This particular jersey has significance to my migration story in a few different ways. Not only is it an object that I brought with me to New Haven from Los Angeles, it is something that is originally from the country where I was born, El Salvador. This jersey was given to me as a birthday gift in the summer of 2006 in an odd celebration of the FIFA World Cup Finals (I say odd because El Salvador was not a part of the 2006 World Cup Finals; it hasn’t done so since 1982). I never wore it then. I wasn’t super interested in soccer, and much less representing a country with such a record of soccer failure as El Salvador. When I left for college, however, it represented a whole lot more than that. When I left for college it represented being away from my family for the first time. In a way, it was the first time that I would be completely disconnected from my mother and thus El Salvador. My mother had been my symbolic link to my mother country. I immigrated when I was too young to have formed any real memories, so my mother was the source of my Salvadoran culture and eventually pride. So, although I hadn’t worn it since 2006, 2011 became the first year that I wore the jersey. I wore it as a way of saying to the world that I am indeed proud of my heritage. I am proud of my mother country, and I am proud of my mother.

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