scheduling a yearlong calendar of games (Torres Carbajal and. Cardenas 1993). The structural development of the leagues led to their affiliation with wider ...
Human Organization, Vol. 76, No. 1, 2017 Copyright © 2017 by the Society for Applied Anthropology 0018-7259/17/010028-10$1.50/1
Leveling the Field: Soccer, Farmworkers, and Citizenship in the California San Joaquin Valley Hugo Santos-Gómez Across the San Joaquin Valley in California, the epicenter of the state’s agribusiness, soccer organizations frequently engage and negotiate with political institutions and serve as public forums for civil society by bringing together assemblages of people, gathered upon their own will, who debate issues of common concern. This article demonstrates how a close examination of soccer organizational activities can elucidate some of the processes through which farmworkers become part of an active civil society by participating in the public sphere and, ultimately, stimulating novel forms of substantial citizenship. The research findings suggest that focusing the ethnographic gaze on soccer organizations in farmworker communities renders visible ongoing processes of interaction between local governments and their constituencies, in this case farmworkers, making them both more approachable partners for local development projects beyond playing soccer. Key words: California, citizenship, farmworkers, agriculture, soccer, civil society
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n a cold afternoon, typical of the spring time in the San Joaquin Valley, I was visiting McFarland’s Browning Park. It had been just three weeks since the annual soccer tournament had started, and therefore, the playing season was in full swing. That afternoon, the game was between a local squad—one of five teams belonging to the league in this town—and a team coming from the neighboring town of Delano. Following this first encounter, another game was scheduled, this time between two teams also from nearby communities. Located in McFarland’s outskirts, the park is one of two recreational spaces in town and the only one with soccer fields. It is one of the league’s preferred locations for playing, particularly for night games. Besides its well-kept grass, it is one of the few in the vicinity that has floodlights. This resource is greatly appreciated, particularly during the short days of winter, when players find themselves finishing their workday in the agricultural fields almost at dusk, forcing the games into the evening hours. As soon as the referee called the teams to the field to
Hugo Santos- Gómez is a research assistant at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he obtained his Ph.D. degree in sociocultural anthropology in 2010. Funding for this research was provided by the University of California Institute for Mexico and the United States (UCMEXUS), the University of California Labor and Employment Research Fund (UC-L&ERF), and Mexico’s National Council of Science and Technology (CONACyT). The author is thankful for all their support. He would also like to thank Juan Vicente Palerm for reviewing and discussing this manuscript, his ideas and suggestions were fundamental to the improvement of this article. The author truly appreciates Human Organization editor Sarah Lyon; her support was key in transforming previous versions of the manuscript into a readable piece.
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start the game, one by one, each player handed the referee the identifications that accredited them as good standing members of their teams and the league. Soon after, a long whistle sounded, indicating that the game was officially started. The players yelled to each other, calling out for the ball. The coaches at the sidelines were also yelling, at times giving indications to the players and at others objecting to the referee’s decisions. From the stands, the fans cheered the local team, occasionally scorning and complaining about the visitors’ rough play. The game ended with a draw between the opponents. Given the thrill that characterized the encounter, the result produced a sense of disappointment among the public. As it was getting late—and the next day most of the people had to wake up early in order to be ready for another day of labor in the fields—the park calmly but rapidly vacated. Soccer in California’s San Joaquin Valley is increasingly becoming a catalyzing vehicle for civic and political engagement through which farmworkers participate in the local public and political spheres of their communities. The research findings suggest that focusing the ethnographic gaze on soccer organizations in farmworker communities renders visible ongoing processes of interaction between local governments and their constituencies, in this case farmworkers, making them both more approachable partners for local development projects beyond playing soccer. The bulk of data for this article comes from ethnographic fieldwork done in the San Joaquin Valley of California, interviews with representatives of the Central Valley Soccer League and local public officials, and participation observation at all league related events for more than one entire playing season. HUMAN ORGANIZATION
