In honor of Hispanic Heritage month, which runs from September 15-October 15, FCDallas.com will be running a weekly series over the next five weeks featuring FC Dallas players from five different countries who are proud to celebrate their Hispanic Heritage. Our third story in the series features Home Grown players Ruben Luna, Jonathan Top and Bryan Leyva discussing their respective journeys from Mexico to Major League Soccer.
Read the previous Hispanic Heritage feature: Moises Hernandez and Guatemala
FRISCO, Texas – FC Dallas' group of Home Grown players is often referred to as “The Kids," but for three of the Mexican players, their family’s paths to America have made them grown men.
First there's forward Jonathan Top, whose mother arrived in Texas when she was 10 years old from Durango, Mexico.
Midfielder Bryan Leyva came by way of his brave father, who left the dangerous border town of Chihuahua – one that rivals the well-known Ciudad Juarez in violence – before returning to bring his wife and son to the U.S. for better opportunities.
And Ruben Luna and his family traveled back and forth across the Mexico-Texas border from Ciudad Victoria before settling in the U.S.
“For three or four years we would keep going back,” recalled Luna, who was two at the time. “I remember a lot about Mexico: the food, the passion for soccer – me and my cousins would always play soccer in the dirt, and that’s one of the things I cherish the most.”
Luna – who represents Mexico at the Under-20 level – said he would play soccer all day until there was no more natural light.
Taking the game indoors, he admitted to breaking several of his mother’s belongings on the wall (they used a door as the goal); but he has since repaid her for his mischievousness.
PHOTOS: FC Dallas players with Mexican roots
For fellow forward and former FC Dallas Academy player Jonathan Top – whose father is Guatemalan – communication with his extended family in Mexico occurs frequently in his house.
Top has three aunts and uncles who live in the U.S. while the rest of his parents' families still live in Guatemala and Mexico.
“I talk to my cousins – we talk all the time – and they are really happy with what I’ve been able to do here, going to school and stuff, so it's good,” said Top after a recent Reserve League game.
Top learned to play soccer in his native Fort Worth from his father, who coached his first recreational soccer team made up entirely of Hispanics.
His first memory of the sport didn’t come from scoring a plethora of goals, however, but from stopping them between the posts as a goalkeeper.
“I was actually on an Under-Five team and I was three years old,” he said. “I remember we tied the team and I have the video where I saved three PK’s and we won the championship.”
Top also mentioned his mother’s Mexican-style cooking, noting her enchiladas as his favorite meal: “I don’t eat them very often, but when I do I eat a bunch of them.”
Fellow Academy product Bryan Leyva spoke endlessly about the tacos in Mexico, but also shared a quite different story of his journey to Texas.
Leyva was born and raised for seven years in Chihuahua, Mexico and saw his dad leave for the U.S. hoping to provide a better life for his family.
“My dad came here (to Texas) by himself for a year and it was tough in Mexico for me and my mom,” said Leyva who cites Club America as his favorite Mexican club. “So my dad made the decision that we had to come here for better opportunities. (We) just took a bus here.”
Aside from his mother and brother, Leyva’s entire family lives in Mexico, including his father, who returned to Chihuahua. The crafty midfielder said he uses a Nextel Walkie-Talkie to talk with his family every weekend.
And while each player took a different path to Texas, they each share a similar idol that grew up in Mexico and now makes a living scoring goals for Manchester United.
“(Javier Hernandez) Chicharito is an awesome role model for all Mexicans,” said Luna of the former Chivas de Guadalajara striker. “Things didn’t go well for him until he was 22 I believe, and he started scoring goals and went from nothing to glory and the very top.”
“Ever since he was playing with Chivas, he was always a good player,” said Top, who once posed in a picture with Chicharito when his Chivas youth team traveled to Dallas for Dallas Cup. “(He) stayed back and talked to my mom and I took a picture with him, so I remember that.”
For Luna, Leyva, and Top, Chicharito’s rise to the top has given them inspiration. And, like Chicharito, they have already traveled long distances to achieve their goals.