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For nineteen straight years, the all-Hispanic boys’ soccer team from Oregon’s Woodburn High has made the playoffs. As they prepare to make it twenty, one thing will become clear: Los Perros play the beautiful game with heart, pride, and their lives on the line. Their spirited drive gives a rare sense of hope and unity to a blue-collar farming community that has been transformed by waves of immigrants over recent decades, a town locals call “Little Mexico.” Watched over by a south Texas transplant—a surrogate father to half the squad—this band of brothers must learn to come together on the field and look after each other off it.
More than just riveting sports writing, The Boys from Little Mexico is about the fight for the future of the next generation—and a hard, true look at boys dismissed as gang-bangers, told to “go home” by lily-white sideline crowds. The wins and losses they notch along the way spin a striking tale about what it takes to capture the American Dream.
- Sales Rank: #665353 in Books
- Published on: 2011-10-18
- Released on: 2011-10-18
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.90" h x .71" w x 6.00" l, .83 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 240 pages
From Booklist
The soccer team at Woodburn High holds a little-heralded record for most consecutive trips to the state playoffs: “No other high school team in Oregon, in any major sport, has been so good for so long,” writes Wilson. Yet the Bulldogs—Los Perros—aren’t a true powerhouse. Drawing from a student body that is mostly poor, mostly Mexican, Woodburn competes but, year after year, fails to win it all. In a familiar youth-sports-book format, Wilson replays the team’s 2005 season, dramatizing their title hopes game by game while profiling the people—coaches, parents, competing players, civil servants—and places around the players. Los Perros’ problem, ultimately, isn’t a lack of ability but lack of belief in their ability to succeed—a worry that, given the harsh reality facing the immigrant classes, is difficult for their well-intentioned elders to refute. The story line is strong, the perspective is thoughtful, and the on-field action is exciting. Even soccer fans, however, might wish for fewer pages of playing and more about the players. Recommended for fans of Outcasts United (2009) and A Home on the Field (2006). --Keir Graff
Review
In The Boys from Little Mexico, Steve Wilson does more than chase the American Dream—he captures it on the move. Wilson provides us with a glimpse of the future of sports in America, one that promises to be as rich and compelling as the past.—Glenn Stout, author and Series Editor of The Best American Sports Writing
"I hate soccer … but I loved this book. Steve Wilson has written a story where culture, sport, and good writing collide."—Larry Colton, former pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies and author of Counting Coup
"Just as Buzz Bissinger did in Friday Night Lights, Steve Wilson manages to achieve the unexpected: a book about sports that turns out to be about so much more. He wrests poetry out of these boys' lives, while aiming directly for that one destination where we all seek home—the heart."—Luis Alberto Urrea, author of Into the Beautiful North and The Devil's Highway
"With compassion and an unflinching eye, Steve Wilson offers us through sports a preview of a new America, one whose people may look different, but whose virtues of what we like to believe in ourselves remain triumphantly the same.—Howard Bryant, ESPN senior writer and author of The Last Hero
"A real-life account of the inequities surrounding immigration as lived by all concerned, this year in the life of the Woodburn Bulldogs offers no easy answers. The frustrations they face are saddening, but theirs is ultimately a hopeful tale. Very timely, with the World Cup in 2010!"—Dana Brigham, manager/co-owner, Brookline (Mass.) Booksmith
"The Boys from Little Mexico proves once again that the language of sports is universal. Steve Wilson takes a small corner of the world and shows how big it can be, especially when a caring coach partners with some talented players. This book is both heartbreaking and inspiring."—Madeleine Blais, author of In These Girls, Hope Is a Muscle
"The Boys from Little Mexico is an unvarnished and moving account of the dreams and despair of immigrant boys on a high school soccer team who struggle not only in their quest to win the state championship, but also in their desire to adapt as strangers in a new land. If you want to understand your new next-door neighbors, this is the book to read.—Sonia Nazario, author of Enrique's Journey
"On one level Steve Wilson has written a wonderful book about high school athletes in a community banded together by soccer glory. On another level, he's written a wonderful book about race, sociology, and the shifting borders within this country. The Boys from Little Mexico will tell you more about the next generation of Americans than census data and politicians ever could."—Bill Reynolds, author of Fall River Dreams and ’78
"American soccer is far too often viewed as a country club sport. Steve Wilson spent five years earning the trust of Los Perros in order to put a human face on the young men of America's fastest-growing minority group. With empathy and respect, Wilson reveals their compelling stories."—Grant Wahl, senior writer for Sports Illustrated and author of The Beckham Experiment
"Steve Wilson's reporting is deep and true, clear and, at times, heartbreaking. These boys come alive on the page."—David Maraniss, author of Clemente and When Pride Still Mattered
From the Hardcover edition.
