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Shes one girl with family in two places. Playing five sports helped her cope until the quarantine – Los Angeles Times

Posted: June 30, 2020 at 4:49 pm

Like many girls her age, Dalia Hurtado is having an identity crisis.

Unlike most girls her age to say nothing of most boys Dalia deals with it by playing five sports: Shes on the varsity football, volleyball and soccer teams at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles and participates in soccer, softball and boxing through neighborhood and club programs.

Shes a one-girl lesson in diversity: a U.S. citizen with Mexican parents, a tough girl with a tender heart, a rugged athlete who applies her makeup with great care, a teenager who wants to hang out with friends yet spends much of her free time on weekends helping her grandmother.

I get my mind off a lot of things. I stay occupied, the 16-year-old says. Thats why I love doing it.

Im tired. But no tanto. Its become a routine.

Its become a way of coping too as she tries to find her way in this world, buoyed by a tenacity that has defined her life from an early age.

Dalia Hurtado gets ready in an empty locker room.

(Gabriella Angotti-Jones / Los Angeles Times)

Hurtado prays before Garfield plays in El Classico in 2019.

(Gabriella Angotti-Jones / Los Angeles Times)

Dalia was born in Los Angeles to parents who have returned to Mexico; they cant come here to cheer at games and wont be able to send her off to the prom or watch her graduate next spring. Her life, like her family, has been split by a border that, for the moment, cant be crossed from either side.

In the last few months, that life has been made even more complicated by a deadly virus that has taken away the two things schools and sports that have kept her focused.

At first I thought, Well, well be back in like two weeks, right? But those weeks have turned into months, she said, adding: I didnt get to say good-bye.

Nor did she get a chance to say good-bye to a close family friend in Nevada she knew as To Agustn; he died late last month from COVID-19.

My grandmother has been sad, she said. For Dalia, though, these are just more potholes on a path that never has been well-paved.

Dalia first crossed the border when she was 6, following her mother to Colima, Mexico. But even then she was dreaming big and quickly concluded those dreams wouldnt be realized in Colima, where her neighborhood, she said, was wracked by violence.

I told my mom I was going to move [back] to the United States because I dont like it here, she said. If she stayed in Colima, she told her told mother, Im not going to have a lot of opportunities like if I moved to the United States.

Dalia was just 10 at the time.

Her mother, Mireya Zamora, didnt have the proper documents to return to the U.S., and Dalias five siblings didnt want to leave Mexico, so Dalia got on the plane alone, flying here to join her grandmother Elizabeth Meza in a tiny back house off a crowded street two blocks north of Whittier Boulevard in East Los Angeles.

Her grandfather Roberto Meza lives in the house in front.

Dalia Hurtado has her hair braided by her abuela, Elizabeth Meza, before leaving to a catering job on Feb. 15. They had spent the afternoon prepping for their taco bar.

(Gabriella Angotti-Jones / Los Angeles Times)

In Mexico, Dalia had played soccer with boys, and she refused to be limited by gender stereotypes. When she tried out for the football team at Garfield as a sophomore, her grandmother objected, telling her it was too rough. Dalias mother had been a cheerleader. Why not try that?

But it was precisely because it was rough that she wanted to do it.

It didnt come easily at first. Standing a helmet and shoulder pads shorter than most of her teammates, Dalia made the team as a placekicker and then promptly missed her first kick.

It was embarrassing in front of all the guys, she said. But that didnt stop me. I practiced and practiced hard.

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That practice paid off last October when Dalia, a junior wearing No. 47 on her red Garfield jersey and kicking left-footed, made the final extra point in a 61-0 rout of Huntington Park.

I showed them that anythings possible, she said.

In part because of Dalias example, Garfield coach Lorenzo Hernandez says, there are now eight girls on his football team. None of them get special treatment.

You can come out, but this is the rule: You do exactly what everybody else does, Hernandez said he told each girl. Theres no exceptions. If we say youve got to be in the weight room every day, youve got to be in the weight room. The expectation is the same for everyone.

Last fall, Dalia was rushing from volleyball practice every afternoon to change into her football gear, stuffing her long black hair into an oversized helmet and hitting the field to work on her kicking. In the spring, before the shutdown, she often rode a bus more than an hour each way to soccer, boxing and softball practices and games, doing homework on the way.

Dalia Hurtado, left, rushes to her locker before a soccer game.

(Gabriella Angotti-Jones / Los Angeles Times)

Hurtado, far right, does homework as her teammates hang out after a scrimmage at John Marshall High School in December.

(Gabriella Angotti-Jones / Los Angeles Times)

The unique thing about it, which makes it really awesome, is that shes [inspiring] a bunch of other female athletes to come out and try multiple sports, you know? Hernandez said. She does a tremendous job with that. And I dont even think she realizes [it].

