A Home on the Field: How One Championship Team Inspires Hope for the Revival of Small Town America

Realistically I probably wouldn't rate this book a 5, if giving it that rating meant that it was one of my favorite books. It's not quite there - but it's a very meaningful story, and doesn't deserve the low rating it currently has at all. I did find the descriptions of the soccer matches boring, but overall...the depictions of immigrant life is very absorbing and impacting, and will be educational for many.

Remarkable and well-written story of Latino high school students who win the North Carolina state soccer championship. Let me underscore that it's good sports writing, as well as reasonable social analysis. The author is both the coach of the team and a magazine reporter. White supremacists are sure not to like this book, as klansman David Duke himself denounced these kids. The story of "Los Jets" will win the hearts of all real Americans, just as they won the struggle against racism and poverty.

A coach has a dream of creating a soccer team for a group of High School Latino boys in the eastern part of North Carolina. Hate groups and difficult obstacles were overcome by determination and perserverance. Immigration is a hot topic among so many Americans. The children of illegal parents suffer quietly to much abuse in many communities. What is the answer? I believe you should be able to come to America and apply to be an American citizen, but do it the legal way. But then I look at families who are starving,and living in a country that does not take care or care for their own people. Most of these people are honest, down to earth, hard working people. What is the answer to this problem? First of all, hate will never be the answer. There has to be a solution, and Congress is doing nothing to solve the issues.

This book has a lot to say about the experience immigrants (especially young immigrants) have in America. Excellent book.

A Home on the Field "That which hath been is that which shall be...And there is nothing new under the sun." Ecclesiastes I:9 Assimilation of new Americans can be a slow difficult process. But it is not a new process. And while Congress and the country debate immigration issues, hopefully they may look to Siler City and see how a town and a team came together and learned how to share. In early 2000 a group of Latino high school students in Siler City, NC (population 8,000) petitioned to start a soccer team. The locals were skeptical. "What is this sport, and what are they doing on our football field, which is sacred ground?" In the end the students won a state championship and found A Home on the Field. They are striving to find a home in America too. For the past 15 years this country has been experiencing a silent migration of Mexicans and other Latin Americans into the interior of the country, finding jobs at places like the chicken processing plant in Siler City. Author Paul Cuadros (son of Peruvian immigrants) blames the migration in part on NAFTA which allowed the Mexican state run economy to procure heavily subsidized American corn to feed their poor, displacing Mexican farmers. Cuadros also blames Mexico and its ruling class for never really providing adequate education or meaningful jobs to create a middle class from the poor. Inevitably, the population moves to greater opportunities. This has been the story of U.S. immigration since its founding. But the old ties don't break easily. They never do. The immigrant workers still remain largely isolated by language and culture from mainstream American society. Cuadros points out that while he was born a minority, he will not die one. Given anticipated population trends, by 2050 half the U.S. population will be non-white, and half of that will be Hispanic. There will be no one majority, so the concept of minorities will lose their meaning. How we deal with this transition is a major challenge of the 21st Century. Cuadros likens the transition to the stages of grieving, from denial to anger and eventually to acceptance. Siler City is well along in that process, helped to a great extent by its state championship soccer team. But it wasn't easy. Early on there was a tremendous anti-immigrant reaction by the locals, capped off by a rally in the town square featuring David Duke, former grand dragon of the KKK and erstwhile politician. Duke bashed the poultry plant and its workers, but rather than continue the rally with a march on the poultry plant, he and his entourage adjourned to lunch at a local restaurant where they filled up on fried chicken. The hypocrisy is revealing. They don't want the workers and their families, but they sure want their chicken. Likewise, Americans want their tomatoes and blueberries picked, their lawns manicured, their Christmas trees cut and their meat packed. And they want it done cheaply, efficiently and invisibly. This reflects the great dichotomy of t