When an opposing goalkeeper kicks the ball up field, some Mexico fans are known to shout a Spanish four-letter word. The word means “male prostitute,” and is considered a slur against gay men.
There has been strong opposition to the chant in recent years, including by the Mexican Football Federation. In 2019, FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, introduced a 3-step protocol designed to deter supporters from participating in the chant.
The process is as follows: first, fans will hear a warning to stop. If chanting continues, players on both teams are sent to their locker rooms for 10 minutes, and another warning is issued. And if chanting persists after that, the match will be abandoned altogether.
Ahead of Mexico’s Copa America match against Ecuador in Glendale on Sunday, The Show’s Nick Sanchez spoke with Roger Magazine, a social anthropologist at the Ibero University in Mexico City — starting with how this derogatory term became tied with Mexico’s soccer culture.
Full conversation
ROGER MAGAZINE: What we know about that is a bit sort of more mythical than having an exact history in what I've heard is that fans in one particular stadium started using the chant in, in league games. So, you know, before it got to the national team and it seems to be about 10 to 15 years ago, it's one of these things that there's no one precise moment or anything like that.
NICK SANCHEZ: Over the last few years, there have been greater calls for fans to stop doing the chant. Are those calls being heard? Have they been effective at all?
MAGAZINE: Yeah, those, I mean, those calls have basically come from, from FIFA. So on an international level, but you know, something that's then been adopted by the, the Mexican Football Federation. Part of the resistance among fans was a bit like if you, you know, you, you prohibit something, it, it, it makes it sort of more appealing to do because the chant was always sort of meant to be something that's, that's a bit rebellious and so by prohibiting it, I think the fans are almost directing it then at FIFA as well.
SANCHEZ: Is that defensiveness somewhat indicative of maybe a, a larger issue or, or larger, maybe just general misunderstanding with that word's homophobic nature in Mexico.
MAGAZINE: Well, what fans will say is that it's playful, you know, the way that during soccer games in general, the fans will try to insult and by doing that, distract the players on the opposing team and it doesn't necessarily reflect homophobia on the part of the people who, who use it.
You know, as, as an, as a social anthropologist, I think to understand the problems with the chant, we have to sort of go beyond this question of, of whether the individuals who shout it during a game are personally homophobic or not. The problem is that a common insult in Mexico continues to be a derogatory term for homosexuals.
SANCHEZ: You mentioned some of the, some of the messaging and some of the protocols that have been implemented by the Mexican Soccer Federation, by FIFA. What more can the Federation can FIFA do on this and, and towards stopping this chant?
MAGAZINE: Well, the prohibition seems to be working but whether that's really changing the question of, of homophobia in in Mexico and elsewhere, I, I, I, I think that's, that doesn't seem so clear to me. So I think the homophobia is part of the, the, the daily language we use and that's what we have to change.
SANCHEZ: All right, Roger Magazine, social anthropologist and faculty member at the Ibero University in Mexico City. Roger, thanks so much for your time. I appreciate it.
MAGAZINE: Sure, Nick. Thank you.
