ABSTRACT
The Basque pelota is a squash-like game where two or four people hit a compact leather ball against a wall with their bare hands or an instrument. Traditionally, the pelota was a symbol of early urban sociality due to the location of its court (fronton) in town and village squares. It was also a symbol of tough masculinity and a particular manifestation of Basque force (indarra) due to its harshness on the hand. Pelota had been professionalized and had had a significant global trajectory even before the commercialization of modern sports originating from Great Britain. The meteoric rise and sudden decline and eventual disappearance of the jai alai modality in the United States show that the strong ethnic character of the game made it a misfit in American capitalism. It reveals the double bind of a traditional sport in a global capitalist context where, on the one hand, it is nourished by ethnic and cultural affinities and solidarity but, on the other hand, it also suffers if it is unable to undergo a certain level of de-ethnicization.