On the weekends, when there werent any games or practices, Dalia helped her grandmother sell homemade tacos and moles, sending much of what she earned to her family in Mexico. That stopped for a while with COVID-19.

Theres no parties. No more than 10 people can gather. Its been hard. I dont have any money, said Dalia, who finally returned to work with her grandmother last Saturday.

Until then, she had even less to keep her occupied.

When there is nothing to do like now, with school, sports and taco sales suspended by the coronavirus outbreak Dalias mind takes her to dark, sad places.

I stay in my room alone, and I think about my brothers and sisters and my mom, she said, the words tumbling out rapidly without emotion or punctuation in a voice so soft listeners must work hard to follow along. I go through those memories and all that when Im alone.

Elizabeth Meza, left, and Dalia Hurtado carry aguas to Elizabeths pickup truck before a catering job.

(Gabriella Angotti-Jones / Los Angeles Times)

Im laughing with my teammates and all that, then when I get home its like, damn. Realidad. I try my best not to think about it.

Her strongest sport is soccer, which Garfield coach Jose Rodriguez thinks could earn her a college scholarship. He sees her enjoyment in playing the game.

When shes in practice, shes just smiling, just wants to kick the ball, run and just play, forgetting about all the other problems, he said. Im pretty sure she uses sports as a method of dealing with the absence of her mom.

Dalia Hurtado, center, during a pregame huddle with her team at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles.

(Gabriella Angotti-Jones / Los Angeles Times)

There are other adults in Dalias life who understand that she lives primarily in the hyphen that separates her identities.

I think her thing right now is trying to find herself, said Sandra Williams, whose daughter Samantha was one of the first girls Dalia met when she returned from Mexico.

Samantha and Dalia were drawn together because they both felt like outcasts. Dalia had just arrived from another country; Samantha was being teased by other kids.

That was six years ago, and Dalia has been a constant summer presence in the Williams home ever since.

I tell her to do whatever is best for her. Dont let other people influence whatever your heart tells you, said Sandra Williams, who now lives in Corona. Shes a really good girl for all shes been through. Shes very smart.

Dalias obsession with sports disciplines her in a way that she wont get lost, Sandra Williams said. If youre born and raised in L.A., its hard. You can either go the bad way or the good way. Sports kept her going the right way. And kept her busy.

Samantha Zuniga and Dalia Hurtado, right, share a moment while scrolling through social media at Samanthas home March 18 in Corona.

(Gabriella Angotti-Jones / Los Angeles Times)

With her school out and her sports suspended, Dalia, whose angular face is creased by long, dark eyebrows that dart up at the ends, giving her a perennially quizzical expression, has had to work harder to keep her body and mind occupied. Shes spent time in Corona and with a cousin in Fresno. She yearns to visit her mother in Mexico, a trip she had long planned but was forced to cancel because of the threat of COVID-19.

I dont want to get them infected, Dalia says. What if I get it in the plane or something?

So she runs in the morning and plays soccer in the yard by herself.

Its not the same, she says, because I dont see my friends and my teammates.

Her grandfather has promised to build her a small gym in the backyard, stocking it with weights. But that project hasnt advanced much beyond the planning stages. For much of the spring she also studied online.

I have good grades, Dalia says. I made my grandma proud this time.

Her biggest worry is losing her grandmother, a loss that could send her back to Mexico.

She worries a lot, Williams said. Elizabeth Meza is her main support.

Dalia worries a lot about the family she left too.

Yes, its hard to be without my mom, but my grandma, I feel like I have a mom because shes so close to me, she said.

Dalias duality is evidenced every time she speaks, with conversations gliding seamlessly from English to Spanish and back again, the language switching whenever she hits a word she doesnt know. Thats not uncommon at Garfield, where the student body is overwhelmingly Mexican American and where many share cross-border backgrounds similar to Dalias.

Ive had a lot of conversations with her, Hernandez said. I think shes trying to find an identity, and the good thing about her is that shes exploring all options.

One of those options is medicine, Dalia says, a career path inspired by the current virus crisis. There will be many steps on the path to becoming an Army doctor, as she hopes. But Dalia has a track record for beating the odds. Making it as a high school football player and a soccer standout. Making it back to L.A. as a 10-year-old.

If she completes medical school, thats a graduation she wont allow her mother to miss. When she turns 21, Dalia can petition to have her mother rejoin her in Los Angeles, a move shes already planning.

As for why she wants to be a doctor, her soccer coach said the answer is obvious and indicative of Dalias character.

She wants to help people.

Dalia Hurtado spends time with friends when she can. She waits in line to play miniature golf in Norwalk.

(Gabriella Angotti-Jones / Los Angeles Times)

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Shes one girl with family in two places. Playing five sports helped her cope until the quarantine - Los Angeles Times


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