Soccer Intersects Citizenship Scenes like this one at McFarland’s Browning Park are, to a great extent, a product of a complex set of processes put in motion by the arrival and settling down of immigrants from south of the border who—attracted by the increasing employment opportunities—make their way to the agricultural fields of California, where farms depend critically on their labor (Aguirre International 2005; Khan, Martin, and Hardiman 2003; Palerm 1991). Organizing themselves into soccer teams has become a vehicle for farmworkers to dialogue with local governments and other public agencies. Most of the time, conversations surround the players’ access to public venues for play. Usually, these encounters trigger processes of mutual recognition, bringing farmworkers “out of the shadows” (Chavez 1995), at the same time that they obligate local governments to acknowledge their newer and growing constituencies. Soccer, as it is practiced in the San Joaquin Valley, provides an opportunity to explore one of the routes through which farmworkers strive for inclusion into the social, political, and cultural spheres of the communities where they live throughout California’s rural communities. In order to shed some light on this process, this article considers the concept of citizenship, which, regardless of its contested uses and critiques (Benhabib 2004; Castles and Davidson 2000; Fraser and Gordon 1994; Glenn 2000; Holston and Appadurai 1999; Kymlicka and Norman 1994; Shklar 1998; Soysal 1994; Turner 1993), is still a useful theoretical approach for understanding the process of social inclusion within California’s sociopolitical rural landscape (Santos-Gomez 2014). A rural society with one of the most capitalized and advanced agricultures in the nation, if not the world, California still depends on the participation of a massive immigrant labor force, which is 30 to 50 percent constituted by undocumented immigrants (Aguirre International 2005; Khan, Martin, and Hardiman 2003). Focusing on the Central Valley Soccer League (CVSL), one of the numerous leagues formed by farmworkers across the Valley, this article examines the expanding practice of soccer as a form of substantial citizenship. It describes some of the league’s inner workings in order to highlight both the range of issues with which it engages on an everyday basis including organizing tournaments, maintaining membership, enforcing rules, dialoging with local officials, and establishing collective procedures.
Soccer, Inroads into Citizenship Citizenship, according to Marshall (1950), has a fluid nature that must be looked at from a double perspective (Glenn 2000): on the one hand as a formally or legally conferred status, on the other hand as a substantial practice. While the first refers to the rights already codified in law, the second refers to the actual realization of those rights. As formal membership, citizenship confers rights to and determines duties of those deemed citizens. However, these entitlements could VOL. 76, NO. 1, SPRING 2017
be out of reach for some citizens when, for example, they lack the means to effectively make their claims. In contrast, citizenship as substantial practice implies the opposite: the lack of formal membership does not automatically exclude people from claiming certain or limited rights. Thus, while the law defines the formal aspects of citizenship, the actual exercise of rights in concrete and everyday life situations is what reveals its substantive aspects. This article explores substantial citizenship, looking at how soccer playing farmworkers make claims of membership and their capacity for collective organization. Sports are used here as a methodological window into broader social processes; in this case looking at farmworkers’ collective action—for example, playing soccer—which in this article, I consider an indication of self-organization, a capacity for agency, and a struggle for inclusion into the social spaces of the broader community. Eighteen months of research were conducted between 2005 and 2007 in the northern part of Kern County, one of the most capitalized and industrialized agricultural areas in the state of California, if not the United States. The ethnographic fieldwork included participant observation and interviews among a cross-section of people working and residing in the localities of the area, including active soccer players. Archival information was also collected, particularly from the local history section of the Beale Memorial Library in Bakersfield, California. Fifteen semi-structured open-ended interviews with leaders and organizers of the Central Valley Soccer League and elected local officials and municipal managers, both in Delano and McFarland, constitute the backbone of the research. I also conducted twelve semi-structured interviews with soccer players who are members of the league. In addition, attendance at soccer games was part of my weekly routine while in the field. I followed the league’s activities (board meetings, games, tournaments, celebrations, etc.) for more than one entire playing season.
