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. According to one Monitor correspondent, this was the triumphant conclusion of many years of frustrated initiatives. It would offer members the means for intellectual and physical improvement with facilities that included conference rooms, a library containing modern texts, a language school, a fully-equipped gymnasium, hot and cold bathing facilities, and sports fields. Based upon similar structures within the YMCA, the National Youth Association was specifically designed to attract ‘public employees, students, tradesmen and workers’, the sectors of society believed to be most in need of ‘instruction, education and physical improvement’. Monitor pointed out that the association would be the first of its kind to include women, because through them ‘the desirable qualities and energies of future generations, of society and of the fatherland would surge’.13

These examples of the treatment of sport in the media highlight several interesting developments. It seems clear that the appetite for modern sports continued throughout the years of revolutionary violence, especially in Mexico City. So much so that, by 1919, only two years after the cessation of hostilities, popular enthusiasm for sporting activities had reached such a level as to make viable sporting initiatives such as the National Youth Association. Another significant aspect is the apparent level of acceptance that all Mexicans, regardless of social stature, had a right to participate in such activities. This is important because this social change had taken place independently of any government initiative. Not until the 1920s was there sufficient political stability for the state to be able to promote sport. Hence, although post-revolutionary reforms might justifiably claim credit for many things, women were already practising sports. Even so, the underlying objectives for men’s and women’s participation in sports were still contentious. Behind the ostensibly neutral aims of making society and the nation healthier and stronger, conservative tendencies were still at play. While male involvement in the ‘cult of the muscle’ rested squarely upon previous connotations of physical exercise and militarism, women were directed towards balancing the desired qualities of healthiness and femininity.

One means through which women from beyond the elite were encouraged to participate in physical exercise was via new sporting publications. Arte y Deportes: Revista Semanal de Deportes, Teatros y Cines, appeared in Mexico City in July 1918.14 As its title suggests, the objective of this weekly magazine was to inform and invite discussion on the arts, sport, theatre and cinema. It covered the development of various sports at home and abroad. Professor Rodolfo Alvarez had a semi-regular column: ‘physical culture’. Introduced as a teacher of fencing and gymnastics, Alvarez was an evangelist for the regular practice of gymnastics, and his exhortations to readers were often amusing and sometimes outrageous. Alvarez saw his role as one of awakening all Mexicans to their potential by encouraging them to embrace a healthier lifestyle. His outlook closely coincided with official government policies during the 1920s and 1930s. In 1920 Alvarez included women in his campaign to make gymnastics ‘the religion of all families’. His words are worth quoting at length:

I do not just mean men – women can do gymnastics too as great French and German teachers, and many others, have shown us. […] We need to have mixed gymnastics classes, and if women do not like this then they can do gymnastics at appointed times. Both men and women spend too long asleep in bed. It makes them lazy and cold and they work badly. Time is needed for good hygiene to provide complete health rather than sleeping for longer than is necessary. This will bring health, strength and muscular beauty. The alternative is degeneration of health and death!15

Two months later, he suggested that women who aspired to beauty needed to follow a specific regime: 1. Clean your teeth with soluble substances to avoid fermentations. 2. Follow my aforementioned methods with respect to gymnastics. 3. Take a cold bath. 4. Avoid using makeup. 5. Resist the antiquated, bad custom of curling your hair with heated rollers because it damages the follicles. 6. Have regular facial massages. 7. Do not use corsets. Gymnastics and elasticated skirts will provide you with a beautiful body.16

While Alvarez might not have been the ideal standard bearer for female emancipation, even these small steps towards women’s participation in physical exercise would have been inconceivable two decades earlier. What his words underline, however, is that although their sporting activity may have aligned with the broader desirability for self-improvement, there was no suggestion that women should aspire to high levels of sporting competency. Such a notion had not yet penetrated the Mexican psyche.

Revolutionary Sports for Women

When the Secretaría de Educación Pública (Department of Public Education, SEP) was established in 1920 it gave itself the task of “redeeming” the rural population and “improving” the Mexican race. Reflecting their own elitist educational and social backgrounds, policy makers believed that an appreciation of the classics would develop moral and cultural values among the masses. Simultaneously, pedagogical methods that stimulated mental and physical attributes were seen as vital in instilling the progressive efficiency of Western Europe and the United States within Mexico. The result was the imposition of a perplexing and often inappropriate curriculum on the predominantly rural Mexican population.17

As Mexican pedagogues went out into the countryside, they found no shortage of physical activity: the harsh realities of life in the fields left little space for decadence. While post-revolutionary rhetoric honoured such labours as “noble”, the task of physical education was to create a ‘super Mexican man’ and ‘new Mexican woman’. As Mónica Chávez exemplifies in her analysis of the SEP publication, Educación Física, classical Greek civilisation was deemed to offer a link between intellectual and physical perfection. The pages of Educación Física were thus liberally filled with images and articles underlining how sport could help Mexican men emulate their Greek counterparts, whom it regarded as superior beings, and how rhythmic gymnastics exercises could accentuate the gracefulness of Mexican women. Educación Física also reflected the sporting boom in the United States and how modern fashions were influencing the way foreign sportswomen dressed and wore their hair. Yet although Mexican sports teachers may have promoted short hair and sports clothing as a means of maximising freedom of movement, such styles often met with considerable resistance in more conservative rural areas.18 What Chávez identifies is part of a broader clash of cultures between city and village, classical and practical pedagogy, and modernity against tradition. This discord would see a retreat from elite pedagogical ideals towards local improvisation. The classics were slowly withdrawn from the curriculum in favour of the action pedagogy espoused by John Dewey, through which the tangible benefits of learning were more apparent to rural communities.19

