Illustration by Miguel Valenzuela



Efrain Alvarez leads the way through his family’s beige stucco house, passing the painting of the Virgin Mary that hangs next to the TV in the living room, cutting through the narrow, clustered kitchen, exiting out the back door, and turning down a few steps onto the driveway, where a rusting hockey-sized goal sits in front of an outdoor table and four mismatched chairs. A soccer ball has found a temporary resting place against the fence. His puppy, Salah, scratches at a makeshift barrier in the doorway of a wooden building behind the house that serves as the bedroom he shares with two of his brothers.



Alvarez nods at the goal.



“We used that sometimes,” he says. “Sometimes we shot at the fence. Sometimes we play in the park over there. Sometimes in the street.”



On the wrong side of a city known for creating stars, this small patch of concrete in the backyard of a modest home at the end...