Agricultural Reintensification and Farmworker Settlement California’s agricultural system is undergoing radical changes. The increasing cultivation of specialty, high value crops has taken precedence over the production of field crops. This shift has triggered important transformations. Specialty, high value crops require large inputs of human labor across multiple seasons, which in turn, fosters the settlement of farmworkers. Small rural communities scattered all over the agricultural geography of the state have turned into places of permanent residence for a labor force that not long ago used to be highly mobile, traveling from one agricultural region to the next, always in search of employment opportunities. An illustrative example of the settlement process taking place in the core agricultural regions of California is McFarland itself, which has undergone a profound transformation in the composition of its population, its demographic profile changing over the course of the past several decades from an Anglo majority 29
Figure 1. McFarland, California, Hispanic and NonHispanic Population Changes 1970-2010 (United States Census Bureau)
to a predominantly Hispanic population largely consisting of agricultural wage laborers in the present (see Figure 1). As part of the same trend, the state’s agricultural labor force has grown accordingly (Alarcon 1995; Palerm 1991). In 1989, California hired 24 percent of United States farmworkers. By 2005, the state employed roughly 36 percent (about 1.1 million individuals) of the total number of farmworkers in the United States. Since the pioneering studies of Taylor (1936) and McWilliams (1969) on California’s agricultural development, the disenfranchisement of workers has been depicted as one of its most salient and poignant aspects. Reliant on a poorly remunerated and massive work force, mostly constituted by immigrant ethnic minorities, California’s agricultural system is one of the most productive, capitalized, and profitable in the United States (California Department of Food and Agriculture 2012). However, given its seasonal nature and the variable labor demands, which shift according to the biological cycle of the plants, this production system was historically incapable of providing a stable source of employment and therefore persistently resorted to immigrants in order to satisfy its labor requirements. The arrival of a large number of immigrants deemed culturally and racially different, in addition to the dominant perception of farm labor as an unskilled, low status job characterized by low wages and poor labor conditions, deterred the local labor force from working in the fields, configuring a situation characterized by Taylor, Martin, and Fix (1997) as a “revolving door” of agricultural labor, which served as a point of entry for immigrants who frequently move on in search for better jobs. In the mid-1940s, Goldschmidt (1978) researched the effects of industrial agriculture on rural communities in California’s Central Valley. This was the first anthropological attempt to ethnographically explore the relations between industrialized agriculture and community well-being. Based on his prolific and detailed ethnography, Goldschmidt arrived at the conclusion that the concentrated ownership of farming operations 30
and the presence of a large number of hired workers led to the transformation of rural communities into settlements of segregated social groups defined in terms of class and ethnic attributes. The growing trend toward the consolidation of industrial agriculture in rural America—from hog and poultry production, to meatpacking and even organic crops—has brought Goldschmidt’s study back to the forefront once again (Guthman 2004; Kirschenmann et al. 2008; Lobao and Meyer 2001; Lyson 2004; Ramirez-Ferrero 2005; Striffler 2005; Stull and Broadway 2004; Tolbert et al. 2002). In contrast to Goldschmidt’s claim that large farms depending upon immigrant wage labor were undermining community institutions, Chicano historiography has documented process of civil society formation. For example, Gonzalez (1994), Garcia (2001), and Alamillo (2006) each describe the ways in which farmworkers within the citrus industry of southern California were able to resist their subordination by building up a diverse set of sporting and other leisure pursuit associations. These activities were a contested arena where farmworkers exerted agency and self-determination vis-à-vis growers, the state, and the society at large. Du Bry (2007) and Haley (2009) also described instances of more inclusive community institution building processes and social mobility among farmworkers. The ethnographic findings described in this article coincide with these scholars’ rebuttals of the “Goldschmidt Hypothesis” (Young 1994). In the present-day San Joaquin Valley, large-scale industrial agriculture does not necessarily produce unfavorable prospects for farmworkers’ active engagement in creating and participating in community institutions.
From Sojourners—to Settlers—to Soccer Organizers As a form of community organizations, soccer leagues in the San Joaquin Valley are to a great extent the result of the growing number of farmworkers established and living on a permanent basis in the myriad of rural settlements scattered throughout the region. Since the beginnings of industrial agriculture in California, most farmworkers were sojourners, traveling back and forth, working in the United States agricultural fields, and returning to their places of origin once the employment season was over (Palerm 1991, 2002; Palerm and Urquiola 1993). In those years, their sporting practices were characterized by organizational spontaneity and informality. For example, in the early 1970s, one of the few existing teams was assembled primarily during the harvest season, when most farmworkers used to stay in the Valley. When the season was over, most of the players returned to Mexico. However, as farmworkers increasingly began to settle down in the Valley, more and more leagues started to form; at the same time, those that were already functioning became more formal and sophisticated. By the early 1980s, the southern portion of the San Joaquin Valley hosted at least three different leagues: Central Valley Soccer League, Bakersfield Soccer League, and the Orosi Soccer League, HUMAN ORGANIZATION
headquartered in Delano, Bakersfield, and Orosi respectively. More importantly, at this time, these leagues began electing boards, establishing membership rules, collecting dues, and scheduling a yearlong calendar of games (Torres Carbajal and Cardenas 1993). The structural development of the leagues led to their affiliation with wider organizations such as the California Soccer Associations and the United States Soccer Federation, at the same time that it paved the way for them to engage with local authorities. The life trajectory of one of my informants, a former soccer player, illustrates how the formation of structured teams and leagues concurred with the growing process of farm labor force settlement (Palerm 1991, 2002). This formalization is intelligible only if it is considered alongside the transformation of the farmworkers from sojourners to settlers over the last three to four decades. In his experience as a migrant worker, Mr. Pineda (a pseudonym) followed in the footsteps of his father, who started his annual trek to California’s agricultural fields during the mid-1950s. In his youth, he joined his father on his trips back and forth between Mexico and California, working in the vineyards for four to six months at a time. Years later, the expansion of grape, citrus, and other crops in the San Joaquin Valley fostered opportunities for extended periods of agricultural employment. This provided opportunities for the family to put more of its members to work, improving its economic situation. So, by the mid-1970s, the whole family (parents and siblings) decided to relocate to Delano, California, becoming de facto permanent settlers.