Chávez’s focus appears to confirm previous assumptions regarding physical education: that of top- down implementation at grassroots level.20 Our research, however, suggests a significant difference. As Chávez recognizes, Educación Física had a very short life and reflected SEP thinking on physical education in 1923. Another SEP publication, the fortnightly El Maestro Rural, began in 1932 and lasted considerably longer. This magazine became a vital tool, not only in disseminating centrally- driven policies to schoolteachers throughout the Republic, but also in collating feedback and sharing good practices from one region to the next. Maestro Rural reveals the transition to practical pedagogy associated with socialist educational philosophy and a more grounded approach to female physical education. In its early years Maestro Rural included regular features on appropriate forms of regular exercise for men and women of different age groups, and for individuals with physical impairments. Within these discussions societal assumptions regarding gender roles were ever- present. The overall objective of producing young women who were both intellectually and physically equipped to bear the responsibility of nurturing the new post-revolutionary generation was often expressed. Yet this should not mask the fundamental role of the rural school in normalising female sporting activities throughout the Republic. The discussion was no longer whether girls should play sports, but which sports were most appropriate. As such, articles in Maestro Rural reflected on the myriad benefits from schoolgirls engaging in hill-walking, basketball, softball, gymnastics, swimming and, less commonly, tennis. While the articles offer no verifiable evidence regarding schoolgirls’ enthusiasm for these activities, it is reasonable to suppose that these initiatives produced at least some young women who wanted to continue such pursuits after they left school. Although opportunities varied from one region to the next, many government departments in Mexico City could boast men’s and women’s sports teams engaging in regular competitions. Additionally, the 1917 Constitution required employers with more than 100 employees to provide sports and recreation facilities for their staff, thus creating another opportunity for grassroots involvement in sport. By the end of the 1930s, sport was no longer the domain of elite men and their passive female companions. Its scope had breached gender and class barriers to become mainstream. The extent to which the printed media reflected these significant shifts within society illustrates how official policy and sports journalism had converged.

If we move back to the early days of post-revolutionary reforms, the legacy of previous gender portrayals was apparent. While members of elite circles understood the importance of disregarding former taboos, strict underlying gender roles remained. As Anne Rubenstein notes, ‘relatively few Mexican women actually participated in athletic activities (except for dancing) in the 1920s’. The exception was ‘a rarified elite: the country club set’, who cut their hair, put on white clothes and played tennis.21 Tennis was viewed as the height of modernity and fashion. Media coverage of developments in women’s tennis overseas made the notion of women’s participation in sporting competitions more palatable to Mexican society and there is considerable evidence of the growing popularity of tennis among the urban elite throughout the 1920s.22 Yet the former proclivity to trivialize women’s efforts was never far away, as exemplified in a cartoon in the daily newspaper Excélsior in 1926. It shows a couple at a tennis club, each holding a tennis racket behind their back, openly flirting. Bowing before the woman, the man exclaims, ‘Oh señorita you have such an incredibly fine, smooth, well-crafted hand’. She replies, ‘Really? Then ask my father for it.’23 The front page of Revista de Revistas at around the same time showed two “modern” women in fashionable clothing, walking in step, each carrying a colour-coordinated tennis racket as if it were a handbag.24 Two months later the magazine went one step further. In a full page account of a tennis meeting at the Club Deportivo Chapultepec, the reporter commented that ‘a colourful swarm of pretty women, on the pretext of being interested in this racket sport, took advantage of the occasion to show off the latest fashion extravaganzas of colour, styles, looks…’25

Despite these echoes of the past, developments were taking place. In June 1922, the regular section on foreign sport in Revista de Revistas covered the annual Women’s Olympic Games in Monaco and noted that European sportswomen were no longer limited to playing tennis, but were running, cycling and taking part in other strenuous physical activities.26 In April 1922, in its regular ‘national sport’ feature, the magazine reported on a rowing regatta at Xochimilco, organized by Mexico City’s German colony, which included events for women.27 Once again, expatriate communities were sanctioning women’s participation in previously male-dominated sports. Although always consigned to more obscure pages of the sporting sections, press coverage of Mexican women’s amateur and local sporting competitions slowly became a regular feature.

Business ventures were quick to take advantage of women’s interest in sport. In March 1922, a sports round-up in Revista de Revistas was illustrated by photographs of women spectators enjoying the events, and included an advert from a US company promoting its vaginal irrigation products.28 Amid photographs of elegant upper-class women at the races, another advert entices a well-dressed woman to buy luxury fabrics from La Casa Murano in Mexico City.29 A further advert, accompanying a photograph of a cricket match and reports on tennis and baseball competitions, features a woman with immaculately bobbed hair noting that its shine, softness, and lustre could only be maintained by using Danderina shampoo.30 If the placing of such advertisements on sports pages reflected a perceived growing interest among women, by 1926 advertisers seem to have understood that women could be players as well as spectators. An advert for Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound featured a woman playing tennis. Three women watch, unable to play, even though they all have rackets. It states: ‘Do you belong to the numerous group of people who like to play sport? Are you active and vigorous?’ Acknowledging that menstrual pains ‘deprive you of the joy of life to which all women have a legitimate right’, it recommends regular doses of this medicinal compound to cure all discomforts enabling women to play tennis whenever they choose.31 Sport was no longer restricted to the elite and the advertising industry was quick to recognize the commercial potential of the burgeoning phenomenon of Mexican women’s mass participation in sports.

