The Mexican town of Tecalitlan lies in the heart of mariachi country, but Brenda Villa’s mother didn’t have much time for music. As the oldest of nine children, Rosario left her native state of Jalisco for El Norte when she was 18.

Her journey three decades ago wasn’t particularly unusual for a Mexican immigrant. She worked as a seamstress in the Los Angeles area. She sent money home to help her mother, a widow. She lived in the burgeoning Mexican community east of L.A., married another immigrant and hoped for a better life for their children.

But much of what happened since hasn’t followed script. The Villas settled in Commerce, a gritty, working-class L.A. suburb that happened to have a community aquatics complex. The mother sent her children to the pool to learn to swim because she was afraid of the water.

Brenda, along with her older brother Edgar, soon began playing water polo as a diversion from swimming. Then she and her Latino teammates began winning junior tournaments, often defeating all-boys’ teams from more affluent areas.

Finally, Brenda became America’s best young women’s player, earning a scholarship to Stanford. And she began her third Olympics today by scoring a goal in the United States’ riveting 12-11 victory over China.

“I couldn’t have imagined it,” Rosario Villa recently said in an interview conducted in Spanish.

How could she? Rosario had never even heard of water polo, growing up in dusty Tecalitlan. When her kids said they wanted to join the Commerce team, “it was a little strange to me,” she said.

Now Villa, 28, is competing in what might be her final Olympics. She helped the Americans win a silver medal in 2000, when women’s water polo made its debut, and a bronze four years later. She wants to end her career with a gold medal, but after the match against China, it appears the top-ranked Americans won’t waltz to the title. It took fourth-quarter goals by Kami Craig and Lauren Wenger to prevent an embarrassing upset at Yingdong Natatorium. The Americans face reigning Olympic champion Italy on Wednesday.
Read Full Article

Popularity: 20% [?]

Tags | Entertaiment