1/13/2024 0 Comments Boxer from mexicoYet Allen does not romanticize this connection he describes the long lobbying by corporate magnates and politicians to have Mexico host the 1968 Summer Olympics. Saldívar also represented Mexico’s connection to modernity when he boxed internationally. During the 1950s and early 1960s, boxing became a grandstand for Mexican presidentialism, a shining symbol of national progress that politicians could feed its constituents right on the television screen via images of state-of-the-art athletic stadiums, trendy apartment complexes, international sports teams competing in Mexico City, and large Mexican companies advertising high-end luxury items during commercials. For example, Chapter Four’s sketch of 1960s boxer Vicente Saldívar depicts his warm relationship with Mexican presidents, with Saldívar often appearing alongside them at events. ranging from those representing PRI Presidentialism to counter-cultural boxers. Rather, the appropriation of native symbols anchored Mexico in an imagined traditional past as it rapidly adapted a consumerist lifestyle.Įach subsequent chapter offers a biography of a different boxer. Allen highlights how the boxing commission used Aztec warrior symbols in advertising their events but in reality had little interest in contemporary indigenous life. Sports programming was also one of the state’s methods for assimilating indigenous populations into the fabric of the mestizo nation. Boxing occupied an important role in showing the masculine side of the athletes (aggressive in the ring) but also their reserve and conservative lifestyles (no drinking or womanizing). On the other hand, Allen convincingly demonstrates how the sport also served as a barometer for hope and anxiety about Mexico’s future while also showing the limits of revolutionary nationalism’s ties to sports.Ĭhapter One begins with a background of boxing as an elite sport during the Porfiriatio, but shows how post-revolutionary administrations fostered ideas about nationalism vis-à-vis sports. Boxing became a lens into Mexico’s national identity-its mexicanidad-, its growing internationalism, and above all, its modernity. Bridging the city and countryside, the working-class and elite, boxing made Mexico a modern, cosmopolitan destination for tourism and foreign investments, yet still rooted the sports in traditional symbols of national pride.īuilding on anthropologist Heather Levi’s work with lucha libre (professional wrestling), as well as recent scholarship on state formation and on sport and emotion, Allen demonstrates that middle-class nationalism and modern masculinity go hand-in-hand in post-revolutionary Mexico. Covering the 1920s through the 1980s, Allen argues that sports like boxing united a population dislocated from rapid industrial urbanization. His son Ryan Garcia doesn't speak Spanish, but his father says that in boxing you don't talk, you throw punches.This book traces the construction and contestation of Mexican revolutionary nationalism through the lens of boxing. Henry considers himself Mexican, and is very proud that his son is, too. My family was there when it was Mexico, when there were Apaches and people from Spain," Lisa commented in an interview to the YouTube channel "No Puedes Jugar Boxeo". We always say in New Mexico that it was Mexico. "We didn't cross the border, the border crossed us. During the war against the United States between 18, the Mexicans lost that land to the Americans.īut Lisa Diaz's family had been living there since then, which is why she and her loved ones consider themselves Mexican. Lisa's ancestors lived in New Mexico when it was Mexican territory. Lisa Diaz was born in New Mexico, but her family has very strong roots in Mexico. Henry was born in Chicago, but speaks Spanish fluently. Henry Garcia's family is from Anahuac, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, his parents, Ryan's grandparents, migrated to the United States in the middle of the last century. Ryan Garcia has Mexican blood, although his parents were born in the United States, his ancestors are Mexican. Why does he come out with the Mexican flag?
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |