Nicolás Mezquida sits in the lobby of the bustling Marriott Marquis in downtown Atlanta, dressed in a Colorado Rapids polo, warm up pants and flip flops.



“Will you be able to hear me in here?,” the 27-year-old Uruguayan asks. He has a story to tell.



“My father is a farmer,” says Mezquida. “He’s always worked in forestry and continues to do so today. He has spent his entire life working in the country. My mother is a teacher. She’s from Paysandú and after she met my father she moved to the country with him. That’s where I was born. In a small town that’s not even on the map. There were about 80 people in our town. We were all farmers.”



Mezquida smiles when he remembers his first home in western Uruguay.



“My mom taught at the local school,” he says. “I lived at the school with my family. We had a kitchen, a room for my parents and another room for my...