Fans of “La Tri,” the nickname for Ecuador’s national team, took over the FIFA Fan Fest stage on Friday night to kick off a “banderazo” and rally ahead of the match. Some fans got an even earlier start to the festivities with a cultural bus tour of spots around Kansas City.
Paulina Tabares, who’s helped organize community events leading up to the World Cup, originally put the tour together for a few friends and family, but it quickly drew in more fans.
Tabares was born in Ecuador’s capital, Quito, and has lived in Kansas City for 34 years. She said her family was one of the very few Ecuadorian families living in the metro when they first moved in decades ago, but she has seen the community grow.
She said to have Ecuador playing in the World Cup in Kansas City is “a blessing.”
“It was just a special gift for me, and I knew I had to do something to welcome everybody and show everybody what Kansas City is,” Tabares said. “Because we are also a Midwestern state, other than the Chiefs, people (are) like, ‘what are you doing in Kansas, what's Kansas like?’"
Fans in yellow jerseys, hats and flags lined up to board the party buses on Friday, Ecuadorian flags hanging inside. There was enough Pilsener, the Ecuadorian-made beverage from brewery Cervecería Nacional, to share.
Tabares said she wanted to show off Kansas City to those Ecuadorians who had made the trek from other states, or from Ecuador itself, as well as share her native culture with Kansas City fans.
“The Ecuadorian culture … we are very welcoming, we are very passionate about the game, we don't just watch the game, we live it,” Tabares said. “We like to party, we are loud, we're very proud of our country, and of Tricolor, which is the three colors of our flag.”
Franklin Panora and Carol Dong flew in from where they live in New York City to watch the match. They said the World Cup feels “full circle” for their relationship since they first met during the 2018 World Cup.
Panora was born in Cuenca, Ecuador, and has lived in the U.S. for more than 25 years. He has long supported his county's team, but Dong, who was born in Taiwan and came to the U.S. in 2016, grew to love the sport.
Now, they’re super fans and have traveled to watch soccer championships in other countries, including Argentina, Indonesia and Uruguay. But Panora said he’ll always root first for Ecuador.
“That's my team, I love it. I was born there, I got to represent,” Panora said. “I'm glad that Carol's also got into the love of soccer, the fútbol that we call it back home.”
Panora said they joined Friday’s tour for community with others celebrating at the World Cup, and to see more of the city that has welcomed them so warmly.
“We wanted to be with our people, meet people from other cities, other countries,” Panora said. “But also we just wanted to connect and learn more about the city while connecting with other folks.”
Patty Halsel, Tabares' sister, said fans in Quito ride party buses called “Chivas,” where they celebrate, even more robustly, like they were doing on Friday.
Bus riders chanted and clapped along to Ecuadorian tunes, looking out with skepticism at the growing line to enter the FIFA Fan Fest.
“We have that spirit, support our team, support our players, and support my country, and we’re going to celebrate inside of the bus,” Halsel said.
Friday’s bus tour made a coffee stop at Cortadito Cuban Cafe, a Kansas City, Kansas, shop that was greeting fans at a pop-up table. They also stopped at some local businesses who had set up shop in Union Station. They took photos in front of a mural by an Ecuadorian artist and ate lunch at Tacos Valentina.
Halsel calls Ecuador the “best country in the world” for its exceptional food and friendly people and said she’ll never lose her roots, especially at Saturday’s match.
“My heart is going to be up. I'm glad, because we have to have this win,” Halsel said. “We have very good players, and especially Pacho, and other players, they are so good. So I hope, and I cross my fingers — I have that spirit, we're going to be Ecuador.”
Christian Bosmediano, known online as EcuaBro, has been creating videos highlighting different events leading up to Saturday’s match. He lives in Kansas City, but grew up in Quito, Ecuador.
Bosmediano said he started his social media account to share more about his culture, but now also makes videos in Spanish for Ecuadorians visiting Kansas City for the World Cup.
He said the team must win its match against Curacao on Saturday.
“It would mean the world to me to see them win with my family, with my dad, who I'm taking to his first ever World Cup game,” Bosmediano said, choking up with emotion. “It means the world to get to watch them here in Kansas City, and then all the Ecuadorians coming here and experiencing this.”
The team’s appearance in Kansas City is equally as meaningful to Andrea Pike, who moved here 11 years ago from Quito, Ecuador, and said she gets homesick as the only member of her family living outside the country.
With a small Ecuadorian community in Kansas City, Pike said it’s special having the team come to town.
“We're there for the win, and if we lose, that's totally fine, because at the end of the day, I'm going to be around a lot of Ecuadorians that went through the same experience as I did,” Pike said.
At the corner of 20th and Main St., dozens of fans formed a sea of yellow as they waited to take photos in front of a mural painted by Los Angeles artist MisterAlek. The mural depicts Willian Pacho from Ecuador’s team and Lionel Messi from Argentina’s.
It was a similar scene outside of Tacos Valentina on Saturday morning, where an Ecuadorian chef was hosting a “Chuchaqui” brunch. Tabares said “chuchaqui” originates from the Quechua word for a hangover.
Since Kansas City doesn’t have a designated Ecuadorian restaurant, Tabares said she found a chef from Manabí, a province in Western Ecuador, to take over the kitchen at Tacos Valentina and serve encebollado and bolones — plantains stuffed with meat and cheese.
“In Ecuador, when you're hangover, you eat encebollado, which is an albacore fish soup,” Tabares said. “It has red onion and a lot of lemon and yuca and plantain chips, and it's just amazing.”
The restaurant sold out of both dishes less than an hour after opening, but those who got a bowl, said it was worth the wait. Some Ecuadorians in town called it the “best soup in the world.”
Kathy Ortega, from Long Beach, California, managed to grab both dishes. Her parents are both from Ecuador.
She had some of her family joining her at the feast — but there will be more at Saturday night’s match. In fact, about 30 members of the Ortega family will be here for the game.
Visitors have another chance to check out Tacos Valentina for Ecuadorian dishes on Sunday, while supplies last. After-parties will be held at Laila Lounge and a sold-out event at Dos Lokos. Fans will also be taking party buses to the stadium to watch the match.
On Monday, the Ecuadorian Association of Kansas City is also partnering with the Consulate of Ecuador in Chicago to help issue and renew passports before fans travel back home.