Given the male domination of sports journalism, it is perhaps not surprising that pockets of hackneyed clichés persisted even within articles championing mass participation in sports. In 1933, the first edition of a monthly sports magazine, La Afición, included diagrams informing women how to exercise, explaining this was ‘an easy way to slim’.32 A few months later the magazine featured a report on women’s tennis in which Fray Kempis praised the players’ looks, sweet smiles and natural graces.33 It also published diagrams of 15 exercises for women that would ‘eternally conserve youth’.34 This theme persisted: two months later more exercises for the ‘beautiful sex’ appeared in which the author explained that women were not naturally beautiful and had a physical and moral duty to work at it. Moreover, women would benefit spiritually: ‘Having health, beauty and strength must be, from a physical point of view, a woman’s greatest desires. Health brings happiness.’35

While the female body continued to be the object of idealisation and femininity, press coverage does provide evidence of progress in women’s sports at grassroots level. In 1931, perhaps reflecting the SEP’s campaign to encourage girls to take up basketball (a sport that girls had, in fact, been playing since at least 1916), women’s basketball became more formalized with the formation of the Women’s Basketball Federation. Presided over by a keen player of the female game, the Federation grew rapidly and by 1934, 31 teams were competing in its Women’s Leagues.36 Other breakthroughs occurred. Perhaps the most extreme example is Margarita ‘La Maya’ Montes from Mazatlán.’ Initially a baseball player, ‘La Maya’ took up bullfighting, and in 1930 became Mexico’s first woman boxer.37 Her boxing career comprised 28 bouts against men and five against women. ‘La Maya’ became Pacific Coast champion before retiring in 1936.38

Success, especially in international competitions, undoubtedly eased women’s entry into the sporting world. In 1935 Mexican women won gold medals in the basketball and volleyball competitions at the Central American and Caribbean Games in El Salvador. In 1936 Revista de Revistas reported that women athletes had performed well in several disciplines at an event in Mexico City. The author noted ‘they form the basis of a good women’s athletic team and that Mexico will send a good “tapado” [traditional women’s shawl] to the next Central American Games’. The article is illustrated by two photographs of the women’s sprint races with the captions, ‘Juliana Ochoa, one of the strongest members of Club Nahui, triumphantly wins the 80 metre sprint’ and ‘two competitors fight for first place in the 50 metre race’.39 In this article, at least, the focus was firmly fixed on the events themselves; the absence of comment on the women’s appearance and femininity made the press coverage gender neutral. Only the occasional slip, such as the unnecessary use of ‘tapado’, underlined that there was still some way to go before women achieved any sense of parity.

The Fruits of Post-Revolutionary Labours

In the following decades, women’s participation in international sporting competitions became increasingly common and received due coverage within the sporting pages of the mainstream press. Perhaps the most telling portrayal of this trend can be gleaned from a survey of women’s sporting activities within the dedicated sports paper, Esto, which began publication in September 1941. In its early years, the increasing focus on the recently professionalized male sports marked a domination of the main pages which, apart from notable exceptions, has continued to the present day. Grassroots and amateur activities for both men and women have always received less column space than professional sports such as baseball, boxing and football, although coverage of major sporting competitions temporarily dislodges their grip. An example of this was during preparations for Mexico’s second staging of the Central American Games in March 1954. Esto offered extensive coverage of women’s regional and national qualifying tournaments in diverse sports, pointing out that in some events, such as athletics, women were more successful than men in breaking personal records and achieving world class standards.40 Indeed, the paper’s exclusively male sports reporters often showed an enlightened awareness of the multiple obstacles facing sportswoman. In February 1954, for example, an article acknowledged women could be great athletes but underlined that, first and foremost, they were women. It published a juxtaposition of photos and comments relating to the domestic chores they had to complete before and between practice sessions.41 Following the closure of a successful Games for the host nation, Esto noted the improvement in women’s athletics and praised their ‘magnificent efforts’; moreover, it went on to suggest that they could attain even greater achievements if there were given funding for better trainers and a more effective introduction to sports at school level.42

Esto’s coverage of women’s sports reflected an emerging pattern that would continue into the 1960s: low-profile coverage as the default position, with heightened attention before and during major competitions. In early 1964, for example, its pages were liberally scattered with details of women’s national tournaments and speculation regarding which competitors would be selected to compete in the Tokyo Olympics. Simultaneously, coverage of local competitions reflected a vibrant interest in sport and the identification of promising talent for future national honours.43 That Mexico City had recently won the bid to host the 1968 Olympics probably helped to stimulate such interest. By the time the Olympic circus reached Mexico City, not only Esto but every mainstream newspaper was offering extensive coverage of the preparations and events, estimations of Mexico’s sporting chances, and analyses of its successes and failures as host. Within such exposure, there was little space and, perhaps, not much inclination to explore the disparate demands made upon women athletes between domestic and sporting environments. It is true that disproportionate attention was placed upon Enriqueta Basilio, who was selected by the Organising Committee to become the first woman athlete to light the Olympic flame. While contemporary, and more recent, interpretations suggest that the choice reflected Mexico’s increasing recognition of women’s equality within society, this must be tempered by the fact that the chair of the Committee, Pedro Ramírez Vázquez, stated that such an impression was merely a positive corollary to the main aim of achieving a ‘first’ for the Mexican hosts.44 Less contentious is the press attention placed on Pilar Roldán, who gained silver in fencing (foil) and María Teresa Ramírez who achieved bronze in swimming (800 metres freestyle). Theirs were the first Olympic medals won by Mexican women and the consequent coverage drew links between their successes and the initiatives of the previous decades to encourage women to take up sports.