Soccer, Civil Society, Public Sphere Soccer makes visible farmworkers’ activism in civil society. Their efforts to create structured and dynamic organizations, their frequent encounters with local officials and institutions, their public performances, and their constant struggles for better playing conditions resemble the situation described by Archetti (2001) and Elsey (2011) regarding Argentinean and Chilean cities respectively, where the organization of soccer players became a breeding ground for civil society in working class neighborhoods. By the same token, through their public performances and their disputes over access to public resources and venues, soccer players in the San Joaquin Valley make overt statements about their struggles for social inclusion and community membership. Headquartered in Delano, the heart of table grape production in California (CDFA 2012), the CVSL illustrates the kind of struggles soccer players experience in their everyday endeavors. The league, as an association of a multitude of soccer teams coming from nearby towns, is the context where soccer players decide as a group on courses of action, ranging from the organization of tournaments and encounters with local authorities in the locations where the member teams are based to the constant exchanges with regional, state, and national sports organizations with which they are affiliated. These encounters may include negotiations for access to sporting venues, the commitment of the league to participate VOL. 76, NO. 1, SPRING 2017
in local festivals by organizing short tournaments, and, in some instances, its participation in wider political struggles such as the pro-immigrant reform demonstrations that swept several cities across the nation in 2006. Notably, it is through the league that most of the negotiations between players and local institutions—such as city councils, school districts, and other community organizations—are conceived and put in motion. Such engagements and negotiations with institutions and office holders enhance the farmworkers’ role as legitimate political actors. Their collective actions, either as players belonging to a team or as members of more complex organizations such as the league, turn them into active members of an emerging civil society: on the one hand, as individuals organized into structured associations and, on the other, as associations through which they participate in an open and public debate over the access and use of common resources. Similar leagues have proliferated throughout the Valley, and there are now a significant number of soccer leagues in the Valley formed by farmworkers, most of them facing similar challenges. The growth of these organizations is illustrated in Table 1, which also hints at the ongoing tensions involved in the transformation of the recreational landscapes of the San Joaquin Valley. In fact, the way soccer is organized and practiced in the Valley challenges assumptions of the farm working class as passive victims of oppression, lacking power and agency (Goldschmidt 1978; Griffith and Kissam 1995; Taylor, Martin, and Fix 1997; Thu and Durrenberger 1998; Tolbert et al. 2002). Instead, it represents a contested arena in which the agricultural laborers contend for spaces of autonomy vis-à-vis dominant classes in order to put in practice their preferred ideas of leisure (Rosenzweig 1983). In fact, soccer organizations, their performances in the public space, and their frequent engagements and negotiations with political institutions in farmworker towns all over the San Joaquin Valley together resemble what has been traditionally deemed one of the defining aspects of civil society: assemblages of people gathered upon their own will and debating issues of common concern (Habermas 1989). Serious Soccer: The Formalization of a Popular Sport At its very inception in the early 1980s, the CVSL was affiliated with wider and encompassing organizations, such as the California Soccer Association. In doing so, it automatically became affiliated with wider associations: the United States Adult Soccer Association (USASA), which is the organization in charge of amateur soccer for people nineteen years and older in the country and is a branch of the United States Soccer Federation, which in turn is part of the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), which oversees them all. Several of the leagues active in the region did the same. Some other leagues never affiliated or renounced their affiliation with the California Soccer Association. The connections to these wider organizations evince their activity as part and parcel of a global phenomenon: 31
Table 1. Adult Amateur Soccer Leagues in the San Joaquin Valley+
Headquarters County Teams
