Though separated by landscape and distance, these matches share a common rhythm: communities building spaces around football in places shaped by hardship, geography, and memory.
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A Canvas of Diverse Pitches
Photographer Raquel Cunha spent three months capturing amateur matches across Mexico City and beyond, mostly shooting on Sundays.
She selected subjects by examining the city on map apps, choosing 15 to photograph with a drone.
Of these, she focused on two in Mexico City and one in the industrial north, contrasting gritty Monterrey, a green mountainous suburb, and a historical canal neighborhood.
In the Tlatelolco housing complex, the Sharkes community-led team uses a painted pitch to promote sport within the LGBTQA+ community.
Near the Teotihuacan pyramids, hot air balloons drift over a football field.
The Alberto ‘Chivo’ Cordova University Stadium doubles as a giant canvas with the “Aratmosfera” mural by artist Leopoldo Flores Valdés.
At Avioneta Park in Ecatepec, a small aircraft sits beside a barrio soccer pitch. The Luis Donaldo Colosio pitch features the Xico volcano crater as a backdrop.
Compact synthetic mini-pitches are increasingly common in dense cities like Monterrey. The University Olympic Stadium, a UNESCO site, remains a historic arena.
Neza 86 Stadium, built for the 1986 World Cup, rises from the crowded outskirts. Los Pinos pitch sits in Monterrey’s Cerro de la Campana.
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Finally, a rooftop pitch on a Costco building in Santa Fe incorporates recreation and sustainability with a green roof of native plants.
