6 min readMexicoJun 11, 2026 07:36 AM IST A remixed version of the centuries-old folk song Cielito Lindo whistles out from car stereos and restaurant radios. “Ay, ay, ay, ay…Canta y no llores…” Sing and don’t cry, the lines roll on, in soulful voices, from Trini Lopez to Luciano Pavarotti. The national football team’s feverish fans have long embraced it as their patron song, rendered passionately in the stands, whether lose, draw or win. It is a song of both joy and lament — best accompanied, the locals insist, by pulque, not its more commercialised variant tequila — and it is how Mexicans perceive the World Cup. The fans are sad that ticket prices are unbearably expensive; proud that the mundial is kicking off in Mexico City. They grouse that they are hosting only nine games of 104, with the US apportioning 78; yet take comfort that El Tri could play all their group games on home soil. There is unalloyed optimism that they will go beyond the cursed quinto partido — the fifth game, …