The Concept of Women Engaging in Physical Recreation Was Anathema to Late Nineteenth Century Mexican Society

Abstract: The concept of women engaging in physical recreation was anathema to late nineteenth century Mexican society. While underlying scepticism continued throughout the decades that followed, post- revolutionary reforms provided a surprisingly open arena within which both men and women could practice sport. In this paper we analyse how the issue of gender influenced these reforms and the degree to which this affected popular participation in sports. Identifying media coverage as a barometer of broader society’s perceptions of female sporting activity, we consider the salient trends in the Mexican press, how these changed over time, and the ways in which female journalists approached women’s sport. Our findings suggest the need for caution in leaping to gender-based assumptions and provide evidence that, in some respects, male journalists became more enlightened than their female counterparts in confronting underlying prejudices. Key Words: women, sport, Mexico, press The history of sport in Latin America is still in its infancy. Only following an increased emphasis on cultural history in the 1990s, have historians begun the task of transforming sports history from simple narrative towards more serious academic analysis. As they do so, however, they face significant challenges. Compared to other branches of government, sports policy has often been seen as a low priority. When combined with a culture of secrecy within national sports organisations, access to relevant archival material often proves to be sparse and/or elusive. Paradoxically, the printed media presents historians with a diametrically opposite problem. Beyond matters of bias and censorship that affect all sources, the surfeit of press coverage makes it extremely difficult to provide a comprehensive analysis of developments within sports. Apart from the early decades of the twentieth century when “modern” sports were still in their embryonic stage, increasing popularity led to a proliferation of media coverage dominated by those professional sports perceived to be of most interest to the readership. Grass-roots and amateur sporting activities were relegated to small columns on inside pages, only making the headlines during times of international competition. Within this broader context, the particular problems of analysing women’s sports history become apparent. Succinctly put, women’s participation in sports started later, was smaller, and remained amateur for longer than that of men. As such, it attracted less media attention than that given to men’s sports. When, in 2002, Joseph Arbena lamented the scarcity of academic studies on Latin American female athletes, he sensed there was a hidden story waiting to be uncovered. Appealing for a fresh approach to the topic, he advocated that women’s contribution within the supposedly “male” world of Latin American sport might reveal some surprises.1 Despite many hurdles, in recent years, studies have begun to substantiate his intuition. Notable inroads into this relatively barren landscape include work by Brenda Elsey and Joshua Nadel.2 Their ongoing collaboration, with special attention on the development of women’s football in Latin America, sheds light on this hitherto neglected area. Their forthcoming publication, which includes a case study on Mexico, will provide a welcome addition to Marta Santillán’s and Fausta Gantús’s analysis of the unofficial women’s World Cup in 1971 as depicted in cartoons in the Mexican press.3 Timothy Grainey’s focus on contemporary issues affecting Mexican women’s football provides a link between the 1970s and the ongoing problems besetting the game’s progress.4 Our present research seeks to build upon these contributions by broadening an analysis of press reporting to cover much of the twentieth century. The timescale precludes any in-depth forays into each and every sport women have played. Instead we try to discern patterns of reportage to identify similarities and/or innovations in the ways in which women’s sporting activities have been addressed over this period. Bearing in mind Arbena’s plea for a degree of open-mindedness in such endeavours, we do not assume there was automatic antipathy towards women participants in a male-dominated world. Our findings reveal a more nuanced approach within the printed media that was dynamic, multi-layered, and which challenges the notion of durable gender-based bias. Mexican Women’s Early Ventures into Sport It might be tempting to view the Mexico Revolution (1910-1917) as a watershed. Political rhetoric maintains that before the Revolution, traditional staid values kept each sector of society in its place; afterwards, constitutional reforms offered, even demanded, a transformation in the way society functioned. Be that as it may, our study argues that the conundrum regarding how to reconcile tradition and modernity began before the Revolution and continued after it. “Polite society” constructed gender roles that accentuated dominant, forceful males, and genteel, submissive females. As such, Mexican women might show an interest in modern sports coming from overseas, but their opportunities to engage in them were few and far between. The fact that western culture slowly began to include examples of women playing modern sports challenged this state of affairs. So-called modernizers had to reconcile their zeal for western ways with domestic social mores that opposed women’s participation in sport. During Porfirio Díaz’s long rule (1876-1911), but especially from the 1890s, high-society publications regularly covered the latest developments in participative sports overseas. Although sports within Mexico were initially largely practiced by expatriate communities, as in other areas of life, sporting activities abroad were avidly scrutinized by Mexican reformers in the hope that Mexico would emulate the economic and cultural advancements of Europe and North America. Mexican men with sufficient time and interest increasingly began to participate in modern sports and newspaper coverage was generally supportive. Yet when women also showed signs of wanting to engage in physical exercise, the press was less enamoured. While some English-language newspapers commended female interest in cycling and roller skating as wholesome exercise, others were unconvinced.5 In November 1897 an article in the high-brow weekly cultural magazine, El Mundo, observed the rapid growth of cycling among Mexico City’s younger generation and lamented that young women were abandoning thoroughbred horses in favour of these machines.6 Up to that point press coverage of women at sporting events had largely concentrated on their presence as spectators, with performances restricted to their role as reinas (queens of ceremony) presenting trophies.7 While the Revolution may have hindered Mexico’s adoption of modern sports, the pages of Mundo testify that the revolutionary struggle did not totally disrupt the social life of the elites. In March 1914, in a humorous article entitled ‘Sporting Madness’, the author reflected on the sporting epidemic then spreading through Europe: ‘It is a genuine disease that has several manifestations: tennis, polo, running, gymnastics for the lungs, stomach, legs, or neck, rowing, etc. ... Sport dominates, sport controls, and nobody can think or speak of anything other than the Swedish system or the German methods.’8 While this may have been exaggerated for comical effect, the following edition of Mundo proffered a similar reflection on the ‘incredible developments’ that were permeating Mexican society: That which before was only the hobby of a few has now become a necessity for many. Schools, in particular, have nurtured the cult of muscle and there is not one pupil who does not belong to some league, or who does not look for a challenge or competition in which to demonstrate his abilities. This generation, which is so keen to be strong and agile, makes good the Latin saying: ‘sound in mind, sound in body’.9 Although Mundo ceased publication in 1914, other magazines had already emerged to cater for an educated, if not exclusively elite, Mexican readership. The weekly magazine Revista de Revistas spanned the whole of the 1910-1917 Revolution. While its earlier editions tended to focus more on the mounting political tensions within Europe, by 1914 domestic news dominated its medley of political, social and sports coverage. Its pages underline that sports and sporting competitions continued throughout the Revolution, apparently unabated by the periodic bouts of armed conflict that beset diverse communities.10 In July 1919, an editorial in the national daily paper El Monitor Republicano asked sports clubs and centres of physical culture to send news of their forthcoming events ‘since it is our aim to promote an enthusiasm for sports among our social classes, because they offer a sure means of regenerating our race’.11 The following day, the paper issued ‘a call to sports people’: We are now a strong people and hope to become strong citizens too so that we can make our country great and prosperous. In the most cordial manner we therefore invite all sportsmen and women, whatever their form of exercise may be, to help us in the noble task we have undertaken, to give the greatest possible encouragement to our emerging physical culture. We want to help everyone and we hope to have everyone’s help in making our column spaces available to true lovers of sport.12 The establishment of the National Youth Association in August 1919 reflected the growing momentum.

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