Ancient games resurrected

Submitted by coldrum on Saturday, 17 April 2010 Page Views: 2193

Coach Salvador Mercado took a last look at his players, crouched for the face-off with their oak clubs at the ready. Then he took out a ball soaked with fuel oil, flicked a cigarette lighter and set the ball ablaze.
The whistle blew and a game of pelota purépecha, a sort of field hockey for pyromaniacs, was underway. Players jumped and shouted as the flaming ball whooshed toward them, scorching the grass.

Pelota purépecha is one of about 150 pre-Hispanic games that are on the verge of extinction, the Mexican government says, and it has launched a push to rescue these ancient pastimes. In Mexico City, a new sports center for pre-Hispanic games is being built. The Mexican Sports Confederation is printing rule books for several of the ancient games. The confederation is also trying to start teams for the games in schools nationwide.

Most of Mexico's traditional sports had deep social and religious importance to the Aztecs, Mayans and other peoples across Mexico and Central America. In the Mayan story of creation, the gods of the underworld challenge the first two humans to a ballgame. The humans lose and are killed, but then they are resurrected as the sun and moon.

Every pre-Hispanic city had a ball court. Games could go on for days, and players were sometimes sacrificed to the gods. In the game's most common variation, players used their hips to knock a heavy rubber ball through a stone ring. Sometimes the ball had a human skull as its core.

The modern version of this game, known as ulama, is played mainly in the western state of Sinaloa. Even there, it is dying out as players get older.

"These sports are associated with Indian cultures, and that's where the problem starts, because we continue to be a society with some very severe racism," said Cornelio Pérez, director of the Mexican Association of Pre-hispanic Sports Players.
It doesn't help that many of the traditional sports are dangerous or painful. Playing pelota purépecha carries the risk of burns. The heavy ball in ulama causes bruises.

Of all of the sports, pelota purépecha has the most players, about 800 nationwide. The five-player teams use oak or plum-tree clubs to whack the ball across a goal line. The flaming ball makes it possible to play at night without lights.

In Mexico City, players were outraged in June when the city government decided to build a police station on the city's only remaining pelota mixteca court.After months of negotiation with players' groups, the Mexico City government announced on March 12 that it will build a new $300,000 center for traditional sports. It will have two courts for pelota mixteca and pelota tarasca, a sport resembling handball.

For more blistering fun, see USA Today.

Note: Flaming Stickball, One-Kilo Handball. Amazing Pre-Hispanic Sports have fewer players, but still have passionate support. Because of the danger, some public parks no longer allow these traditional sports.

Contributor Bio for coldrum: Based in Milkyway, contributing since 2002. Favourite site: Avebury.

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