In the Mexican hilltop town of Mineral del Monte, Ciro Peralto Urbano’s bakery offers a testament to an unexpected cultural blend: the enduring legacy of Cornish pasties and the fervent passion for football.
Since 1975, Ciro has been serving the traditional meat-filled pastries, preserving a recipe brought by English miners over two centuries ago.
As England’s 2-1 victory over DR Congo plays on a shop television, securing the Three Lions a World Cup last 16 spot and a return to Mexico on Sunday, the deep historical ties become clear.
For Ciro, this connection runs far deeper than a single fixture. The English miners who arrived in these mountains in the 19th century not only introduced the Cornish pasty but also brought organised football, laying the groundwork for what would become Mexico’s national sport.
“The connection with football comes from the English,” Ciro said. “The football tradition should be preserved, together with the tradition of pasties.”
Cornish miners first settled in Mexico in 1824, travelling inland to Mineral del Monte, also known as Real del Monte. As more English families made the mining town their home, both the pasty and the beautiful game took firm root, creating a unique cultural tapestry that endures to this day.
“They brought football in an increasingly organised form,” said Wilfrido Soto Jarillo, a former chairman of a Cornish cultural heritage group. Amateur matches were played in the yard of the Dolores mine, he said, on ground now occupied by a parking lot.
The mine has long since fallen silent, but the Cornish pasty remains a local staple, its original recipe adapted over generations. Mexican chilli and spices have been added to the traditional potato, onion, and meat, while the game introduced by the miners grew into the country’s favourite sport.
“That is the wonderful legacy they left us, gastronomy and sport,” Soto Jarillo said.
Just 18 km (11 miles) down the road in Pachuca stands Hidalgo Stadium, home of C.F. Pachuca, widely regarded as Mexico’s oldest football club. Founded in 1892 and believed to have been established by Cornish miner Francis Rule, the club traces its roots directly to the English community that settled in the region.
Echoes of that heritage remain across the city. Pachuca’s Monumental Clock, the Reloj Monumental, has elements resembling London’s Big Ben and features a similar steel structure and clock mechanism, according to Club Pachuca tour manager Brasil Ordaz.
“Part of our culture is closely connected to England. The heart that stands in Pachuca also has something of England in it,” Ordaz said.
“All of this comes together in Pachuca; today Mexico is doing well in the World Cup and people gather around that great emblem.”
At the nearby University of Futbal, C.F. Pachuca’s under-21 side trained beneath grey skies and steady rain in conditions that would have felt familiar to the Cornish miners who first brought the game here.
Ordaz said the English influence was still recognised, even if the game had long since become unmistakably Mexican.
“From the youngest children to the oldest generations, we feel very proud of what Pachuca is today,” he said.
