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Salvadoran Builds a Soccer Community
Submitted by leonard.sparks on Thu, 07/23/2009 - 05:58.
SPRINGDALE, Ark. - Cesar Aguilar calls the adult soccer league he helped start in 1993 in the nearby town of Rogers the "pulse" of the community.
| Cesar Aguilar (Photo by Leonard Sparks) |
He points to the league's growth from eight teams to more than 60. Each team averages about 20 players, he says, making a league a reliable marker of the Latino community's growth in northwest Arkansas.
He has participated in the transformation and watched it progress. Forced to leave war-torn El Salvador in 1985, he landed in Arkansas at 17. Since then, he has married, become a father and U.S. citizen, and seen Latinos flood job-rich northwest Arkansas.