About the Author
Steve Wilson is the former publisher and editor of Motionsickness: The Other Side of Travel, a critically lauded magazine that was selected as a finalist for Utne's Best New Titles for 2001. He has also been published widely in newspapers and magazines, including the Portland Tribune, American History, and Utne. A graduate of Portland State University's MA Writing Program, he teaches at PSU.
From the Hardcover edition.
Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
A different type of high-school-sports book
By Jack Morris
It seems that books on high school sports come in three varieties - books on high schools that have achieved excellence in its sport, high schools that have been very poor but shoulder on, and treatises on the evil and/or excesses of high school sports. Steve Wilson's The Boys From Little Mexico: A Season Chasing The American Dream falls into none of these categories.
Wilson's book about the Woodburn High School Bulldog soccer team is a story of immigration and its effect on education in America. It puts a face on the immigration situation and causes the reader to ponder the implications of America's immigration policy.
Wilson does that by chronicling a season with the Woodburn soccer team. The team was made of almost entirely of Hispanic boys, eight of whom were undocumented. The Bulldogs, seeming always the bridesmaid and never the bride, had never won the state championship despite being in the playoffs every year for over two decades.
The Woodburn Bulldogs season has its typical ups and downs. But interlaced in between are the stories of the boys who make up the team. In particular is the story of Octavio, a boy who had trained to play for a pro Mexican team before making his way to Woodburn.
The book does a great job in bringing to life the problems that Mexican immigrants, legal or illegal, face as they try to make a life in their adopted land. The book does bog down from time to time with some of the play by play of a soccer game. And it could be confusing trying to remember the players names especially when a couple of minor characters took on prominent roles towards the end of the season.
However this doesn't detract from the book's message. However heart-breaking the boys' stories can be at times, there is still hope for their future.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Great Story
By ReinoEMO
Most people will never bother to read a story of Hispanic males who play soccer, especially in a Football dominated society as the United States. But still, the story is about defeat, victory, and obstacles, which are things that make for a good sport-related story.
First some background history of Woodburn (tried to spoil as little as possible):
When I read books based on people or events I like doing my research. So being from Oregon this book seemed like a must read and on top of that seemed like it was imperative to learn of this town's people. This book is actually based on the Woodburn High School Varsity Soccer team, from Woodburn, Oregon. Woodburn is a town that is mostly made up of people who are immigrants, most being from Mexico. Hence, "Boys from Little Mexico". But the community is also made up of people of Russian descent, Guatemalan descent, and then the "Americans" (or people of white descent who are Western European background). But Woodburn is best known for the Woodburn Mall which is frequented by people from Washington or Canada, but by those who live near Woodburn know it most by the stereotypes that plague it, such as, gangs, poverty, and "foreigners". By the way, there can be some bias due to the fact that I am of Hispanic/Mexican descent as to why I enjoyed this book, for I can relate to a few things talked about in the book.