By the 1960s, the Mexican press was taking sportswomen seriously and treating them with respect: a situation which counters the view that Mexican machismo and prejudice erected effective barriers to the positive portrayal of female athletes. Yet we have attempted to underline that the still extremely male-dominated world of sports journalism had undergone a process of change. Early scepticism, and even ridicule, had given way to acknowledgement, everyday acceptance and, eventually, admiration for Mexican sportswomen’s successes. Within this broader context, Mexican press coverage of the second unofficial women’s football World Cup, held in Mexico in 1971, offers a fascinating case study. It represents, in some ways, a microcosm of our analysis so far; in that the transformation from scepticism to admiration happened within three weeks rather than three decades. Moreover, it also posits the contentious thesis that women journalists proved to be more disparaging of sportswomen as their male counterparts.

It is somewhat curious that, given the advances in sporting coverage more generally, press coverage of women’s football in the 1960s and 1970s was often invisible or, at best, indifferent. During the previous decades, Esto and other papers made little or no mention of grassroots, regional, or national women’s football.45 This may have been partly due to the fairly shallow roots football had in Mexico at the time. Anecdotally, there was no shortage of girls playing football at an informal level, but in doing so they faced the ridicule and/or wrath of their families and neighbours. Social pressures often meant that once girls reached maturity (which in Mexico is 15 years old) they gave up the game.46 Mexican women’s football appears to have begun to flourish following a match between two women’s teams from the School of Translators at the Olympic Stadium in 1968. Shortly afterwards it came to light that women were playing football as part of the physical education programme at the Colegio Americano, Mexico City. At least one daily newspaper, El Heraldo de México, recognized the potential of women’s football, began to organize tournaments, and pressed for the creation of a Mexican Women’s Football Federation. Simultaneously, one of Mexico City’s leading men’s football teams, Club América, responded to the paper’s call by offering its facilities for regular training sessions.47 Women’s interest quickly spread and by the time the Mexican Women’s Football Association was created in February 1971, there were eight leagues in the Mexico City alone, each averaging 20 to 30 teams, with 54 in the Liga América. In an interview in September 1971 the president of the Mexican Women’s Football Federation, Efrain Pérez, acknowledged this growth had been far quicker than expected: ‘In reality, women’s football in Mexico has a history of two and a half years at most’.48

Although one newspaper may have taken the first step towards placing women’s football on a firmer footing, the rapid expansion of the women’s game nonetheless appears to have caught the Mexican media off-guard. In June 1970 Mexico was among eight nations competing in the first unofficial Women’s World Cup in Italy. They obtained third place overall and their resounding 9-0 victory over Austria, watched by 10,000 people, forced a reappraisal in attitudes towards them at home. Coverage of the competition in the Mexican press varied, but the superficial and often inaccurate way in which it was reported revealed a lack of knowledge or, perhaps, interest in the women’s game (Ovaciones erroneously named Mexico’s opponent as Australia; two days later Esto gave the score as 10-0).49 When the second World Cup was hosted in Mexico the following year, it appeared as though media coverage of Mexican sportswomen had been thrust back half a century. Early reports reveal underlying sexist attitudes and perhaps a reluctance to accept women’s evident ability in the previously male-dominated sport. In advertising television coverage of the inauguration ceremony and opening match, for example, Canal 2 promised ‘a double attraction: football and legs’.50

Crass promotional stunts exacerbated the facetious treatment of the tournament. A concurrent celebrity women’s event, featuring actresses against female singers, offered 20 minute games as a preliminary to many of the World Cup matches. One of these players, actress Carmen Salinas, ran a daily column ‘Football in Hot Pants’ in Esto for the duration of the competition. Frivolous in nature, the column reflected a more general tenor within sports journalism. Certainly, the spectacle of the “alternative” football matches attracted much press attention. Photographs of the celebrity women players posing provocatively appeared on the front page of Ovaciones with captions almost exclusively drawing attention to their physical attributes. The “real” footballers were pushed back to page four.51 In an interview with Salinas, published alongside her column, Mexico’s right-winger, Silvia Zaragoza, described the reaction of the crowd in their opening match against Argentina: ‘The public arrived expecting to laugh at us, but by the time they left they had a completely different opinion.’ Salinas replied: ‘That’s great! If they really want a laugh then they should come to the celebrity match on Sunday, because I don’t know how to kick a ball.’ Zaragoza’s response revealed a confident sportswoman at ease with herself: ‘That’s natural; you’re artists of cinema, theatre and television. We’re artists of football.’52

Although the crowd of 80,000 may have been quick to appreciate the amateur players’ abilities, newspaper articles suggested that journalists struggled to find an appropriate angle. Esto’s front page headline proclaimed, ‘How well they played!’ following Mexico’s 3-1 victory over Argentina in the opening match of the tournament. Yet in the first report of the game, the male author began with superlatives describing the ‘talent’ on display in the ‘fiesta of the fair sex’. The press room, he added, was full of beautiful women who were ‘unfortunately accompanied by their fathers, mothers, brothers and jealous boyfriends’. Furthermore, he continued, ‘there was no lack of gloomy men who had gone to the match in the hope of seeing more than football; beautiful legs and amusing action’. He did underline, however, that the action provided by the Mexican and Argentine teams proved that women could play football.53 Other journalists were less ambiguous. On 19 August 1971, Manuel Seyde used his regular column in the sporting pages of Excélsior to launch a scathing attack on sportswomen in general and footballers in particular. He proclaimed ‘football is not feminine, and never will be’: women did not have the necessary mental disposition, courage, daring, speed and acrobatic ability. He concluded, ‘it makes no sense for women to play football’.54

Any hope of a more measured response from the few female journalists who covered the match was short on the ground. Esto’s Amelia Camarena interviewed some of the players after the match:

