Bronx Soccer Team Helps Traumatized Teens Cope With Violent Pasts – ThinkProgress

BRONX, NY — On a breezy, 78-degree Saturday afternoon in early September, more than a dozen teenagers file onto a small soccer field in the shadows of the Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New York. Some sit on the sidelines, pulling on knee-high socks and bantering with their friends. Others help hook up two portable soccer goals and netting at opposite ends of the field. Their conversations alternate between fluent Spanish and broken English.

These teens, who are members of the South Bronx United soccer program, appear like any of the other soccer players in the surrounding two fields — happy, chatty, and matching in their blue-numbered uniforms. But most of these kids also carry the nightmares of violence and poverty in Central America, memories of a 2,500-mile journey across the U.S.-Mexico border, and the uncertainties of a looming court decision that will determine whether they get to permanently stay in this country.

The vast majority of the 40-member South Bronx United soccer team consist of teenagers who crossed the southern U.S. border last year because of increasing gang violence, war, and poverty in Latin America.

Every weekend, they come to the Bronx to play soccer to give them a chance to forget about the lives they left behind.

“The idea here is to give youth who are pretty new to the country a chance to find community, find peers, and connect with positive adult role models,” Carlos Bhanji, the South Bronx United Director of Operations, told ThinkProgress. “Coming to a new country is pretty scary so the idea is to give them something familiar and a chance to give them connect with some of the other kids who may be going through the same thing.”

Elvis Garcia Callejas (left) and Carlos Bhanji (right)

CREDIT: Esther Yu-Hsi Lee

There are plenty of other kids who can relate. About 62,977 unaccompanied children crossed the southern U.S.-Mexico border into Texas last year, with as many as 495 children placed with families or sponsors in Bronx County in the 2014 fiscal year. Thousands were placed throughout New York City, an issue that led Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito to announce last year that the City Council would earmark $1.5 million for services to create the Unaccompanied Minors Initiative to provide free legal representation for children when they appear in immigration court.

Elvis Garcia Callejas, the migration counselor at Catholic Charities who works closely with South Bronx United, believes soccer can help teens transition from the trauma they faced in the past. He’s living proof. Garcia Callejas was once an unaccompanied minor who took the same journey across the border ten years ago at the age of 15 from Honduras. He grew up “very poor” and the violence in his town also drove him to leave.

“I know how important it is to have support in order for someone to succeed in life and in the community, so I want these kids to have the same opportunities that I did,” Garcia Callejas told ThinkProgress, explaining that soccer helped him stay focused in school because it provided an incentive to get good grades. “When I felt bad, I would play soccer. It would help me forget a lot about the issues that I was going through… I know that soccer does the same thing for these kids.”

“Apart from what they might have seen, apart from what they might have had to deal with, this space lets them connect with their friends, and play a sport that’s probably been a big part of their lives growing up,” Bhanji explained.

Randy, a 19-year-old Honduran immigrant.

CREDIT: Esther Yu-Hsi Lee

This month, at least six of these individuals have something else to look forward to when they meet Pope Francis during his United States tour.

Francis’ itinerary indicates that he will speak about the plight of immigrants and immigration when he visits New York City during his three-city U.S. tour at the end of September, a topic that he is expected to appeal to with lawmakers in the United States and European countries. When he makes a stop in Madison Square Garden, he will also receive a soccer ball signed by members of the South Bronx United soccer program.

“I never in my life imagined that I could see the most important person in the world,” Randy, a 19-year-old Honduran, told ThinkProgress after adding his signature to the ball. “I can’t believe it.”

“I’m going to tell [Pope Francis] to be a Real Madrid fan and not a Barcelona fan,” Randy, who agreed to be identified only by his first name, joked.

It took Randy nearly one month last year — from May 4 to June 1 — to make his way from his home in Honduras to the southern United States before he surrendered to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents in the Rio Grande Valley, Texas.

A dark-skinned Honduran of Garifuna descent with roots in West Africa, Randy didn’t leave his coastal hometown in the Tornabé province by choice. Tornabé is currently being threatened by foreign tourism developers, drug traffickers, and even the government, which is intimidating people off their lands. But as a Garifuna immigrant, he also confronted daily racism in Honduras, where job opportunities aren’t equally available for people like him.

Dropping the soccer ball he had in hand onto the turf, Randy said in a low voice, “I didn’t have the opportunity to study or live a peaceful life in any way,” alluding to violence that he would rather forget. He specifically came to New York City to reunite with his father who he hadn’t seen in ten years.

For Randy, friendship with the other soccer players comes easy because they can relate to what he’s gone through and still continues to go through.

Josué, a 16-year-old Salvadoran immigrant.

CREDIT: Esther Yu-Hsi Lee

Sixteen-year-old Josué — who also wanted to be identified only by his first name — is already on the field, balancing a soccer ball on his head as his teammate Carlos crouches behind him and playfully knocks the ball away from him. When Bhanji calls him over for a media interview, Josué casually runs over while kicking the ball side to side. Josué took a month to travel from El Salvador by walking and taking cars until he got to the southern U.S. border. He since reunited with his mother, who lives in Manhattan, and is now completing the 10th grade.

“Soccer makes me happy and it makes me forget about the problems I had in El Salvador,” Josué explained to ThinkProgress, still kicking the soccer ball between his feet. Now, he hopes that his upcoming meeting with Pope Francis will help draw attention to the violent situation going on in El Salvador.

“I want to tell him that it was my dream to meet him and I want to ask him to pray with me to make my country a better place,” Josué said.