ABSTRACT
In 1971, an event happened that changed the lives of a group of women in Argentina whose identity and reputation were unknown for over forty years. Further, that event has been identified as a landmark of an underestimated historical and social phenomenon in Latin America and, particularly, Argentina: fútbol femenino (women’s soccer). The first Women’s World Cup in Latin America took place in Mexico. The women’s Argentine National Team showcased two major issues this article addresses: It demonstrated what had been happening in Latin America in terms of soccer – that women had played fútbol since as early as the late 1940s and their historical (in)visibility, as in other areas of women’s participation – is the basis to sustain a myth suggesting that women’s soccer in Argentina has no (hi)stories behind its current consolidation as a women’s sport and, therefore, that it was developed in a vacuum. Moreover, this narrative will add to the construction of a theoretical framework in the study of women’s soccer in Argentina, as well as in Latin America, that places this occasion in Mexico in 1971 as the moment in time that a) brings forward women’s soccer in the region for the first time, and b) provides an insight into what women were already doing: mastering a male British sport since the 1940s.