- Hey, do you have a boyfriend? - No. - OK, but when the time comes and he asks you to choose between him and football, what would you say? - That’s obvious, football!55

It was not until page 12 that details of the actual match emerged. Here, a male reporter praised the players’ technical ability and underlined that ‘the large crowd left satisfied’. Although acknowledging there was ‘of course a difference from the men’s game’, he admitted that these women showed ‘a praiseworthy fighting spirit and a desire to win’.56

Amelia Camarena also targeted foreign players for derision. Interviewing the England team, she noted two of the players, Jean Breckton and Lilian Harris, smiling broadly. Their captain explained, ‘They’re happy because they’re getting married after the tournament’. Camarena’s reaction, complete with punctuation, is worth repeating:

- What…? [Breckton] - Yes, […] but don’t worry, she’s going to marry her boyfriend and I’m going to marry mine. - Oh I see, […] you left me speechless for a minute … Well, what do your fiancés think about you playing football?

An accompanying photograph of the two players, with their arms around each other, has the caption, ‘Here are the future newly-weds, Jean Breckton and Lilian Harris’.57 It was left to a male reporter to offer the opportunity for players to speak for themselves. Tackling the issue head-on, in an interview with Alicia Vargas he asked:

Q: Is it true that some female football players are lesbians? A: I’m asked this a lot. ALL THE PLAYERS ARE VERY FEMININE and if anyone wants to say the opposite they’ll have to prove it.

Interestingly, the reporter was keen to underline the ‘resolute, defiant, and very FEMININE self-assuredness’ with which she gave her reply. He went on to praise the exceptional talent of this rising star of Mexican women’s football.58

As the tournament progressed, the Mexican team’s successes forced a rapid reappraisal in the press. In Siempre, Ferdinand Marcos ‘humbly admitted’ that on the eve of the competition he had been inclined to judge the players on their physical appearances, but he now also appreciated their skill.59 As the competition progressed his admiration for the Mexican players grew. Describing Mexico’s victory over Argentina, Marcos proclaimed, ‘I’m happy to tell you, the Mexican chicas performed very well. They had a sense of what football is, which is to play as a team’.60 Following Mexico’s defeat to the reigning champions Denmark in the final, Marcos acknowledged: ‘The Danes are, individually and collectively, better than our magnificent kids.’ But, he underlined, ‘this does not diminish my admiration for the chicas, nor my solidarity with them, nor loyalty….’61 The fact that the final attracted a capacity crowd of 110,000 spectators suggests that he was not alone in expressing such sentiments.

As the 1971 World Cup ended, Marcos asked, ‘what remains?’ Underlining that the players had been great role models for Mexican women, he noted they also offered ‘a great economic opportunity for any businessman willing to risk the investment’.62 In Esto, Ignacio Matus reflected on the public enthusiasm for Mexico’s success. Admitting he had not considered football to be suitable for women, he recognized that women were increasingly playing the sport. Matus claimed that women’s football could have a bright future, but only if the administrators developed the game with more regular, prominent fixtures. Although spectacular, infrequent football events such as the World Cup would be insufficient to sustain the public’s interest.63 On the eve of the World Cup final, a report in Esto noted the rapid gain in popularity of women’s football in Mexico and asked, ‘What next? Would this interest be sustained? Will our best players have to follow their dreams overseas?’ It concluded ‘only time will tell’.64

As if in answer to the open question, in 1995 sports journalist Elina Hernández Carballido stated that the team of 1971 ‘smashed the myth that women could not play football’, but nonetheless noted ‘we continue to believe that football is not for women’.65 In 1998 she reiterated that the team’s achievements had not consolidated women’s football in the minds of Mexicans and the present team had had to start from scratch.66 Unintentionally, the medium through which she expressed her disappointment was highly ironic. Her views appeared in the Mexican monthly feminist magazine, Fem, which first appeared in October 1976. Written by women for a female readership, Fem’s expressed objectives were to raise awareness of issues that perpetuated women’s subordinate position. As such it tackled pertinent topics such as sexual harassment, discrimination in the workplace, and abortion: all contentious issues within a society that was still fundamentally conservative. In 1994, Armando Bartra commended Fem for being at the forefront of bringing women’s participation in sports into the public domain. It is indeed the case that by then, Fem had a regular feature ‘De atlétas’ which offered regular coverage of women’s sporting achievements. What Bartra failed to point out, however, is that for its first 18 years, Fem’s coverage of Mexican women’s sporting achievement and activities merited only infrequent, cursory mention.

It is unclear exactly why a radical feminist magazine chose to overlook women’s sport at precisely the time when such activities were gaining momentum on the ground. One possible reason may relate to the elitism of the original project behind Fem. While portraying itself as a magazine for all women, it is quite clear that the intellectual content of the early years reflected the educational and social background of the writers and their imagined core readership. A survey conducted by the magazine in 1982 found that although Fem’s readers appreciated its aims and objectives, they regretted the elitist tenor of many articles and its failure to reflect the everyday realities of the majority of Mexican women. Fem appeared to react positively, and part of its rebranding included articles on the female body and appropriate physical exercises. Yet it would take another 12 years for Elina Hernández Carballido to be given the opportunity to develop her lifelong interest in sport by writing a regular column. From that point onwards her features, and other frequent discussions of women’s sports, correctly earned Fem the praise Bartra bestowed upon it. Meanwhile, during the intervening years, mainstream newspapers continued to afford sportswomen a level of respect that had become normal in all sports except football for several decades.

