How Mexico's World Cup run brought a small Oregon town to life - ESPN

JOSE MOLINA HAS spent months planning for this summer. The giveaways and raffles, the tables and screens to show the World Cup games, and the social media posts to promote the food truck he owns, El Pariente Mariscos y Mas, in Woodburn, Oregon. «If you want to market to Latinos,» Jose says, «TikTok and Facebook is what hits.»

Along with the food truck and a few other businesses — insurance, taxes and construction among them — Jose also owns a marketing company. «I can show you the first video we made,» he says scrolling through El Pariente's TikTok account.

He goes past old posts of aguachiles, their best-selling dish. Shrimp served with sliced avocado, cucumber and red onions, swimming in lime juice and red or green chile sauce. Past hot menu items like carne asada, chorizo and bistec tacos made with fresh tortillas. Past posts celebrating Father's Day and Mother's Day and the championship game of the Mexican soccer league. Past close-ups of octopus on the flaming grill and voiceovers that say, «estamos en Oregon pero el sabor es 100% Sinaloense» — we may be in Oregon, but the flavor is 100% from Sinaloa — Jose lands on their first post from April 2025.

«People said eating here, in the sun, made them feel like they were back in Mexico,» he says as he shows me the video that helped them sell out their first weekend. That's when he knew he had something. A little less than eighty miles from the Oregon coast and a little more than a thousand miles from the U.S.-Mexico border, Jose was selling the feeling of being around something familiar.

«A little bit of nostalgia,» he says.

After a few months, El Pariente, right off of North Front Street, established itself among the other businesses in downtown Woodburn. The town