{"id":2018,"date":"2026-06-23T10:44:45","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T10:44:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=2018"},"modified":"2026-06-23T10:44:45","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T10:44:45","slug":"mexico-citys-unofficial-duck-soccer-mascot-stole-the-presidential-press-briefing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=2018","title":{"rendered":"Mexico City\u2019s unofficial duck soccer mascot stole the presidential press briefing"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Merl\u00edn the duck\u00a0\u2014 Mexico\u2019s unofficial\u00a0World Cup\u00a0mascot \u2014 didn\u2019t take any questions; his owner, Carla G\u00f3mez, did that for him.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=2016\">Planet\u2019s heat bill comes due as one billion more people face extreme heat stress than in the 1970s<\/a><\/p>\n<p>G\u00f3mez, a street vendor who sells water and soft drinks, introduced her family with pride and determination, presenting them as representative of countless other working-class Mexicans. \u201cWe are the working part\u201d of Mexico, she said.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Sitting beside the lectern, with Merl\u00edn at the center, were her sons, Carlos, 22, and Cristian, 14, who \u201cdoesn\u2019t rest after school\u201d and helps her every day by selling goods and carrying packages.<\/p>\n<p>Merl\u00edn, he said, is \u201cthe boss of our little business. He\u2019s the one who follows behind us, making sure we\u2019re working and doing things the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The family takes great care with his diet, feeding him small fish, crickets and, on Sundays, even a meat taco.<\/p>\n<p>G\u00f3mez said she was moved by the way Merl\u00edn captured the hearts of World Cup fans.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cIt has been the best thing that has happened to us in this life,\u201d she said, though she noted that other ducks the family had owned also became local celebrities in Mexico City\u2019s historic center, including Bruna, who wore tennis shoes.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=2014\">United Nations: business can\u2019t build economic resilience from the sidelines<\/a><\/p>\n<p>G\u00f3mez said she believes the family went viral because people saw in them \u201ca hard-working family, a family that gets up every day to make ends meet.\u201d<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The president eventually had to cut off questions to move the news conference along, but not before trying to pet Merl\u00edn and posing for a photo with the family.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The scene had barely ended when social media filled with criticism of the president\u2019s decision to welcome the duck while relatives of\u00a0missing persons\u00a0\u2014 who have been demonstrating and seeking a face-to-face meeting with her since the start of the World Cup \u2014 remained unheard.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Wildlife advocates also warned that the popularity of pets like Merl\u00edn can have unintended consequences. In a Facebook post, the Wildlife Rehabilitation Unit of Pachuca, a city about 90 kilometers (55 miles) north of Mexico City, cautioned that fame can fuel \u201cimpulse purchases and abandonment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnimals do not need owners for fashion; they need responsible caretakers,\u201d the government-run agency wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=2012\">Steve Jobs became a billionaire thanks to a Pixar gamble. Now \u2018Toy Story 5\u2019 is breaking box office records thanks to that bet<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Merl\u00edn, at least, appears to have found them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Merlin the duck and his street-vendor owner got a seat at Claudia Sheinbaum&#8217;s podium. Families of the disappeared waited outside for a meeting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mexico"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Mexico City\u2019s unofficial duck soccer mascot stole the presidential press briefing - Cross Country Moving Team<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=2018\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mexico City\u2019s unofficial duck soccer mascot stole the presidential press briefing - Cross Country Moving Team\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Merlin the duck and his street-vendor owner got a seat at Claudia Sheinbaum&#039;s podium. 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