The Women's Under-20 World Cup Comes to Chillan!

It's my last week of teaching in Chile, and I have not spent one day in my classroom. On Monday, I was informed that the teachers of Chile, along with other groups of workers, were going on strike to demand cost-of-living adjustments to their salaries. They are demanding a 14.5% increase on their current salaries. As you can imagine, the negotiations have dragged out, and it is now Thursday and I have little hope that the paro will end in time for me to say goodbye to my students and create a sense of closure for my time as an English teacher in Chillan. It's a damn shame, but on the other hand, it's also hard to complain about a week of vacation. Monday, Sarah and I went to a public pool out in the campo with a couple of her Chilean friends, and spent six hours laying out and swimming in the cold, refreshing water. Chillan has no ozone layer, and whenever you are in the sun, you can feel a stinging sensation on your skin. It's pretty alarming, and I try to be super vigilant about sun protection, but even so, I have strips of skin all over my body that have been burned at various times and are now dry and peeling. Gross!

Another way my pals and I have put the paro to good use is by attending some Women's Under-20 World Cup matches! I love love love attending sporting events. I grew up watching my brother play soccer, and I have always loved being a spectator of this exciting sport. I was always so proud of him, especially since I wasn't very athletic when I was younger, and it seemed so superhuman to me that he could spend so much time running around a huge field, chasing down a ball. Also, my dad was one of the coaches of my brother's team, so games and practices were often a fun family event. When I was in junior high, I loved hanging around his practices, shagging balls, cheering him on at games. I think I even called lines once--a big responsibility! I thank my dad and my brother for influencing me to become the soccer fan that I am today. I thought about the two of them a lot yesterday, wishing they had been there with me. However, I did have Andrew with me, and he's a pretty good stand-in when I am missing boy time with my family.

Anyway, when we found out the Women's World Cup was coming to Chile, and that Chillan would be hosting, among other teams, the team from the USA, we all bought a package of tickets to attend seven matches. Yesterday was the first two matches. China squared off against Argentina at noon. The Argentina team had received a lot of buzz, so I was interested to see how it would unfold. The China-Argentina match was really intense. Before the match, I decided to root for Argentina, but I was so impressed with the intensity of the China team that I jumped ship and started rooting for China. China's goalie was amazing, tall, tough, and she had several great saves. The Chinese team dominated much of the game, and took several good shots at the goal, two of which just missed going in and bounced off the goal posts. The match ended in a tie, but I thought China should have won.

Chillan constructed a new stadium for the event, and it is beautiful. It will be used for professional soccer matches and be Ñublense's (Chillan's pro team) home stadium after the World Cup leaves. It was a beautiful day for a soccer match. The sky was clear, there was a touch of breeze, and the sun was hot. Plus, we had great seats...almost directly behind the goal, in the shade for most of the day, in the front row! The stadium was pretty empty, but the next round is on Saturday, so it will be interesting to see if more spectators attend the weekend matches. Ruby, the Chinese language teacher at my school, and her students came to the match, and sat across the stadium with a giant Chinese flag and pompoms. After the match, the Chinese team ran over and stood in front of the group, waving, as their fans cheered.

Our group at halftime during the first match.

China, in red, takes a shot at Argentina's goal.
The Argentine team jogs around the stadium after the match, waving at the fans.
There was about an hour break between the matches, and since reentry wasn't allowed and there was little else to do, I stood looking at the field. Eventually, the US and French teams started to warm up. I joined my friends and we watched the warm-up, but we were soon victims of one of the most bizarre moments of my life. A group of preteen girls wearing soccer uniforms swarmed us and began asking for autographs and pictures with all of us, screaming and giggling in the way preteen girls are known to do. Andrew told them that we aren't famous, and we aren't soccer players, but it didn't seem to matter. So we signed notebooks and wrote little notes in English and Spanish and posed for pictures. It was a little ridiculous and the attention definitely made me uncomfortable, especially since once the girls started, they called even more attention to us and other people started to make a big deal out of our presence. While I stand out in Chile, and occasionally get harassed just becasue I am a foreigner, it is usually momentary and in passing. This circus went on for about 15 minutes, though, and we finally retreated to our seats. With luck, the game started soon thereafter. I got a little crabby, because I just wanted to spectate in peace...I am clearly not cut out for celebrity! It's so odd, though, because after I ran away from our "fans," I was chatting with a girl that looked to be in high school about soccer, the China-Argentina match, etc. as we looked at the field, and even she wanted to take a photo with me. While my experiences here have been the most amazing of my life, it will be a welcome respite to go home and not stand out so much. If I am in the wrong mood, and someone makes a comment to me, I mumble expletives under my breath and try not to flip my harassers the bird. Other days, I can shake off the objectification. Most of it is not mean-hearted, I try to remember; most people are simply curious, and we are valued because in a culture that is largely homogenous, our differences makes us special and attractive and interesting. On the other hand, I don't feel worthy of all the attention. I am just a normal person, leave me alone!

