The Northerner

Issue date: 9/20/06 Section: Features

Enrique Arana demonstrates soccer skills in the UC lobby. (Miranda Depenbrock/Photo editor)

As National Hispanic month begins, students at Northern Kentucky University may not realize there is a former professional Mexican soccer player among them.

Aug. 4, 2002, sophomore Enrique Arana packed his bags and hopped on a plane for Guadalajara, Mexico, to take his place as a member of the Mexican Soccer Team.

"My Dad contacted an old friend and he told me to come on down to play professional soccer," Arana said.

Arana's parents, originally from Guadalajara, Mexico, moved to the United States as teenagers. Arana was born in California and lived in Los Angeles until he was 10.

"L.A. is a city where everybody spoke Spanish. When I came to Kentucky, the only English I knew was from television."

While in Los Angeles, Arana was put into classes for learning English as a second language and had a hard time making friends.

"I got made fun of for pronouncing 'stomach' with the 'ch' on the end … It set me back a bit," he said. At home, Arana said he and his family like to shake things up a bit and speak Spanglish.

Arana began playing soccer on a team when he was 8. "I'd been kicking a soccer ball since I was 2 but just never on a team," Arana said.

In 1998, he tried out for the Kentucky State Official Soccer Team-and made it. "Everyone told me you had to know someone to get on the team. They held open tryouts and I just played my hardest."

Four short years later, Arana was off to Mexico.

Upon arrival, Arana moved in with family members in his parent's home city of Guadalajara and eventually moved out on his own. Playing soccer for Mexico and getting to do something you love everyday may sound like a cushy job, but life wasn't all that easy. "I got paid enough to survive but I thank my parents for most of it," Arana said.

Arana had a hard time fitting in at first with the other professional soccer players. "99 percent of the players were Mexican. There were maybe two other people from another country," Arana said. "It made it easier to fit in when I culturalized myself."

Before he could play for Mexico, Arana had to apply for dual-citizenship. Arana had to qualify, fill out an application, present his and his parents' birth certificates, a document that proves US citizenship, two passport-sized photos and either patience or money. The person Arana gave his application and information to at the Mexican embassy said it wouldn't be processed for at least a month, but Arana knew that money talks. "I gave her some extra cash, $30 or something, and it was done the next day."

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