Junior, Hector Melgar, is an individual who breaks from tradition daily. Melgar is 100% Mexican yet has always gravitated more towards interests outside of his expected Hispanic cultural norms. Despite receiving backlash for liking football over soccer from his family members, Melgar has embraced his differences from the “expected Mexican male” that society has tried to smother him with his whole life. 

Melgar has grown up in a household where Spanish is spoken most of the time since his mother doesn’t understand English as well as he does. He also works with his dad where many workers are Hispanic and has a large amount of family members who live in Mexico who he has visited many times. Therefore, Melgar has always been obligated to communicate the Spanish language fluently and is very familiar with his culture’s common interests and traditions. 

Although Melgar very much so still embraces his ethnicity and participates in common Mexican traditions such as the Day of the Dead celebration, where he sets up his grandfather’s ofrenda (a ritual display) yearly, he sometimes feels like he is an outsider in his family. This feeling is present for many reasons. One huge reason is the fact that soccer has never been the apple to Melgar’s eye; instead, he has always enjoyed football. 

“I wasn’t a big soccer player. I never really enjoyed it. I like watching it sometimes but I never really became too much of a fan of it. I like the NFL and American tackle football a lot and whenever I would mention that to my relatives in Mexico, they would be so surprised and shocked that that’s what I was doing,” Melgar said. 

Melgar’s hobbies have always had shock value to his family, yet to him he has seen them as normal and has approached them with the mentality that he can like what he likes if he bravely ignores insensitive comments. When he has gotten past the judgement of others, it has allowed him to teach his uncommon interest in football to his mother and sister. Thus, he has been honest about his breaking of expectations instead of pretending to be someone he is not. 

“It’s just me, my sister and my mom who live at home together and eventually I turned them into football fans as well. We always have a huge party for the Super Bowl and we always sit down and watch the games on Sunday,” Melgar said. 

Melgar still continues to be family-oriented and goes to the huge soccer-viewing parties that are set up; but, at the same time he has organized viewing parties for football. Therefore, he is an advocate for both Mexican and American culture as he helps his mom learn more about American interests. Melgar also has taught his Mexican culture to classmates and friends in his life. 

“In middle school when people started taking spanish, they would always come up to me and ask ‘Oh you speak Spanish right?’ and I would be like ‘yeah,’ and they would always ask if I could help out with their Spanish homework. I wouldn’t do it a lot but if it was a really good friend I would help them out,” Melgar said. 

Melgar is willing to help others learn more about his background and he has felt the same in return from his friends who have different cultural traditions, proving to be a very open minded individual while still breaking cultural stereotypes. He has not let his slight differences in interests from his Mexican traditions to make him angry at his background or loved ones who have differing opinions. 

“I remember my grandma was really supportive and surprised. She was really proud of me is what she would say a lot,” Melgar said. 

Melgar has had supporters in his life, like his grandma, who have been embraced his differing activities and seen the tremendous advantages in uniquely swaying away from what the “expected Mexican male” is.

“I have two lives. One at home and one at school and with my friends. It’s kind of challenging sometimes, but I enjoy it,” Melgar said.