Sports in South America

Abstract

This book follows the transformation of sporting cultures in South America leading up to Uruguay's hosting of the first FIFA Men's World Cup in 1930. The book shows how South American soccer culture, envied worldwide, sprang out of societies that were already playing and watching games well before British sportsmen arrived to teach “the beautiful game.” These vibrant and distinct sporting traditions, including cycling, boxing, cockfighting, bullfighting, cricket, baseball, and horse racing, were marked by South American societies' indigenous and colonial pasts and by their leaders' desire to participate in what they saw as a global movement toward human progress. The book debunks legends, highlights the stories of forgotten sportswomen and Indigenous sports, and unpacks the social and cultural connections within South America and with the rest of the world.