The very last thing I anticipated to see whereas strolling by way of a Mexico Metropolis market was a store utterly decked out in Seattle Seahawks flags. But there, like one thing from a dream, amid the produce and dry items stands of the Mercado Melchor Ocampo was Boutique de Sabores la Macarena, a small sales space promoting imported merchandise from Spain below the acquainted banner of the 12.
No, the gadgets he sells don’t have anything to do with Seattle or the NFL, says proprietor Erick Morales. However the decor has given him a visibility increase within the vigorous neighborhood market—extra generally often called the Mercado Medellín. And, extra necessary, it’s how he expresses his love for the group.
On the floor, Morales is an unlikely Seahawks fan. He has no private connection to Seattle or its Halcónes Marinos. However in 1989, when he was an adolescent, he noticed a black-and-white drawing of the Seahawks emblem in a sports activities journal and took a liking to it. He didn’t see the emblem in shade or an precise picture of the uniforms till some months later in a special journal. However this was sufficient to set him on the trail.
Now, he’s a part of a fast-growing phase of NFL followers in Mexico. The Seahawks usually are not precisely common within the nation, comparatively talking (the highest groups are the Steelers and Cowboys), however there’s a tight-knit group of diehards who watch video games collectively and join on social media. Morales, who now has that emblem he fell in love with tattooed on his forearm, is without doubt one of the admins of their Fb group. People convey him every kind of stuff from Seattle, too: mugs, towels, motion figures, even a special-label bottle of Jim Beam.
Morales would find it irresistible if the Seahawks performed in one of many video games the NFL usually hosts in Mexico Metropolis yearly. “We’ll see what I’d need to pawn, however I’d be there,” he says. However what he actually desires is to catch the Seahawks at Lumen Subject.
“My private American dream is to go to the US and see a Seahawks recreation.”
He desires to strive a Seattle canine, and to catch a frozen salmon at Pike Place Market. Within the meantime, he says, he’ll sometimes toss the odd serrano ham or hunk of Manchego cheese to a buyer at his personal market. It’s not fairly a Chinook, however you higher consider he captures the spirit.