Conclusion

In 2004, María Medina Domínguez offered a statistical analysis reflecting Mexican women’s involvement in sport which noted great strides in recent years.67 Women’s representation in international competitions, while not reaching parity with men, had largely redressed a formerly pitiful state (from 1.5% in the Paris Olympics 1924 to 45.6% in the Athens Olympics 2004). She similarly found that women’s contribution to the administration of various sports had increased significantly although, crucially, the dominance of men within governing bodies still underlined the fact that women were underrepresented in circles in which important policy decisions affecting sports were made.

These findings show that at the end of the twentieth century, societal factors continued to influence the extent to which women engaged in sporting activities. Enduring stereotypes of gender roles reflected a male proclivity for leadership, ambition and competitiveness, while females were deemed to have passive, obedient and maternal qualities. Although this had not prevented an increase in women’s participation in sports, it did create a barrier to overcome. The supposed impropriety of women engaging in certain sports still existed, with “safer” sports including the usual suspects: synchronized swimming, rhythmic gymnastics, and tennis. Maternity and child-care still detrimentally affected the longevity of a woman’s sporting career, although the more successful sportswomen often attributed their success to the support of their partners and the desire to set a good example to their daughters.68

Medina Domínquez’s study suggests that, after a century of engaging in sports, deep-seated social considerations regarding gender still hindered Mexican sportswomen. While many of these obstacles are not unique to Mexico, nor indeed to Latin America, the temptation to search for explanations within the stereotype of Mexican machismo is hard to resist. However, our analysis of the public reception to, and the reporting of, women’s sporting endeavour in Mexico throughout the twentieth century identifies other contributory factors: including the controversial fact that women journalists have not always afforded sportswomen the respect that their dedication deserves. Our evidence outlines a clear pattern of behaviour in which initial resistance, both in the press and society, gave way to gradual acceptance, followed by the normalisation of women’s participation in sports. Crucially, after a period in which the post-revolutionary state laboured under a confused misconception of the role of sport within society, various administrations during the 1920s and 1930s instilled a sporting ethos within Mexican woman, giving official approval for them to pursue their interests while simultaneously fulfilling some of the objectives of social reformers. Although there is no doubt that elements both within society and the media found this development hard to embrace, it is equally clear that such obstacles gradually eroded thus enabling many women’s sports to become an accepted part of everyday life. Rather than familiarity breeding contempt, it bred a more serious analysis of women’s sporting achievements that underlined the ability of the male- dominated journalist community to accommodate change. The real surprise in our findings is the extent to which female commentators either tended to overlook sportswomen or to trivialize their endeavours. In the case of the latter, one explanation might be that some women journalists denigrated sportswomen in an attempt to secure a place in their own male-dominated profession. Certainly Medina Domínquez’s study found that if women journalists and commentators were to make their mark in the early twenty-first century, they needed to enter an environment created by men, predominantly focused on men’s sports, and in which a critical audience would question their ability to comment authoritatively on sports such as American football, boxing, football, golf and baseball.69 Yet in the case of Fem, no such excuse can be made: quite the opposite, its pages offered an ideal platform for using women’s sport to achieve the magazine’s raison d’etre. In many respects, its lack of coverage of women’s sports until the 1990s highlighted an inability to take their achievements seriously; one that was every bit as damaging as Esto’s ‘Football in Hot Pants’ column.

1 Joseph Arbena, ‘In Search of the Latin American Female Athlete’, in Joseph Arbena and LaFrance, David (eds) Sport in Latin America and the Caribbean (Wilmington, Del: Scholarly Resources, 2002), 219-32. 2 See Joshua Nadel, ‘The Anti-National Game: Women’s Soccer in Latin America’, in Héctor Fernández L’Hoeste, Robert McKee Irwin and Juan Poblete (eds), Sports and Nationalism in Latin/o America (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015); Brenda Elsey, ‘Cultural Ambassadorship and the Pan-American Games of the 1950s’, The International Journal of the History of Sport, Vol. 33:1-2 (2016), 106, accessed 12 April 2017, doi.org/10.1080/09523367.2015.1117451. Nadel and Elsey are currently working on a monograph with the provisional title, Futbolera: The History of Women and Sports in Latin America. This publication will include a chapter specifically on Mexico. From a more literary perspective see David Wood, ‘Representing Peru: Seeing the Female Sporting Body’, Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies, 21:3 (2012), 417-36. 3 Marta Santillán Esqueda, ‘Mujer, deporte, y fútbol: Una perspectiva de genéro’ in Samuel Martínez (ed.), Fútbol – espectáculo, cultura y sociedad. Una revisión crítica al negocio mundial (Mexico City: Universidad Iberoamericana, 2010), 269-80; Mónica Lizbeth Chávez González, ‘Construcción de la nación y el género desde el cuerpo: La educación física en el México posrevolucionario’, Descarte, 30 (2009), 43-58; Martha Santillán Esqueda and Fausta Gantús, ‘Transgresiones femeninas: futbol. Una mirada desde la caricatura de la prensa, México 1970-1971’, Tzintzun, 52 (2010), 143-76. Another recent publication is Mireya Medina Villanueva and

