Mexican soccer player Scarlett Camberos poses for a portrait wearing the Angel City FC jersey.Angel City FC
Scarlett Camberos left Mexico City because she did not feel safe.
For almost a year, the soccer player endured the harassment that started digitally, but got to the point where the attacker followed her to her house.
Neither the club where she played, América Femenil, nor the Mexican authorities prevented José Andrés N from continuing to harass the athlete.
On March 21, Camberos announced that she was leaving Mexico and, eight days later, she announced her signing as a star figure at Angel City in Los Angeles.
“To my dear Mexico, my heart is full of love for you and I hope that the next time we meet it will be under very different conditions.
I long to see a country that listens with intent and purpose to women, beyond generating conversation without action on a specific day in March," Scarlett Camberos wrote in a farewell letter on Wednesday.
Camberos, 22, was born in the Californian city sheltered in a Mexican family.
She entered the world of collegiate soccer in the United States with the UC Irvine Anteaters of the University of California until, in 2021, she was hired by América Femenil, owned by Televisa and one of the teams that takes women's soccer most seriously in Mexico.
The soccer player began to be constantly harassed by a man, who called himself Andrés Hernández on Instagram, who created false accounts to make him uncomfortable.
Months later, Camberos reported that her accounts had been hacked to change her information and the stalker even falsified information to show that they were supposedly a couple.
The soccer player filed a complaint against her stalker at the Mexico City Prosecutor's Office, although she only obtained the house arrest of José Andrés N for 36 hours.
At the beginning of March of this year, Camberos no longer wanted to return to Mexico and received the support of his club.
The now Angel City footballer is not the only case of sexist violence against footballers that she initiates on social networks.
It has also happened to Selene Valera, Jana Gutiérrez and Selene Cortés.
The latter has also made public how an individual has warned her that she is going to rape her when she finds her.
The Mexican Women's League has shown solidarity with its players and is working to create safe places and protocols in similar situations, which should be presented in May.
70% of Mexican women have experienced at least one incident of violence throughout their lives, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi) published in 2021.
“Now I have a new chapter in front of me.
I am very excited to join Angel City.
My goal has always been to grow on and off the pitch and I know that this club and the city of Los Angeles are exactly what I want and need right now," said the soccer player, who is also part of the Mexican team.
Scarlett Camberos' new team was founded by actress Natalie Portman, who has made her club a platform to promote women's sports in the United States, the country that has seen her soccer players win a World Cup four times.
“It is very important to have role models and heroes who are women for both boys and girls.
It's such an incredible sport because it really is a team sport," Portman said at the start of the project.
To this have been added the tennis player Serena Williams,
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