Boys from Little Mexico: A Season Chasing the American Dream

The all-Hispanic boys' soccer team from Woodburn High has made the playoffs for nineteen straight years. As they prepare to make it twenty, the boys are determined that this will be the season they beat the wealthy suburban schools around them and finally win the Oregon state championship. Their spirited drive gives a rare sense of hope and unity to a blue-collar farming community that has been transformed by waves of immigrants over recent decades, a town locals call "Little Mexico." In 2005, Woodburn High's Bulldogs, akaLos Perros, will start the season with eight undocumented students, three boys who speak almost no English, a midfielder groomed to play for a pro Mexican team, a goalkeeper living in his third foster home, and an Irish-descended white coach desperate to lead all of them to success. Watched over by a south Texas transplant--a surrogate father to half the squad--this band of brothers must learn to come together on the field and look after each other off it. More than just riveting sports writing,The Boys from Little Mexicois also about the fight for the future of the next generation and a hard, true look at boys dismissed as gangbangers, told to "go home" by lily-white sideline crowds. At school, these kids battle academically in a country where barely half of all Hispanic boys graduate and fewer still make it to college. Now, in a gutsy quest for their first state championship, one thing will become clear:Los Perrosplay the beautiful game with heart, pride, and their lives on the line. The wins and losses they notch along the way spin a striking and fast-paced tale of how sometimes it takes more than raw talent, discipline, and passion to capture the American Dream.