A bit about the book and what it is about (trying to spoil as little as possible):
The book is about a group of students, most of which are Hispanic, and about their high school's varsity soccer team that has qualified for several playoffs in a row (during the making of the book it was 20, when I read it the Woodburn Varsity Soccer Team made it about 25 years in a row and won 3 OSAAC state championships in a row). Additionally, the book details, to some extent, the hardships that the students go through, such as, most students suffer from lack of confidence in a society that both rejects and accepts them (the lack of confidence in a mostly white society is the issue I have suffered, at least to considerable extent). Not only does the book talk about that, it talks about other topics that I do not want to spoil for they are big themes talked about in the book, though the themes are big the author does not take a position on saying it was right or wrong, but merely explains the situation. Additionally, it is about Coach Mike Flannigan, a man named Omar (i will not describe who this man is since it will greatly spoil the book), and other staff members and members of the community.
Recommended for those who love sports:
If you enjoy a story about sports and the obstacles needed to be overcome then this book is for you. Also, if you are a person who like looking at the world around you through a scientific eye, though in this case through the sociological perspective, this is a book for you, even if it details problems that you may disagree with you can both enjoy a story and perhaps debate the real issues within the community.
Other thoughts:
You don't have to be a huge fan of soccer to know what the book is about and what is being talked about. It is a book mostly about the students and their mentors. There is no complicated soccer-related slang or terminology, but there are multiple Spanish words used to better describe who the students are, Hispanic students (some born in USA others born in Mexico or Central America). Are the Spanish words complicated? Not really, for it is a single word or two that easily stand out, especially when they are italicized. The words used in the book also do a great job of helping to make the students seem like actual teenagers, or somewhat immature teens. While also making them show their school spirit by using the team's nickname (kind of like how the Portland Blazers use Rip City).
Sadly, though in my opinion the book The Boys from Little Mexico is worthy of being movie-material, not because it is not that good, but because it will never happen since it is NOT a book about Basketball a sport that has a great scouting and youth-development program that finds potential stars in lower income neighborhoods, or Baseball the sport considered America's past-time, and arguably America's favorite sport and arguably most intense and televised sport, Football.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Strong on Immigration / Weak on Soccer
By A. Ross
I'm generally up for any soccer-related book, and this examination of an Oregon high school team comprised almost exclusively of first-generation immigrants (both documented and not) from Mexico promised to be an engaging read. Of course, like all the best "sports" books, its more interesting aspects are about society, not the sport.
The book's framework is the Woodburn High School 2005 boy's soccer season, as the team attempts to make the playoffs for the 20th straight year and win the state championship, after falling short for just as long. Unfortunately, soccer is hard to write about, and Wilson doesn't do a great job capturing the action. Indeed, the book is riddled with obvious mistakes in terminology that will irk most soccer fans (for example, calling the sideline the "foul line" at one point, referring to a "drive" into territory as if it was American football, repeatedly describing free kicks as "foul kicks," using the word "kick" when more specific ones like "cross" or "punt" would make more sense, etc.), which begs the question as to why the publisher didn't hand the manuscript to a random soccer fan to read for accuracy and clarity. The team itself never really comes alive on the page -- there are a few bigger personalities, but everyone else sort of fades into a jumble. It also doesn't help that the season is inexplicably short, which doesn't give Wilson that long to paint a richer picture.
What Wilson does do extremely well is document the history of Mexican immigration to the Oregon valley, starting with the Bracero Program in the 1940s. Some of the best parts are those detailing the wrenching choices parents and children have to make about whether or not to cross the border and perhaps never see each other for years -- or ever again. At the same time, Wilson does a nice job showing how the small town of Woodburn (about halfway between Portland and Salem, on I-5), and especially the school, struggled to adapt to the influx of immigrants. And this is reflected back in the kids, who struggle to adapt to the U.S. and what their future will be, and struggle with confidence and self-esteem. One theme that struck me was the concept that in a lot of these families, the kids are considered more or less adults at age 16 and given the responsibility to make decisions -- often totally on their own -- that will affect the rest of their lives. In that sense, the book succeeds as a sociological portrait of a slice of immigrant community, a portrait that will help anyone with an open mind empathize with the struggles of new immigrants, regardless of their status.
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