Dinuba Soccer League* Cesar Chavez Soccer League* San Joaquin Soccer League Valley United Soccer League* Sanger Soccer League* Azteca Soccer League* Bakersfield Soccer League Valley Soccer League Central Valley Soccer League South Valley Soccer League Madera Liberty Soccer League Central California Soccer League Sacramento Adult Soccer League Sacramento Women’s Soccer League Exeter Soccer League Porterville-Lindsay Soccer League Orosi Soccer League* Tulare Adult Soccer League* Visalia Soccer League*
Dinuba Fresno Fresno Fresno Sanger Bakersfield Bakersfield Bakersfield Delano Lemoore Madera Sacramento Sacramento Sacramento Exeter Lindsay Orosi Tulare Visalia
Fresno Fresno Fresno Fresno Fresno Kern Kern Kern Kern Kings Madera Sacramento Sacramento Sacramento Tulare Tulare Tulare Tulare Tulare
15 120 25 25 20 8 65 60 30 20 25 30 30 30 15 20 30 20 15
This is not an exhaustive listing; there may be a number of other non-affiliated leagues currently active. * Leagues not affiliated to USASA +
Sources: California Soccer Association – North, California Soccer Association – South, local newspapers, local informants
soccer is a cultural practice literally extended all over the globe, and it has reached the San Joaquin Valley through the complex interconnections of migration, labor, and industrial agriculture. Figure 2 illustrates the place of USASA—and through this, the place of the CVSL—within organized soccer in the United States: Affiliation with these wider organizations requires the league to comply with certain stipulations. For example, it is compulsory to have medical insurance for players. In addition to this, most of the schools and public parks in the towns where the league holds its games require liability insurance in case there is any damage to the facilities. In both cases—medical and liability insurances—the state soccer association provides the affiliated league with affordable options. The state association also keeps records of each individual member, providing each player with identification cards they can use to demonstrate their standing as members of their league. Being members of these state and national associations also allows the players and teams to participate in state and national tournaments, if they are up to the challenge. These opportunities promote forms of interdependence with umbrella organizations, which require subordination to governing bodies that set forth the conditions for the regular functioning of the leagues. Chief among these regulations and resources are the provision and consistent application of rules; maintenance of membership records; the provision of services (such as low-cost medical and liability insurance); and prompt intervention, negotiation, and conflict resolution 32
when disputes break out within the affiliated leagues. There are a number of leagues not affiliated with the state soccer associations. One of these non-affiliated leagues, headquartered in the city of Tulare, the heart of dairy production in the Valley, was afflicted by serious organizational problems caused by, among other issues, a constant turnover of board members. In turn, this made their tournaments not very attractive to farmworker players. Nonetheless, it was one of the few organizations, if not the only one, adapted to the unorthodox schedules of people working in the dairy industry. Most of its games were usually held late at night on weekdays. In contrast, there are cases of non-affiliated leagues whose organization and functioning are a motive of inconspicuous envy by others, for example, the Orosi Soccer League. This league believes its possible affiliation with the state and national associations would not offer them better options than the ones they have been able to obtain by themselves, for example, insurance, disciplinary measures, and conflict mediation resources. In other words, being a non-affiliated league does not necessarily mean informality. Most of the leagues keep records and control of their membership and follow procedures to organize their activities and solve their conflicts; of course, some are more successful than others. Equally important is the fact that most leagues maintain relations with schools and local governments, which in most cases are the gatekeepers to strategic resources, including appropriated spaces in which to play and train. Soccer players must traverse different bureaucratic paths and procedures in HUMAN ORGANIZATION
order to get access to public facilities. As is the case for the CVSL, the majority of the leagues in the Valley hold games almost yearlong. This is why access to sporting facilities is becoming a critical issue. Thus, it is strategically important for them to maintain fluid communications with public officials as much as possible.
