Santiago Hopkins Embraces His Heritage

For three years, Santiago Hopkins has worn the Blue & Gold of the California men’s soccer team. If all goes well, he could someday wear the blue, white and red of the Philippines.
 
The Cal defender is exploring the possibility of playing for the Philippines national team – known as the Azkals – by earning citizenship of the Asian nation.
 
A product of West Hills in Southern California, the junior has started nine of 15 games in 2023, including the last three straight, and is emerging as one of the better right backs in the Pac-12 Conference.
 
“It’s great to see how he’s grown as a soccer player from the time I got here,” said second-year Cal head coach Leonard Griffin. “The contribution he’s making on the field now is tremendous. He’s one of the hardest defenders to get around I’ve seen in a long time. He’s a very good one v. one defender, wins a lot of balls for us and can get forward into the attack and get his cross off. His contributions this year are big time, and he’s earned every minute of the time he’s been getting through the work that he’s put in.”
 
You might not be able to tell that the imposing, 6-foot Hopkins is of Filipino descent. He’s half African American on his father’s side and half Filipino on his mother’s side. Hopkins towers over his mother, Kim Antonio, who’s 5-1, and also over his father, Allen Hopkins, who’s 5-6.
 

Hopkins says when some people meet him and hear his name for the first time, they are confused about his ethnic background.
 
“I’ve had questions about whether I’m Latino or not because of my name,” he said. “Santiago kind of points to my Filipino side. I’m proud of it.”
 
The first names of Hopkins and his siblings – older sister Sydney, who played soccer at the University of San Diego, and younger sister Siena, who plays club ball – are all city names that start with the letter S. In the case of Santiago, he also shares his name with his mother’s lolo, or grandfather.
 
Santiago – or ‘Ago, as family and friends call him – enjoys both of his family’s cultures.
 
“My dad’s side is a standard African American family, with both grandparents from the Deep South,” he said. “They made it to Denver, and one generation later I’m in Los Angeles. It’s similar to the Filipino side – they both have strong familial connections. Family is what most things are centered around.”
 
His mother was born in the San Francisco Bay…