Marisol Pedazo Luevano, ‘Women and sport in Mexico’, in (eds) Rosa Lopez de D’Amico, Tansin Benn and Gertrud Pfister, Women and Sport in Latin America (Routledge, 2016), 144-57. Despite its promising title, this fragmented narrative does not provide sufficient analysis to link historical trends to more contemporary developments within women’s sporting activity in Mexico. 4 Timothy F. Grainey, ‘Women’s Soccer in Mexico: A Unique Spin on the Rivalry with the USA’, in Jeffrey W. Kassing (ed.), Perspectives on the U.S.-Mexico Soccer Rivalry Passion and Politics in Red, White, Blue, and Green (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), 25-47. 5 William H. Beezley, Judas at the Jockey Club: and other episodes of Porfirian Mexico (London & Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004), 50-1, 63. 6 Querino Ordaz, ‘Amazonas y bicicletas’, Mundo Ilustrado, 11 November 1897, 341. 7 In this respect Mexico was not far behind the rest of the world: not until 1900 did women compete in the Olympic Games, with 22 women taking part in golf and tennis matches at the Paris Games. See [n.a.], ‘Gender Equity in Athletics and Sports’, Feminist Majority Foundation, 2014, http://www.feminist.org/sports/olympics.asp last consulted 5 March 2018. 8 Javier Bueño, ‘La locura deportiva. Lo que se ve en París’, Mundo Ilustrado, 8 March 1914. 9 [n.a.], ‘La belleza plástica del sport’, Mundo Ilustrado, 19 April 1914. 10 Much of the early content in Revista de Revistas covered the arts, intellectuals, poetry, foreign affairs, especially fashions, and world affairs. It should be noted, however, that although it originally catered for the porfirian elite, this extremely long-running magazine was still going strong in the 1980s. During the 1920s and1930s it reflected contemporary cultural changes with many features discussing fashions, cinema, theatre, Hollywood, the lives and comments of actors/actresses, society functions, and music scores. 11 [n.a.], [n.t.], Monitor Republicano, 21 July 1919, 5. 12 [n.a.], ‘Cultura física’, Monitor Republicano, 22 July 1919, 6. 13 [n.a.], ‘Por la Asociación Nacl. de Jóvenes’, Monitor Republicano, 18 August 1919, 5. 14 In September 1919 the magazine was superseded by Arte y Sport: Revista Semanal Ilustrada de Teatros Cines, Deportes e Información. However, the coverage, perspective, content and many of its correspondents were the same as Arte y Deportes. 15 Rodolfo Alvarez y V., ‘Cultura física: salud, fuerza y belleza’, Arte y Sport, Vol. 1, No.33, 14 February 1920, 14. 16 Rodolfo Alvarez y V., ‘Gimnasia especial para las damas’, Arte y Sport, Vol. 1, No.32, 17 April 1920, 6. 17 For fuller discussion of post-revolutionary sport and society see: Claire Brewster and Keith Brewster, Representing the Nation: Sport and Spectacle in Post-Revolutionary Mexico (Routledge, 2010), 13-37. 18 Chávez, ‘Construcción de la nación’, 49-55. 19 Brewster and Brewster, Representing the Nation, 22-6. 20 See, for example, Joseph Arbena, ‘Sport, Development, and Mexican Nationalism, 1920-1970’, Journal of Sport History, Vol. 18, No. 3 (1991), 353-4. 21 Anne Rubenstein, ‘The War of “Las Pelonas”’, in Jocelyn Olcott, Mary Kay Vaughan and Gabriela Cano (eds), Sex in Revolution: Gender, Politics, and Power in Modern Mexico, (Durham & London: Duke University Press, 2006), 57-80. 22 See the following for examples of such growth: [n.a.], ‘Concurrida fiesta deportiva’, Monitor Republicano, 11 August 1919, 5; Little Ball, ‘Se inauguró el club de Lawn-Tennis “Tacubaya”’, Revista de Revistas, 5 March 1922, 43; [n.a.], ‘El Campeonato de singles de lawn-tennis para señoritas’, Excélsior, 5 December 1922, 2nd section, 6; [n.a.], ‘La señorita Angela González ganó ayer el campeonato de tenis para damas, derrotando la señorita Carmen Ochoa’, Excélsior, 11 December 1922, 2nd section, 6; [n.a.], ‘En el Club Deportivo Chapultepec se efectuaron ayer dos interesante matches del campeonato de damas de México’, Excélsior, 4 October 1926, 3rd Section, 2. 23 García Cabral, ‘Oportunismo’, Excélsior, 14 October 1926, 5. 24 Revista de Revistas, 12 September 1926, front cover. 25 [n.a.], ‘Bob Kinsey, campeón de tenis en la República’, Revista de Revistas, 21 November 1926, 21. 26 [n.a.], ‘Los concursos atléticos femeninos en Mónaco’, Revista de Revistas, 4 June 1922, 44. 27 Little Ball, ‘Lucidos regatos en Xochimilco’, Revista de Revistas, 16 April 1922, 43. 28 Mu-Col Co Buffalo, ‘¡Señoras!’, Revista de Revistas, 19 March 1922, 42. 29 See Revista de Revistas, 26 March 1922, p.32. 30 Danderina, ‘Una dama elegante’, Revista de Revistas, 9 July, 1922, 47. 31 [n.a.], ‘¿Pertenece Ud. al Número de las que Pueden Gustar de los Deportes?’, Excélsior, 17 October 1926, 1, 9. 32 [n.a.], ‘Una fácil forma para adelgazar’, Afición, no.1, August 1933, 19, 40.

