. We’re good, but we just can never truly compete against the elite of the world,” he says.

“But you know what? We never give up. So I’m proud of what they did. We didn’t give up until the very, very end. England was just a superior team.”

As the United States marks its 250th anniversary amid renewed debates over immigration and national identity, diaspora communities have turned out not only for Mexico but also for countries including Scotland, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Morocco and Egypt, revealing an America where millions maintain deep cultural ties to more than one home.

For many Mexican-Americans, it became a celebration of two homes they proudly call their own.

At what Gustavo Arellano describes as “a really difficult moment” for Latino communities, this World Cup gave many something they had been missing.

“It was,” he says, “an opportunity to express joy.”