The National Religion of Honduras

Sometimes visitors from the United States ask me: “Would you say Honduras is primarily Roman Catholic?” and I find myself replying: “No, I would say it is primarily Soccer-Fanatic.”

When Honduras plays a world-cup qualifying match in the city, I don’t need to turn on the TV to know if we have scored a goal. The cheers rise up from the barrios and resonate in the farthest corner of Tegucigalpa (which is where I live, in the outskirts, in the campo).

When Honduras isn’t trying for the world cup, there are two main teams, two main loyalties in the city: Olympia and Montagua. It’s like the civil war, in which families were divided (“one wore blue, one wore grey”) – except in this case: one wears blue, the other red.

The loyalties run so deep that actual gangs have formed around these teams. Olympia’s gang is called “the ultra faithful” and Montagua’s “Rebel." The gangs are so bad that you can’t wear your favorite team’s jersey to the game because you risk getting jumped.

Yesterday we got caught in the middle of a “marcha” of one of the Team Gangs. Apparently Olympia and Montagua were playing in the city (we had forgotten) and people took the streets, waving banners, singing, and stopping traffic. Our car was stopped in the middle of this chaos…the ultra faithful simply marched around us, lifting the banner over the car creating a tunner. Rey and I made sure to clap loudly and cheer to show that we were Olympia supporters and not to accrue their anger.

In 1969 there was actually a war fought over soccer. El Salvador invaded Honduras when things heated up over a World-Cup qualifying match.

All of this being said, Elijah has beeen affected by the national religion of Honduras. Every evening when the heat of the sun begins to subside, he goes out to the main square of our community to play soccer with all of the neighborhood kids. He can dribble the ball, score goals (from about 2 feet away), and his method of re-obtaining the ball if it is stolen is to cry until he gets it back (we’ll have to work on that). Of the few words he says, “ball” and “goal” are some of the favorites.

I am happy that Elijah is learning soccer and making friends, I only hope that we are back in the states by the time he old enough to join a team gang!