It wasn?t a national holiday, they weren?t drinking Zhumir Seco, their native sugarcane spirit, like their compadres in Ecuador, but the pork tacos, hot sauce and Corona?s with lime weren?t a bad substitute atRestaurante El Salvador.
If you couldn?t be home to watch the opening round of the World Cup Friday afternoon, the Hispanic restaurants and pubs in Upper Fells Point were a good place to be.
John Galarza and friends Byron Jara, Danielle Delgado, and Carlos and Doris Penarando, wore their blue and yellow jerseys and brought a big Ecuadorian flag to the Broadway and E. Pratt bar.
On S. Broadway and Eastern Ave. in Highlandtown, Baltimore?s immigrant community found a way to get a glimpse of the quadrennial global obsession on Univision. The Penarando?s watched before leaving for night shift jobs.
Galarza, a Towson restaurant employee, requested the day off a month ago so he could see both the earlier Costa Rica-Germany match and the Ecuador-Poland game.
“In 2002,” Galarza said. “I took the whole month off to watch the World Cup.”
Maurice Marques and Jose Reyes, plumbing and electrical workers, pleaded for a long lunch.
“We?re working close by in Patterson Park and we asked our boss if we could take a two-hour lunch to watch the game,” Marques said. “We told him we?ll work until 8 O?clock or whatever.”
At Arco?s Mexican Restaurante, Winston and Carolina Morales came with sons Eliott and Alwin, both in their 20?s, to root for Ecuador on the big screen.
“We?re lucky, we have our own business,” Eliott Morales said. “We just closed today.”
The owners of Arco, Rumba and El Travodor ? all within a few blocks of each other on S. Broadway ? believe the World Cup will help business.
“God is number one, soccer is number two,” said Jose Ventana, a Costa Rican immigrant and manager at Restaurante El Salvador. “It?s very special to us, even more important than football or baseball is to you.”
About 4:30 p.m. Friday ? if you were driving in East Baltimore ? you may have even heard a wild cheer go up as Agustin Delgado left-footed a short pass from Edison Mendez past the Polish keeper to send Ecuador up 2-0.
“Ole! Ola! Cada dia te quiero mas ola Ecuador!”
(Every day, I love Ecuador more).
