From Cuzco to Cardiff
Image: Daniel Lipinski / Soda-Visual
“The team all help each other. You could say we are like a family”
At this year’s Homeless World Cup there won’t be many teams that will have had to make a similar journey to that of the near 10,000 km from Cuzco to Cardiff like Peru have had to do.
Among those playing for the Peru Women’s side this year is Mirian Miranda. At 20, she is the youngest member of their squad at this year’s competition, which is made up of players who are all part of the same side run by street soccer enterprise Hecho Social Club Peru in Cuzco.
And the fact she already knows her teammates means that she is more than comfortable being in a country so far from where she calls home in the Peruvian capital.
“It’s such as really good sensation to play and wear the Peru jersey as it isn’t just anyone that gets the chance to do so. It’s very distinct and different from Peru here, but I’m enjoying it.
“The team all help each other. You could say we are like a family because we all know each other well having played for the same club back home in Cuzco.”
As a member of the minority Gypsy community, Miranda was born in Puerto Maldonado in south-eastern Peru in the Amazon rainforest, but spent many years living in different locations prior to living in Cuzco, where she studies Business Administration at university.
She finds herself participating in Cardiff off the back of her inclusion in the project of Hecho Social Club Peru, which provides an opportunity for the inclusion and integration of vulnerable people and those suffering marginalisation and lack of access to resources across the country.
And for her, football has given her the passport not just to a better life, but, in being in Wales representing her nation, the chance to experience totally different cultures from that of her own.
“I joined up the Hecho Social Club Peru back in 2017 and was a little late to be chosen for the women’s squad for Mexico last year. But I continued to train and work hard and was given the opportunity to come to Wales this year.
“I’ve loved football since I was a small child and it has allowed me to meet new friends and people who I consider family and visit new places such as Wales.”
Words: Craig Williams
Images: Daniel Lipinski