Figure 2. Organizational Structure of United States Affiliated Soccer (United States Soccer Federation 2006)
Dealing with the Everyday: Enforcing Rules The vignette below illustrates the inner workings of the CVSL. The way conflicts are expressed, negotiated, and settled helps to delineate and make visible the formalized resources and procedures through which the league deals with its everyday activities. The event described occurred during one of the league’s regular weekly meetings and demonstrates how the board enforces rules against violence and rough play in the field, while simultaneously promoting practical solutions to the not uncommon outbreak of violent events and aggressive behavior among players. The CVSL usually holds meetings at the Veterans’ Hall, which is a comfortable and spacious air-conditioned room, used mostly as a place for community gatherings. The meeting was on a Monday evening. The agenda included the following items: (1) roll call; (2) the last week’s game results, team standings, and rankings; (3) insurance payments, fines, and debts; (4) disciplinary measures; (5) issues not included in the agenda; and (6) the schedule of games for the coming week. The meeting was conducted in Spanish, but English was spoken among a small group of youngsters engaged in a sotto voce chat. The first three items on the agenda were rapidly processed. All present approved the board’s report about results and incidents of the games played during the past week. In the same manner, the dues, fees, and fines owed both by individual players and teams were rapidly processed. Most of these debts were related to overdue insurance payments: every team is required to pay about $30 per season per player enrolled in its ranks. However, the discussion that ensued over item number four lasted most of the nearly three-and-a-half-hour long meeting. It is well known that disciplinary measures have always been a very controversial subject within the league. One of the referees reported to the league’s board that he suffered an aggression from a player. After a violent play exercised by a defense against a forward from the opposite team, the referee sanctioned the fault with a penalty. The sanctioned players objected to the referee’s decision on two grounds: first, they alleged that the play itself was not so violent; and second, the penalty would give the other team an advantage rather difficult to overcome, and in the end, would tilt the score in favor of the opponent. The argument between the referee and the disgruntled players escalated to the point at which the players kicked the referee. During the meeting, the board not only backed the referee’s decision but also imposed additional disciplinary measures against the aggressors: a $100 fine and suspension from the league for a full year. It was mentioned that despite the seriousness of the offense, the board was meting out a comparatively mild VOL. 76, NO. 1, SPRING 2017
AFC: Asian Football Confederation AAFC: Confederation of African Football CONCACAF: Confederation of North, Central, and the Caribbean Association Football CONMEBOL: Confederation of South America Football OFC: Oceania Football Federation UEFA: Union of European Football Associations USSF: United States Soccer Federation MLS: Major League Soccer USL: United Soccer Leagues MISL: Major Indoor Soccer Leagues USYS: United States Youth Soccer AYSO: American Youth Soccer Organization SAY: Soccer Association for Youth USCS: United States Club Soccer USASA: United States Adult Soccer Association USAF: United States Armed Forces (Athletics) NSCAA: National Soccer Coaches Association of America SICA: Soccer Industries Council of America USIA: United States Indoor Association USSSA: United States Speciality Sports Association Source: United States Soccer Federation 2006.
punishment. The coach, as the representative of the punished team, objected to the penalty, arguing that it was unfair. After all, the players had already submitted a letter accepting blame for the incident and apologizing for it. The effect of the oneyear ban is far-reaching because any player who is suspended from the league, or any other affiliated with the state soccer associations or the United States Adult Soccer Association (USASA), is automatically prevented from joining any team or league during the time of their ban. Given its severity, the punishment was debated long and hard. With the debate lingering in stalemate, the president 33
of the league intervened on the board’s behalf, putting an end to the nearly three-hour long debate: the penalty would be imposed on the offenders. “If the disciplined players or their coach do not accept the measure and want to object,” the president said, “they have the right to do that before the state soccer association or even the United States Soccer Federation. The board is determined to deter any kind of violence from happening within the league. If it is necessary,” he warned the audience, “in the event of violent behavior on the fields, the police may well be called.” The President then cited a recent case of a brawl at a game held in Delano. On that occasion, after a rough play in the midst of a game, players of both teams engaged in a fistfight. Unable to bring order to the field and anticipating the escalation of the confrontation, the referee decided to call the local police. As a result of police intervention, two players were indicted with felony charges and put in jail for several days. Additionally, the accused were subjected to an injunction that prevented them from approaching any soccer field in the area for a full year. Simultaneously, the board enforced its own regulations, expelling the violent players from its ranks and permanently banning them from joining the organization. This event highlights how the league operates as a body enabling debates and discussions among its members, in this case regarding the infringement of rules. The enforcement of disciplinary measures has been a persistent issue for the league, and for that matter, for most of the leagues in the area. In fact, while watching a game, it is not difficult to perceive how certain values associated with a particular notion of masculinity that are highly regarded by both bystanders and players alike, such as strength, bravery, cunning, and stoicism, structure play among the most admired players. That is why there is a sharp line differentiating plain aggression from rough play. The league has to assemble and conduct a debate according to rules and eventually be able to reach agreements. In addition, this event shows how the enforcement of rules and penalties rests not only on the league itself but also on community resources such as the local police departments, which in turn reinforces links to the larger community. When fights break out during the games and the police are called to intervene, they do not enforce immigration laws and rules, and this confers upon them a degree of trust by farmworkers, regardless of their immigrant status in the country. Finally, given the league’s membership in wider organizations (state and national soccer associations), the enforcement of rules has far-reaching consequences, rendering visible the league’s broader connections within a network of social relationships well beyond the limits of the community where its members reside.
