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Pizza superstar banned from the U.S.

14:20 H | Topics: Food - Immigration

We don't cite a web site called Pizza Marketing Quartely very often, but this little story has piqued our interest. Have you ever seen those acrobatic pizza dough competitions on the Food Network? As bizarre at it may seem to you, these contests have their stars and one of the biggest is a Mexican named Juan Hermosillo, a pizza tosser who had been living in the U.S. since he was 9 years old.

The fourth place title in the entire world goes to Juan Hermosillo for dough tossing at the 2006 World Pizza Championship in Salsomaggiore, Italy. However, Juan, who represented the United States as the U.S. Pizza Team’s acrobatic dough tosser, has been denied the right to re-enter into the United States, where he has lived for the past seventeen years of his life.

Juan is a native of Mexico City but was brought to the United States when he was nine-years-old, and for the past several years he’s worked in Italian restaurants and pizzerias. After learning about acrobatic dough tossing, he taught himself the art and within two years he had beaten the five-time undefeated world pizza champion, Tony Gemignani. This victory won him a spot on the U.S. Pizza Team, where he has competed for the past two years.

The World Pizza Championship ended two weeks ago, and Juan, a hero for this national team, has been fighting ever since to return to the United States. But, because of certain immigration laws, is being kept outside the borders of the U.S.

Yes, even pizza superstars can still be undocumented immigrants. The case of Juan is a familiar one; I've known lots of people who were brought over "illegally" by their parents at a young age. Is that their fault? How can you displace people who didn't even have a say in their own immigration? How can you send a person who has lived nearly his whole life in the U.S. back to Mexico now?

Pizza Marketing Quarterly is inviting emails from people interested in helping Juan return to the U.S. Read the whole story for details.

Via / Pizza Marketing Quarterly
Photo via Pizza The Movie

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