Love was in the air in Koreatown’s Seoul International Park on Thursday, where a sea of thousands of people in red and green jerseys joined together to celebrate soccer’s favorite romance.
South Korea fan Ben Lee was performing soccer kick-ups with a pack of Shin Noodles when he saw Kevin Gonzalez walk by in a Mexico shirt and offered him a fist bump.
“Hermano!” Lee, 31, exclaimed, and the pair, mere moments after meeting, snapped a selfie as Gonzalez, 28, presented his Korean bulgogi beef quesadilla to the camera with a grin.
“No matter who wins or who loses, it’s all love,” said Lee, who drove from Orange County to attend the massive watch party for the Mexico vs. Korea match.
The enduring friendship between Mexican and Korean soccer fans originated at the 2018 World Cup.
After Mexico suffered a crushing 3-0 defeat to Sweden, their hopes of advancing hinged on South Korea’s team pulling off an unlikely victory over Germany. South Korea would not move forward regardless of the outcome, but they indeed delivered on the win, prompting a massive outpouring of gratitude from Mexican fans and the birth of the chant “¡Coreano, hermano, ya eres mexicano!” meaning “Korean brother, you are Mexican now!”
“With Mexicans, and myself included, when someone helps us with something really big, we never forget,” said Leo Hernandez, a Mexican American soccer fan from Orange County who is known as El Soccer Guy on Instagram.
This was the only World Cup match where Hernandez said he was not gunning for a decisive Mexico victory.
“I’d be happy with the tie,” he said. “I think it would hurt me if South Korea loses against us, but I do hope Mexico and South Korea both advance to the next round.”
The two cultures share many similarities: an underdog spirit, strong family values, and a passionate love for a good party, Hernandez said.
The cross-cultural romance continued to blossom on the streets of Mexico this summer with videos showing “Gangnam Style” dance parties taking over the streets of Guadalajara and sombrero-wearing fans eagerly snapping selfies with tourists in Korean red jerseys.
Kenji Kumagai, 37, said he experienced Mexican hospitality firsthand when he visited Guadalajara two weeks ago and was repeatedly stopped in plazas as locals welcomed him to their country.
“I went on a tequila tour and everyone was like, ‘Oh, Koreans are hermanos, you guys are Mexican too,’” he said, “and then they made me do a keg stand and threw me up in the air. It was great!”
Kumagai attended Thursday night’s Koreatown watch party with his girlfriend, Denitza Ceballos, who is Mexican. He was also hoping for a tie but said that no matter the outcome he’d go home happy.
“Yes, it’s a competition, but it’s also when nations come together for friendship and to exchange culture,” he said. “We’re from Koreatown, which is basically half Mexican, half Koreans, so it’s the perfect place for us.”
The connection between the two communities in Los Angeles shares a long history.
A massive wave of Korean immigrants arrived in Los Angeles after the 1965 Immigration Act, and many settled in Koreatown and other central city neighborhoods. These areas had experienced decades of disinvestment, tied to redlining, racist housing covenants and other discriminatory policies, making them among the city’s more affordable neighborhoods.
As a result, many working-class Korean and Latino immigrant households lived side by side and often confronted similar challenges, including substandard housing conditions, landlord abuses and underfunded public schools.
More recently, both communities were heavily affected by ICE raids last summer, and Korean and Mexican mutual aid groups worked together to share information on where agents had been sighted and legal resources for families whose loved ones had been detained.
Today, Koreatown is one of the largest South Korean disaporas in America, but its population is also slightly more than half Hispanic residents, according to census data. It’s the birthplace of cultural collaborations like Roy Choi’s famous Korean barbecue taco truck and a neighborhood where K-pop songs are put in the same playlists as mariachi music.
Lee, the South Korea fan from Orange County, believes that the two immigrant communities share love and respect because they often have similar backstories.
“Our parents came from nothing and built something for us,” he said. “I feel like Koreans and Mexicans feel that and understand that; we know our parents went through so much coming to America.”
At a game watch party in Mariachi Plaza in Boyle Heights, one of Los Angeles’ most historic and prominent Mexican American communities, the crowd was nearly entirely dressed in Mexico’s forest green.
Aidan Lee, 23, who is of Mexican and South Korean descent, definitely stuck out in his red South Korea jersey. Turns out that was a good thing.
“I got given like four free beers,” he said. “I felt all the love.”
To Lee it’s a no-brainer that the two cultures click.
“We love to have a good time, we love drinking, we’ve got great spicy food, we love family, we love L.A.,” he said.
When the match clock ran out and Mexico held on to its single-goal lead, the plaza exploded into cheers. Beer was showered over the crowd, firecrackers set off and Mexican flags waved high in the sky against the setting sun.
A man jumped on the stage, grabbed the microphone and led the plaza in a thunderous victory chant, “¡Coreano, hermano, ya eres mexicano!”
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