33 Fray Kempis, ‘Tenista a fuerza: Nena Alvarez’, Afición, no.4, November 1933, 29, 38. It should be noted that the women in the accompanying photographs do confirm their natural beauty. 34 [n.a.], ‘Los quince mejores ejercicios para conservarse eternamente joven’, Afición, no.4, November 1933, 20-1. 35 [n.a.], ‘Hágase bella con la cultura física’, Afición, no.6, January 1934, 9, 30. 36 Froylan Rodríguez L., ‘Encomiable labor se ha hecho en el basketbol femenino’, Afición, no.6, January 1934, 33-4. 37 Marco Antonio Maldonado and Rubén Amador Zamora, Cosecha de Campeones: La historia del box mexicana II, 1961-1999, (Mexico City: Editorial Clío, 2000), 78-9. 38 Anju Reejhsinghani, ‘Women’s Boxing in Mexico and the Caribbean’, Fighting Women: A Symposium on Women’s Boxing, Toronto, June 2013, available via http://www.uww.edu/Documents/ce/CLACS/reejhsinghani%20fighting%20women%20paper.pdf last consulted 11 July 2014. 39 Issil, ‘Buenas perspectivas para el atletismo femenil mexicano en los próximos Juegos Centroamericanos’, Revista de Revistas, 8 November 1936, 28. 40 [n.a.], ‘La marcha sigue siendo lenta’, Esto, 1 January 1954, 10. 41 Francisco Lazo, ‘Mujeres ante todo…’, Esto, 13 February 1954, 1, 10-1. 42 Héctor Cárdenas, ‘Una mejoría en la atletismo femenil’, Esto 29 March 1954, 25. 43 [n.a.], ‘Animada jornada atletica en el parque Plan Sexenal’, Esto, 24 February 1964, Section B, 5, for example, gives details of a local athletics meeting in Mexico City that claimed to be identifying young female talent with a promising future. 44 Quoted in Brewster and Brewster, Representing the Nation, 149. 45 Esto did occasionally touch upon women’s football. See for example, ‘¿Tomará auge el fut femenil?, Esto, 2 June 1959, 8a, ‘Cartón de Fa-CHA’, Esto, 3 June 1959, 2a. We are grateful to Joshua Nodal for sharing this information. 46 Javier Bañuelos, Carlos Calderón, Greco Sotelo, León Krauze, Crónica del futbol mexicano: Los años difíciles, 1970-1986, (Mexico City: Editorial Clío, 1998), 14-5. 47 Germán de Olmo, ‘Historia de la selección femenil’, Balón, no. 405, 26 August 1971, 12-13; Bañuelos, Crónica del futbol mexicano, 15. 48 Raúl Valencia, ‘Ha Sido muy Rápido el Progreso del Futbol Femenil en México’, Esto, 5 September 1971, suplemento dominical, 2. 49 [n.a.], ‘México contra Australia en la fecha inaugural del Mundial del fut femenil’, Ovaciones, 6 July 1970, sec. 2ª, 5.; A.P., ‘¡México aplasto a Austria, 10-0!’, Esto, 8 July 1970, 1, 6. 50 [n.a.], ‘Doble atractivo: futbol y piernas’, Universal, 15 August 1971, Sec. 3, 8. 51 See Ovaciones, 20 August 1971, 1-4. 52 Carmen Salinas, ‘El público quería reírse de nosotras pero se llevó otra opinión’, Esto, 18 August 1971, 21. 53 Gustavo Ramos Galán, ‘¡Qué gran pareja harían la Peque Rubio y el ‘Monito’ Rodríguez!’, Esto, 16 August 1971, 8. 54 Manuel Seyde, ‘Temas del Día’, Excélsior, 19 August 1971, sec. D, 1. 55 Amelia Camarena, ‘Porras, risas y llanto’, Esto, 16 August 1971, 11. 56 Carlos Tapaga, ‘México Lució y Abrió con una Victoria en el Femenil’, Esto, 16 August 1971, 12, 41. 57 Amelia Camarena, ‘¡No Hay Rival Invencible Cuando se Traen Ganas de Ganar!’, Esto, 17 August 1971, 9. 58 Bernardino Vargas García, ‘Las confesiones de María Vargas’, Balón, no.406, 2 September 1971, 6. Emphasis in original. The Mexican striker, Alicia Vargas, had been nicknamed ‘the Mexican Pelé’ in 1970 as a tribute to her outstanding performance in the Italy World Cup. See Flavio Zavala Millet, ‘Frente a las redes’, Ovaciones 23 August 1971, 4. 59 Fernando Marcos, ‘Vida Deportiva’, Siempre, 11 August 1971, 64-5. 60 Fernando Marcos, ‘Vida Deportiva’, Siempre, 25 August 1971, 62. 61 Fernando Marcos, ‘Vida Deportiva’, Siempre, 8 September 1971, 79. As the weekly magazine Siempre is released ahead of its issue date, it is unlikely that Marcos was reacting to Seyde’s column of 6 September 1971. 62 Ibid, 79. 63 Ignacio Matus, ‘Ese Fenómeno Llamado Futbol’, Esto, 12 September 1971, 11, 29. 64 [n.a.], ‘¿El futbol femenil mexicano a un paso del título, pero ¿qué pasará luego?’, Esto, 5 September 1971, suplemento dominical, 4-5.

65 Elina Hernández Carballido, ‘De Atletas: Inicios del futbol femenil “entre patadas y glorias”’, Fem, Vol.19, no.146, May 1995, 46-47. Evidence suggests that Mexican women’s participation in football today is still affected by this underlying perception. See Grainey, ‘Women’s Soccer in Mexico’, 32. 66 Elina Hernández Carballido, ‘De Atletas: : “¿Se acordorán de nosotras en 1998? Campeonato mundial de futbol femenil’, Fem, Vol. 22, no. 182, June 1998, 48. 67 María Eugenia Medina Domínguez, Mujer y Deporte: Una visión de género, (Mexico City: CONADE- INMUJERES, 2004). 68 Medina Domínguez, Mujer y Deporte. Chapter 1 (no page numbers). See also Medina Villanueva and Pedraza Leuvano, 151-7. 69 Medina Domínguez, Mujer y Deporte. Chapter 1.