By Sharron Schwartz—

Nine minutes into the opening game of the World Cup 2026, Julián Quiñones scores the first goal of the tournament to give Mexico, one of the three host nations, the lead against South Africa.

The iconic Azteca Stadium in Mexico City erupts in joy, and I shoot from my seat in a bar at Gatwick Airport, arms aloft, punching the air with a loud cheer. I am undaunted by the bemused looks of onlookers, for I have skin in this game.

I am Cornish and for over two centuries, my people have played a significant role in Mexico’s silver mining industry. In 1824, the first Cornish mineworkers arrived at Real del Monte, a small town in the picturesque Sierra Madre Oriental in the State of Hidalgo. They were employees of the British-capitalised Real del Monte Mining Company and one of those men was a distant cousin to me.

The Cornish did not just bring their innovative high-pressure steam engine technology and mining know-how, which helped to revive the flooded mines of Real del Monte, but also their culture.

This included their Methodist faith, Cornwall’s signature dish – the pasty – and sports, including cricket and football.

All of these left an indelible imprint on the mining settlements of the Comarca Minera de Hidalgo, also known as Mexico’s ‘Little Cornwall’.

Along with the humble pasty, adapted to suit the Mexican palate and now a dish as famous throughout Hidalgo as barbacoa, the Mexican people embraced football. Mexico is the first nation to host the World Cup three times.

With the spotlight firmly on Mexico’s footballing pedigree, attention has turned to the history of the sport in the country, with several places claiming to be the cradle of Mexican football.

Prior to the late 1880s, the game was not mentioned in the Mexican press. In 1887, the employees of the General Offices of the Central (a railway) in Mexico City, were reportedly trying to set up a football club.

In November 1891, a match was played at San Cristóbal between ‘Pearson’s Wanderers’ (of the British construction firm S. Pearson & Sons) and the ‘San Cristobal Swifts’. The Swifts were defeated 1-0. The game was still relatively unknown in Mexico at this point:

“Many of the Swifts had never played at football before, and consequently were at a disadvantage, but they played remarkably well considering that the Wanderers had just returned from a trip to Europe where they had practiced for some months.” Daily Anglo American, 3 November 1891.

In September 1892, The Two Republics newspaper reported that a football match was being arranged in Mexico City for the inauguration of the Mexican Athletic Club’s ground on the Paseo, “the first game between two organised clubs ever played in the vicinity”.

British schools in Mexico City undoubtedly played the game at this period, but it did not take off due to lack of competition.
However, competitive football was being played in Mexico’s Little Cornwall several years before the abovementioned games.

It is only by chance that a report of one of those matches, the earliest documented in Mexico, found its way into El Minero de Pachuca in May 1889.

A football match between men from El Rosario Mine in Pachuca (managed by Cornishman, Richard Rule) and those from La Joya Mine in neighbouring Real del Monte, was abandoned.

The game, played on the sport’s field of the Railway Racetrack in Pachuca, descended into a free fight when the referee awarded a penalty to El Rosario, which was winning 7-4.

The players from La Joya disagreed with his decision and attacked their opponents, causing serious injuries to two players. Fourteen people appeared in court for involvement in the brawl.

In the mid-1860s, one quarter of all British subjects in Mexico were resident in Hidalgo’s mining settlements. This critical mass of people and the ‘friendly rivalry’ between Cornishmen in Real del Monte and Pachuca, echoing the fierce sporting rivalries in Cornish towns such as Camborne and Redruth, undoubtedly led to the success of football in Hidalgo.

Pachuca had established a football club by late 1892, as an anonymous letter in Mexican newspaper, The Two Republics, revealed. The Pachuca Football Club had lately degenerated to a great extent and was being reorganised. This was due to a schism between the players at Pachuca and the “mountain men” (the Realmontese):

“This must be attributed to the lack of energy of certain members of the above-named body. We may in particular refer to certain so-called football players who live in the mountains and who are so egotistical as to imagine that without their mighty efforts the club would not but expire.”

Besides the deep rivalry between the two mining settlements which made competitive football attractive, was the fact that organised sport already existed in the form of cricket.

In August 1888, Cornish newspaper, the Cornishman, reported that the Pachuca Cricket Club was over 20 years old. Mining entrepreneur, Frank Rule, Pachuca’s most famous Cornish resident, had served with the club for 21 years. Crucially, the Pachuca cricket team played against established teams in Real del Monte and Velasco.

