Senior Sports Spotlight: Abraham Garcia

Abraham Garcia, a senior in Valencia High school. Born in Mexico, who moved to the United States at the age of 15. Being sophomore year his first year in the United States. He has so many experiences that he will love to share with us in his senior spotlight.  Abraham’s favorite sport is soccer and was able to join the soccer team in his first year in Valencia High school. It is difficult for him to speak English, most of the interview was translated. 

Q: What's your plan after high school? 

A: My plan after high school is to, of course, graduate from high school first, and then study my career and most importantly for me is to decide where I want to live.

Q: Who inspired you to play soccer?

A: The people that mainly inspire me to play soccer were my entire family, but in general the day I decided to play soccer was when I took my brother to his practice and I saw him play.

Q: What was the most memorable experience from the soccer team at Valencia? 

A: The most memorable one is hard but maybe, the day I scored my first goal because I didn’t think that I was going to play that game and I told my family to not attend the game, and as a result I did play and scored my first goal.  

Q: What important things have you learned through soccer in your life? 

A: Some things that I have learned through soccer maybe it taught me to play as a team, work together to be able to win, but most importantly you learn more from losing then by winning. 

Q: How did your experience in Valencia help you grow as a person?

A: The experience in Valencia could have helped me to mature more in the sense of getting to know myself more, and being able to discover new people and how to communicate with people speaking a different language than my mother tongue. 

Q: What's your favorite food? 

A: By far my favorite food is a classic Mexican dish called enchiladas verdes, but if I need to eat something in general it would be tacos. 

Q: What's your favorite soccer team and why?

A: My favorite soccer team is by far Chivas de Guadalajara because is a team that has a great history and it has the rule that they can only have mexican players and the team is from the city I was born and another reason is that the rival team is from  my dad and brother.

Q: What soccer player do you most admire and play like? 

A: The player I admired more than anyone is Lionel Messi because the way he plays is so natural, so beautiful to watch and he is super humble, However I have no idea who I play like. 

Q: Do you have any nicknames on the soccer field? 

A: My nickname most of the time is “El Mexicano” since I was born in Mexico, and because I always used the Mexico jersey.

Q: What are your favorite colours for a soccer jersey? 

A: That’s a hard one because I like a lot of colors for jerseys but my favorite colors would be on a jersey red and blue since they are my favorite, but that one is a hard one to decide. 

Q: Where were you born and raised? 

A: I was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. I was also raised there too in Guadalajara, but also in Tepic, Nayarit and now at the age of 15 I moved to California. 

Q: What are some culture shocks? 

A: There are a lot of things, but something that was a culture shock that very affected me was that here in the United States everything is very monotonous in the matter that everyone has the same routine and it looks that there are robots, going to work from 9 to 5 and then doing the same thing over and over. Is very hard to explain, but I feel it is a very monotonous lifestyle which makes it extremely difficult and boring for me.