Public Engagements: Where to Play? The negotiations between the league and local authorities regarding access to public fields described below demonstrate how soccer players become an active public in the Habermasian sense (Habermas 1989) by venturing into the public arena to engage political authorities and make claims for their 34
rights to public spaces for play, a process that consequently legitimizes their status as community members. Planned a month in advance, this particular league meeting was scheduled to be held on the street outside of the City Hall, just prior to the start of the City Council meeting. The league planned to gather all the teams’ representatives in order to inquire about the status of the construction of a number of soccer fields that the City Council long ago agreed to build. While the council members were in what appeared to be the beginning of a rather routine session, the members of the league waited outside in the street. Inside the Chamber, the five council members, the city staff, eight members of the police department, and ten members of the public were the only occupants of the spacious hall. At a certain point, when the meeting was about to start, the idle chitchat characteristic of these sessions came to an abrupt stop. Everybody in the hall looked somewhat disconcerted as the league’s members quickly and orderly entered the room, filling it to capacity. The group of almost a hundred people was diverse, including the league’s board members, young soccer players, team coaches, as well as some of their wives and children. All the league representatives were there, regardless of where their teams were based. After the entire soccer league’s delegation was inside, the meeting was called to order. Once the mayor opened the council session for public comments, one member of the league, a Hispanic school teacher, stood up and asked permission to address the City Council about the league’s concerns. As a representative of the CVSL, he stated that they were there to respectfully inquire about the promised soccer fields, a commitment made several years prior yet still unmet. He emphasized that they were there as responsible members of the community, as taxpayers aware of the righteousness of their petitions, and most importantly of all, as people concerned about the recreational opportunities for the community’s youth. The league’s spokesperson asked the city for information about the state of the soccer fields project, indicating that for some twenty years they had been told repeatedly that the fields’ construction was imminent. However, up to this day, the project was still that: a project. Today, he said, the league, its players, and all those people related in one way or another to the practice of soccer in the area, were not disposed to wait any longer and expected clear commitment from the council members. After expressing his positive opinions of the league’s activities in the community, the City Manager asked the head of the department of parks and recreation to answer the players’ concerns. In a brief but substantial fashion, he explained to the audience that the project was delayed due to unexpected circumstances, ranging from the difficulty of finding a place to build the soccer fields to the rising costs of the land. However, the league considered such justifications untenable since they had been repeated over the span of several years. Furthermore, the league considered these continuous postponements a sign of the disregard the local authorities had for the soccer players’ concerns. The heated debate that ensued between the city official and the league’s spokesperson came to an end thanks to the HUMAN ORGANIZATION
mayor’s intervention. In a more conciliatory manner, the mayor admitted that, in fact, there had been disregard for soccer players’ needs and claims. In an attempt to redress the neglect, the mayor agreed to give monthly updates on the progress of the soccer field construction. This way, the mayor explained, the league and the community at large could follow, step by step, the completion of the project. Once the soccer field construction project debate came to a close, the league’s spokesperson asked the city council— following the formalities of etiquette proper for this kind of meeting—for permission to leave the session. Just as orderly and swiftly as the league’s members had entered the hall, they vacated it, leaving the room semi-empty. Once outside, the spokesperson made a brief report to the league members in Spanish in order to summarize the conversation for those who did not speak English. The president of the league also addressed the crowd, indicating that there had been previous attempts to formally contact the local authority. However, this was the first time the league came to the City Council meeting as a group. He explained, “This time, they—the city council members—were able to see how many we are, and they also saw our determination. They have to understand that our claim is fair, that the project is something good for the community as a whole, and more importantly that we are a lot.” Through these actions, soccer players formed a Habermasian public in two senses: first, as actors whose legitimacy is continually claimed and eventually recognized, regardless of their legal status in the United States, and second, by becoming an active public at the very moment of their sporting performances during soccer games in public spaces with the tacit or overt consent of the authorities. In short, the players serve as representatives of the population who bestow legitimacy and power on their political representatives. These debates between leagues and political authorities over access to public spaces reveal how the leagues and their constituencies make claims of community membership as bearers of rights, or as citizens.
