My Los Angeles Oaxacan basketball league
Community solidarity found on the court
Words: Camilo, Los Angeles
My Oaxacan basketball league serves as a bridge between cultures, uniting communities even across borders. To Oaxaquenos, basketball represents more than competition, it embodies solidarity and cultural pride. Each team is named after a pueblo in Oaxaca, Mexico, with players whose roots originate from that town. During a time when immigration raids were happening nearby, our league was forced to stop for a while, and fear spread across our community. Families stayed home, and the courts that once brought us together were left empty. All we wanted to do was play basketball and be together, but even that felt uncertain.
Throughout my first season in the league, before this madness, I vividly remember convincing members of my community to join the team. I wanted to continue what our parents began back in Oaxaca, preserving that same sense of connection and tradition. From my team down to the younger divisions, our league grew, and my coach needed support. I assisted with practices and helped younger players pick up a basketball for the first time.
There were also kids like John, who came to the park every day but stayed on the outskirts of the court, rarely looking to talk to anyone. Before one practice, I noticed him sitting alone and invited him to shoot around with me. I encouraged him to stay for practice, and despite being hesitant, he agreed to try something new. During our scrimmages, we continually passed him the ball to raise his confidence with every shot. Before long, he kept coming back, finding a genuine joy in basketball. Now he’s preparing to join his high school team and comes to practice whenever he can, confident that our team will continue to have his back. Moments like this show how important collaboration and supporting one another is within our community. When the league started back up again, it felt even more meaningful, because we understood how much we needed that space and each other.
As a teammate to my paisanos, I saw how Oaxaquenos came together on the court: celebrating and empowering each other through heritage. Through these efforts, I watched the team begin to transform our community. Parents stayed at practices longer, sharing a hot champurrado as they watched their child’s improvement, overjoyed seeing them active. From a bystander’s view, it’s just a bunch of short brown kids playing basketball, but in the eyes of our community, we were creating a legacy. A legacy for all Oaxacan youth who can find a passion in basketball, keeping them busy, away from chaos, and life on the streets.
Even during difficult times, it was our cultural solidarity and the way we showed up for each other that kept the league alive. As of now, with immigration raids calming down, the league came back stronger than ever. I am so grateful to be back on the courts with my team as I have been doing for multiple years.
Camilo is a Los Angeles-based participant in Youth Media Forward: meet the Los Angeles participants here