A Home on the Field

A Home on the Field

I had mixed feelings about Paul Cuadros’ A Home on the Field. It was an inspirational story about a group of illegal immigrants who have moved to Siler City, NC to better their lives. These young men are on the soccer team at Jordan Matthews High School and the soccer is what binds them together and makes their lives easier. There were things about the book I enjoyed but there were also some things that weren’t really interesting to me. I liked the overall message of the book. It opened my eyes a little bit about what Mexicans have to go through in this world. However, I think he could have actually told the story a little bit better.

The book made me think of the movies Hoosiers and Remember the Titans because they were interesting stories about sports teams with accidental coaches who become heroes to the rest of the community. Any story about a team winning a championship automatically sparks my interest. Cuadros brought up various issues that immigrants had to deal with. These include poverty, social prejudice, and the fact that the parents of the boys had shaky health insurances and bad high school drop-out rates. The star player Enrique had to carry around a gun to protect his mother who had been robbed. After imagining myself in their shoes, I felt sympathy for the young Mexican kids and actually admired them. Their problems gave me a greater appreciation for the things that I have that these kids were not blessed with.

Although it was a good story, it was poorly written. The author was very redundant and re-stated many things just about every chapter. At the Convocation speech, I expected more from Cuadros. Again I thought he just re-stated what the story was about so I wasn’t really moved. In conclusion, I admired the characteristics of loyalty, trust, and faith that the players showed but the book could have been written a lot better.