Public Engagements: The Leaguers and the Electoral Race for Mayor About a month later, one of the regular weekly meetings of the league opened with a rather unusual announcement: the mayor of Delano had come to the meeting in order to speak with the soccer players. The next election for city council was approaching, and it was clear to the league members that the mayor was there to promote his candidacy. So, before the regular agenda began, the mayor was given the floor. With the help of a bilingual farmworker who served as interpreter, the mayor commented on the league’s recent visit to the city council. He expressed pleasure in their having attended the meeting and encouraged them to do so more often. He made clear that although he was not a soccer fan, he understood the potential benefits for the community of having more opportunities to practice sports, especially if the players were well organized, such as the members of the league. He noted that within the City Council, not all of the members were truly VOL. 76, NO. 1, SPRING 2017
committed to the soccer field project, suggesting it would be necessary to vote in the next election for those candidates who had made an overt commitment to the enterprise. The mayor asked league members to talk with their wives, sons, and daughters to let them know that he had made a commitment to support the league’s petitions. He insisted repeatedly that the best way for the league members to achieve a degree of influence within city affairs was to vote, urging the people to go to the ballot box. After an exchange that extended for about thirty minutes, the mayor left the meeting, thanking everyone for the opportunity. The league’s attendance at the City Council and the mayor’s visit to the league constitute a “transferability of social capital” (Putnam, Leonardi, and Nanetti 1993), as the organizing capabilities of the soccer league gave the players the ability and confidence to face a local authority that was not properly responding to their claims as local residents. The mayor’s visit to the league was a de facto recognition of the leverage that soccer players exert in local affairs but also recognition of an untapped source of political legitimacy and support. It was clear to the mayor that many of his interlocutors in the league’s meeting may have been undocumented workers in the country, but it was also clear that many of their family members and friends could vote. By approaching soccer players, he was at the same time trying to reach out to the coveted votes of those who are in fact entitled to vote. In brief, these encounters reveal the degree of mutual recognition between local authorities and the civil society of soccer players.
Conclusions The settlement of the once migratory immigrant labor force in rural California is being stimulated by the constant expansion of industrial agriculture and the growing importance of high value, specialty crops which require more laborers for extended periods of time. Farmworkers, as one of the most recent constituencies in the Valley, necessarily engage in debates and struggles in order to make new communities more livable spaces. Political participation and civic engagement take place in different arenas, more often than not in a simultaneous fashion, either in the context of formal elections and voting booths or in the rather inconspicuous encounters between farmworkers (whether undocumented immigrants, or allegedly disenfranchised citizens) and political authorities debating soccer fields. In other words, being involved in political and civic matters requires an active citizenry. Yet, citizenship is not just a mere legal or formal status. In sociological terms, it is a broader notion that requires a conceptual flexibility. In the present case, the flexibility to identify the avenues through which formally “disenfranchised” subjects and undocumented immigrants are capable of becoming civically active by debating issues of common concern within the public sphere, encountering public authorities, and conducting open and public performances of their preferred leisure activity: soccer. Thus, what Leo Chavez (1995) termed 35
the “shadowed lives” of unauthorized migrant workers in California are being gradually transformed as they enter the public sphere, a process that is not devoid of challenges and uncertainties, but one that is also endowed with potentialities. The existence of leagues, such as the CVSL with all its procedures and rules, is pivotal to the organization of the players. The league makes important efforts to exert control over its players either by the application of their internal rules or its reliance on the intervention of agents external to the league itself, such as the state and national soccer associations or even local law enforcement agencies. The existence of farm working class soccer leagues amidst California’s industrialized agricultural landscapes constitutes a challenge to previous characterizations of rural communities as “social deserts” (Goldschmidt 1991). Rather, the struggle for soccer fields is an example of how the working class struggles for the right to engage in leisure activity (Rosenzweig 1983). Willingly or not, farmworker soccer players become political actors, regardless of their legal status as formal citizens, legal residents, unauthorized immigrants, and regardless of their commonly attributed weaknesses or lack of power. Their collective action levels the field and helps them to negotiate their interests and claim their rights. The findings of this research suggest that soccer organizations are becoming an active part of an emerging civil society through which farmworkers engage with local governments (from city councils, schools, and park and recreation districts, etc.), bringing to the public their concerns and debating them as local citizens, entitled with rights, but also aware of their responsibilities. Soccer is one of the preferred pastimes of Latino immigrant workers in both the cities and more rural communities. Some years ago, Hayes-Bautista and Rodriguez (1994) reported that just in the city of Los Angeles, more than 2,000 soccer games were played every weekend. One can easily surmise the impact that such a number of games would have upon the urban landscapes of leisure in the city. In the San Joaquin Valley, this energy is leading the transformation of the leisure landscapes of dozens of rural towns. The organizational skills developed by farmworkers and the sensitivity of local governments may channel those skills towards broader goals, thereby encouraging immigrants’ civic involvement. The game catalyzes efforts and struggles for social inclusion in the different locations where immigrant workers, whether in agriculture or urban services, are settling down and creating livable communities. References Cited Aguirre International 2005 The California Farm Labor Force: Overview and Trends from the National Agricultural Workers Survey. Burllingame, CA: Aguirre International. Alamillo, Jose M. 2006 Making Lemonade Out of Lemons: Mexican American Labor and Leisure in a California Town 1880-1960. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
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