Pachuca’s first football squad was built from its cricket team and included William Retallack, Sydney Ludlow, Charles Grenfell, John Mayne Rule, W.C. Rule, and some enthusiastic recent arrivals from Cornwall.

By the early 1890s, football was growing in popularity throughout Mexico’s British enclaves. Clubs had been formed in Mexico City, Orizaba (State of Veracruz) and Puebla. In 1894, Mexican newspaper El Nacional explained that football was a team game played with a rubber bladder covered in leather.

In 1895, a meeting was held at Hacienda La Luz in Pachuca to agree on the amalgamation of the Pachuca Cricket Club, the Velasco Cricket Club and the Pachuca Football Club, to create a stronger competitive entity: the Pachuca Athletic Club.

A large field belonging to Hacienda La Luz was given over for a sports field. The officers and committee were all Methodist Cornishmen, so no games were to be played on Sundays. The team chose as its strip, the historic dark and light blues of Oxford and Cambridge, with blue shorts.

In February 1902, a hotly contested international between Scotland and England was played on the Reforma Club’s grounds in Mexico City, watched over by the British Consul, which England won 3-2. The game between the two ‘auld foes’ was not without controversy, with Scotland claiming the referee had made an error that awarded the game to England!

This galvanised interest throughout the expat communities and later that year, several Scottish footballers involved in establishing the Orizaba Club, suggested setting up an Association League. In 1902 the Liga Mexicana de Football Amateur Association was formed among the English-speaking community.

The teams of the new league were the Reforma Athletic Club, the Mexico Cricket Club, The British Social Club (all three based in Mexico City), the Pachuca Athletic Club and the Orizaba Athletic Club.

League football benefitted from the Porfiriato’s improved communication and transport links, particularly the railways, which made it easier to travel to opponents’ grounds for matches. English language newspaper, The Mexican Herald, published upcoming fixtures and devoted column inches to detailed reports of the various matches.

Pachuca’s first league game was played at the Velódromo Pachuca against the Reforma Athletic Club. The game began at 4.00pm and was well supported and hotly contested, watched by the Hidalgo state governor, Pedro L. Rodriguez, and all the principal families of the area.

The only drawback was the strong wind that interfered with kicking, which occurs each afternoon in Pachuca, La Bella Airosa!

“The scene on the ground was made picturesque by the presence of a large number of ladies in most beautiful costumes, many of them wearing the colours of the Pachuca club, dark and light blue.” Mexican Herald, 2 November 1902.
Both teams played “with dash”. The game ended in a tie: three goals apiece. Orizaba won the first league of 1902.

Pachuca AC won its first amateur title in the 1904–05 season and also won the Copa Tower twice (1907–08 and 1911–12).

Football was deemed modern, encompassed British cultural imperialism, and became fashionable in societies wishing to emulate the British sense of fair play. In 1908 the first Mexican, David Islas, became a Pachuca club member.

Alfred ‘Fred’ C. Crowle (1889-1979), the Pachuca-born son of Alf Crowle, a Cornish miner from St Blazey, was a key player during this era. He was eventually promoted to team coach and freely admitted Mexicans from all backgrounds to the team, blurring class and ethnic boundaries.

Under Crowle, Pachuca won two more amateur league titles (1917–18 and 1919–20). He later went on to found Club Necaxa before becoming the national coach in 1935, enjoying a 100 per-cent record during the year he was in charge.

The Mexican Revolution (1910-20) and WW1 affected the team, as players moved away. Pachuca-born Johnnie Vial, a cousin of mine, signed on as a gunner with the Royal Field Artillery. He died at the Somme. In the 1920s, the club folded.

The Pachuca club, ‘Los Tuzos’ (The Gophers, honouring the city’s mining legacy), was successfully revived in the 1960s and currently plays in Liga MX. Pachuca prides itself on being the spiritual home of Mexican football and boasts the interactive museum, Mundo Fútbol.

I will continue to follow ‘El Tri’ with gusto during this year’s World Cup. Next time you see La Ola (the Mexican Wave) ripple through a stadium, remember the role that Mexico’s ‘Little Cornwall’ played in popularising the beautiful game in this football-mad nation.

Born and bred in Redruth, Cornwall, Sharron Schwartz completed her PhD at the Institute of Cornish Studies, University of Exeter. She is the pre-eminent authority on Cornish migration to Latin America and is a Bard of Gorsedh Kernow.

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