It was a strange dichotomy in the stadium, though, because in some ways we weren't trying to remain anonymous. For the US match, we painted our faces, and spent the match loudly cheering on our compatriots. And then, we were made uncomfortable by the extra attention we recieved for being gringos. The relationship between Chileans and gringos is very complicated. Living in Chile, for the first time I have thought of myself as an American, because that is how other people label me. It's not like I have never called myself an American, but here, the fact that I am American confronts me every day, and I have to think about how that conception will inform my actions and how they affect the people around me. Here, I am also a blonde, while in the United States I think of myself as a brunette. It is fascinating how much other people's impressions of me affect my own concept of my identity. You want it to not matter, but it does. You want to be thought of as an individual, but so much of what I get here, be it attention, special favors, dates, make out sessions, is because I am a gringa, or a blonde, and it is almost impossible to maintain an independent sense of self when an entire population sees you a certain way. It's hard to move beyond those labels, too, since most of the people I have met here are only interested in knowing me fleetingly, for the oddity of it all, and not really to get to know me as a person. I will not miss struggling against this when I return to the US. It has made me very thankful for our culture, which is so diverse and much more open and respectful of people's differences. This was kind of a tangent, but I have been thinking about these issues a lot lately as I begin to think about how I have changed during my time in Chillan and reflect on my experiences here, and our fifteen minutes of fame at the soccer match sparked my ruminations on this topic yet again.

France warms up as the French and USA flags fly from the roof of the stadium.
Jen, The Wong, and Andrew.
Sarah and I in our hip shades.
We were all so excited for the US match to begin. The feeling of cheering on your team and supporting your compatriots while surrounded by a stadium of people who don't really care who wins stirred deep feelings of patriotism in me. A couple times, I welled up. At the beginning of the match, they played the national anthems of both teams, and we all sang (rather poorly) along with The Star-Spangled Banner. I was grateful we were sitting front row, so as not to be continually distracted by Chileans turning around to stare at us. I was really proud to be an American, for the second time in Chile (the first time being Obama's recent win). Singing the line "In the land of the free and the home of the brave," and reflecting on the election, I suddenly felt really inspired by America's commitment to liberty, to equality. Of course, it's not perfect and we're not there yet, but I am continually thankful for little things, like the fact that in the US I can walk down the street and the act won't be sexualized by some man, whatever his purpose. I am usually so sarcastic and cynnical when I think about America and it's role in the world, but after living in Chile for eight months, I realize there is so much I respect about my country and so much I am thankful for. Yep, it's true. I love America! (This is of course not to say that I love Chile any less, only that I have learned a lot about my country and my feelings for it by being away.)

The presentation of the flags and singing the national anthem.


Women's soccer definitely brings out the machismo in Chileans. When a girl would get hurt, or play particularly rough, the men would all start whistling and catcalling. There is no more awe-inspiring phenomenon than a Chilean whistle--they are so loud! How do they do it? They can whistle louder than I can yell! Anyway, men will freely admit that women can't play soccer, that they aren't tough enough. It makes me crazy. But we saw two exciting matches, and I hope at least one man in the audience came to respect those women on the field. They were incredible, and tough. I fell instantly in love with number 16 on the US team, a midfielder, quick and tenacious. Also, the goalie for the US was pretty amazing, too. She had several stunning saves, and the US match was pretty exciting. We have a good team. The week before the match, a reporter for the Cronica Chillan, a local paper, came to interview me about the World Cup. He was profiling a person that represented the nationality of each of the different teams Chillan was hosting, and somehow I ended up being the US representative. He asked me if I thought the US was going to win, and I replied, "Obviously!" When he asked me why, I responded, "Because that's what being an American is. We always think our teams are going to win!" He laughed, but I was glad the US brought their A game so that I didn't look like a fool to anyone who bothered to read my interview in the paper. I never saw it, so who knows how I came across!

Despite several attempts on the goal, at the end of the first half, the score was tied at 0-0. The US team, inexplicably, wore gold uniforms.
Andrew and I with patriotic face paint.

The second half brought some relief with the first US goal. Andrew commented that it was a damn good thing, since we had been going nuts and probably driving the Chilean spectators crazy, so at least all the noise was justified by the goal. The first goal was quickly followed by another, and then a third, which none of us were paying attention for. But we made a lot of noise, cheering for the team as a whole and individual players. After the big win, the US team took to the field and waved to the fans. I think they appreciated our support!

The US team's victory lap.


It was an amazing day. I cannot wait for the next round on Saturday!