{"id":379,"date":"2017-03-17T14:29:09","date_gmt":"2017-03-17T21:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usc2017.nextgenradio.org\/?p=379"},"modified":"2017-03-17T14:30:22","modified_gmt":"2017-03-17T21:30:22","slug":"oswaldo-finds-himself-in-los-angeles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usc2017.nextgenradio.org\/oswaldo-finds-himself-in-los-angeles\/","title":{"rendered":"Oswaldo finds himself in Los Angeles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before Oswaldo V<\/span>\u00e1<\/span>zquez arrived in the United States, he and his family researched\u00a0youth soccer leagues for him to join from their home in Mexico. Two weeks after he moved to Los Angeles, he started practicing with the Hollywood Football Club.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

 <\/p>\n

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Oswaldo V<\/span>\u00e1<\/span>zquez<\/span>\u00a0in his apartment in Chinatown before soccer practice. (Photo by Michelle Salinas)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

V<\/span>\u00e1<\/span>zquez<\/span>\u00a0returned to the United States, the country of his birth, after living in Mexico for seven years. \u201cI felt that I had reunited with myself,” he said. “When I came back to the U.S., I felt I was home.\u201d<\/p>\n

V<\/span>\u00e1<\/span>zquez<\/span>\u00a0left home when he was five years old after his dad decided to move the family to Mexico. V<\/span>\u00e1<\/span>zquez’s<\/span> parents, Angel and Eva, had expired visas so they feared getting deported and separated from their three children\u2014Sandy, Sof\u00eda and Oswaldo.<\/p>\n

Angel and Eva had both emigrated from Mexico and met while working together at a car wash in Los Angeles. Eva is from the state of Mexico and Angel is from the state of Yucat<\/span>\u00e1<\/span>n. When they decided to move the family out of the U.S., they headed to Angel\u2019s native state and relocated to Motul, a town 45 minutes from the city of Merida. <\/span><\/p>\n

Once in Mexico, Oswaldo was bullied\u00a0because of his small stature. He started playing soccer and saw that as an escape. He looked up to his dad, who played on\u00a0the Yucat<\/span>\u00e1<\/span>n soccer team when he was young.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Oswaldo at soccer practice in Miguel Contreras Learning Complex in Downtown Los Angeles. (Photo by Michelle Salinas)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Angel and Eva always promised their children they would return to the U.S. to pursue an education. \u00a0Sandy was the first to make the move. Two years after moving to Mexico, she returned to Los Angeles, moved in with her maternal aunt, Sara, and started high school. <\/span><\/p>\n

At 13, Oswaldo followed the same path. He left his family back in Mexico and moved in with his aunt, Sara, in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>The first night of me being in the U.S., all I wanted to do was rest. But I couldn’t sleep because I was thinking, ‘<\/span>Oh my God, my parents, my mom, my dad, my little sister<\/span><\/i>. <\/span>I miss them<\/span><\/i>,’ and I felt very emotional.<\/span>\u201d He adds, \u00a0\u201c<\/span>I had the support of my aunt, you know. She was my like my second mom, or I could even call her my mom.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Oswaldo credits his aunt and his older sister, Sandy, for his successful adaptation back into the U.S. \u00a0His aunt Sara said\u00a0they really made an effort to provide a welcoming space for him feel like he was home, even while away from immediate\u00a0family.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Oswaldo resting before the next drill at soccer practice in Miguel Contreras Learning Complex. (Photo by Michelle Salinas)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Today, Oswaldo keeps in contact with\u00a0them\u00a0in Mexico through text and calls. He said, <\/span>\u201cThey always tell me that every single sacrifice and every single thing that has been done has been worth it for my future, and of course for them. Because I think that if they come back in the future, I think we all can be a great family.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In hopes that they can reunite their family, Angel and Eva are applying for visas to return to the U.S. Whatever happens, they are planning on having Sof\u00eda return to the U.S. and follow in her big sister’s and brother\u2019s footsteps.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before Oswaldo V\u00e1zquez arrived in the United States, he and his family researched\u00a0youth soccer leagues for him to join from their home in Mexico. Two weeks after he moved to Los Angeles, he started practicing with the Hollywood Football Club.   V\u00e1zquez\u00a0returned to the United States, the country of his birth, after living in Mexico […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":340,"featured_media":398,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usc2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usc2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usc2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usc2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/340"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usc2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usc2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usc2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usc2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usc2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usc2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usc2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}