At World Cup, national anthems unite Latinos

I rose from my living room couch before Mexico's World Cup match against Czechia when the Telemundo announcer stated it was time for the Mexican national anthem.

- GUSTAVO ARELLANO

JULIO CORTEZ Associated Press A SPECTATOR in Fort Worth sings the himno nacional before the June 11 World Cup match between Mexico and South Africa.

The public address system at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City played a short string intro. My back straightened. I pressed my right hand against my chest horizontally in the traditional gesture that accompanies the tune. And then I recited the opening lyrics to a song I've heard all my life but that I only began committing to memory this month:

Mexicanos al grito de guerra/ El acero aprestad y bridón/Y retiemble en sus centros la tierra/ AI sonoro rugir del cañon.

Those florid 19th century words "Mexicans, at the cry of war/Ready the steel and the bridle/and may the Earth tremble to its core/at the cannon's resounding roar"-make "The Star-Spangled Banner" seem as antiwar as "Give Peace a Chance." My kumbaya heart nevertheless jumped as the anthem continued.

Goosebumps blossomed on my skin as Mexico's head coach, Javier Aguirre, he of a stern face and gray haircut worthy of a drill sergeant, beamed while singing.

My eyes watered as the camera panned over his arm-in-arm players as they shouted the line,

"Think, o beloved homeland! That heaven/gave you a soldier in each son." Millions of Mexican Americans like myself have stumbled through the himno nacional during this World Cup, whereas in previous years, we might have just hummed some bars or stayed silent. It's a boisterous way to connect with one half of our hyphenated lives and get in the right mindset to root for El Tri, but otherwise something we don't really have to know all the way through given we're in the U.S.