Aggieland's borders - and Spirit - reach all the way to El Salvador

Sometimes broadening one’s horizons might mean traveling beyond the horizon. That was the case last weekend — at least for me — when Gabe Bock and I traveled to El Salvador to speak at the El Salvador Aggie Club’s observation of Muster.

Traveling to somewhere new already brings its share of surprises. The huge waves rolling in from the Pacific were surprising. The rock beach that our resort hotel abutted was surprising. The delicious pupusas (an El Salvador version of a gordita or quesadilla) were certainly a pleasant surprise.

But perhaps the biggest and best surprise to me probably shouldn’t have been a surprise at all.

I expected the Salvadorians to be polite representatives of Texas A&M who, like all Aggies, are thankful to have received a world class eduction. They are.

But I didn’t really expect them to be passionate about Aggie sports, especially football, a sport which was…well, foreign to many of them when they arrived in College Station.

I was wrong. Fifty-five of the 200 Aggies living in El Salvador attended Muster, and most are as hueso colorado (their term for "red ass") as any Aggie born in Brazos County. The first inquiry during our Muster Q&A session was about who the starting quarterback would be. Another was what to expect this football season.

The most passionate among them were our hosts, Eduardo "Guayo" Palomo '82 and Ernesto "Neto" Walsh Costa '83.

Palomo, now a successful businessman and the President of the El Salvador Olympic Committee, came to A&M in the late ‘70s to study agriculture and play soccer. Walsh Costa, who is an executive in the automobile industry, followed him to College Station to get an education and play soccer.

Even though soccer was only a varsity sport for the 1981 season, both men stayed in Aggieland anyway, and both are glad they did. They are true Aggies who have embraced A&M traditions, especially Muster.

“I think that you have to thank a lot of people that have taken the task to pass the message along to generations,” Palomo said. “And to remember that we matter because of our experiences of what we lived, and what we lived is who we are.

“We try to achieve excellence and live through a certain set of values at Texas A&M. But to remember them every day is something you have to be really thankful for. How is it possible that it’s being done in such an organized matter? We’ve got a system, a program that spreads values. It’s called the Aggie Network.”

Values are wonderful. So is supporting a college football team, and both men do so with the fervor of a most rabid fan.

They hated when their soccer schedule conflicted with football and forced them to miss the football games. They still discuss and argue games, plays and players. Walsh recited a list of his top five favorite players (Dat Nguyen was first). They debate which memorable games happened in which seasons and whether Rodney Thomas or Leeland McElroy scored a particular touchdown in a big game.

They don’t debate The Hit. They know it was Quentin Coryatt and not Marcus Buckley.

Palomo was almost goaded into an altercation with a much-bigger LSU fan who spoke poorly of the Aggies. Fortunately, a dozen Salvadorian Aggies had his back, and a fight was avoided.

Palomo threw a watch party for the 1995 Alamo Bowl. They watched every minute, even though the picture on the hotel television was frequently marred by TV snow from an iffy signal. Palomo figured out the view through the static was better while wearing his sun glasses, so at his urging, the entire party watched the game inside the hotel with shades on.

Guayo doesn’t watch many A&M games television with Walsh Costa, but that’s only because Ernesto is too superstitious. Last season Walsh Costa watched on his cell phone as the Aggies posted early season wins. So as not to alter the mojo, he continued to sit alone and use his cell phone to watch A&M play.

When the Aggies went into overtime against Tennessee, he was taunted (via text message) by his adult son, who was watching in another room. First, Walsh Costa instructed his son (via text) to turn off the television. He said his son did not deserve to watch the Aggies. Then after A&M pulled out the victory in overtime, Walsh Costa sent his son a selfie — in full A&M attire — extending a single finger.

He was not exactly proclaiming A&M to be No. 1.

That wasn’t the first time Walsh Costa demonstrated his love of A&M football to his family. He married his beautiful wife, Lissette, on Dec. 2, 1989. Inconveniently, that was the same day the Aggies played Texas.

When the couple arrived at their hotel for their honeymoon, Lissette went to the bathroom to change clothes. Ernesto turned on the television to catch the final minutes of the A&M-Texas game. Lissette emerged from the bathroom with hair fixed, makeup re-applied and wearing sexy lingerie. She struck a pose by the door and called for Ernesto to come hither.

He didn’t answer. The Aggies had just completed deep pass inside the Texas five-yard line, and he had to watch them score a touchdown that clinched a 21-10 victory.

Hey, a guy’s gotta have his priorities.

Lissette must have understood. They have four children.

Ernesto graduated and left College Station in 1983, and he didn’t return for ten years. When he finally stepped on campus again on Thanksgiving in 1993, he dropped to his knees and kissed the ground of Aggieland.

“When I got there, I got so emotional I jumped from the bus and kissed the ground like the Pope,” he said.

Later, he kissed Lissette every time the Aggies scored in an 18-9 win over Texas. But probably not like the Pope.

That was just another example of his love for A&M.

“After I graduated, I came to my country in El Salvador. The (Aggie) association was being organized,” Walsh-Costa said. “At that time when we gathered at the first meeting, somebody played (the Aggie War Hymn) in that meeting and, really, I got goose bumps.

“I said that day what I couldn’t do for A&M in my student days, I would try to do afterwards. I tried to tell everybody that A&M is the best place in the world to go study, the best university to have values and the best university for people to go into the world and have success. That’s one of the best things that’s ever happened in my life.”

His friends at Muster expressed similar thoughts.

Obviously, Aggieland’s borders extend well beyond South College Station.

They reach all the way to El Salvador.