Questioning individualism and comfort: Rebellious proposals among Mexican soccer fans

Abstract

The objective of this article is to explore youth proposals in contemporary contexts where individuality, economic production, competition and comfort achieved through consumption are central. The data were obtained from ethnographic fieldwork carried out from 1996 to 1997, with a group of fans known as la Porra Plus that supports Los Pumas of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (unam) and with intermittent visits in subsequent years with the group that calls itself la Rebel and supports the same team; and from ethnographic data collected between 2015 and 2017 with a group of fans called La Banda del Rojo that supports the Club Deportivo Toluca. Two interviews conducted for the program “El Barco Pirata” (Facebook) during 2021 with members of the neighborhoodbased subgroups of La Rebel known as tlC (Todas Las Canchas) and inadaPta2 (inadaptados) have also been analyzed. The results show that the young people who belong to these groups rebel against neoliberal social relations with proposals that do not seek institutionalized transformations Cuestionando el individualismo y la Comodidad: propuestas rebeldes en los afiCionados futbolístiCos mexiCanos7979 but rather revolve around the idea of being together acting as groups to overcome social and economic adversities. One way they achieve this is associated with their particular idea of “family”, understood not as a fundamental institution of kinship, but as a representation of unity, cooperation and loyalty. From this perspective we propose to review the concept “grit”, conventionally associated with masculine and violent practices.