ABSTRACT
The role and place sport plays in Latin America have been observed by numerous scholars who have used multiple approaches to provide interpretations and meanings of its value. Arbena (1993) commented that, throughout the twentieth century, the practice of sport in Latin America – and particularly European sports – ironically contributed to reinforce the colonial past, as it was perceived as a path to modernity. Capretti (2010) noted that social scientists from Latin America who have examined the role of sport, particularly football, have focused their attention on the study of social and national identity. While football was not the only sport form that was adopted from European immigrants, it became – from the early days of the twentieth century – one of the most dominant cultural manifestations of what sport is in Latin America (Torres and Campos, 2010). As a result, football has become a prime object of study by which scholars have attempted to answer not only questions regarding the place and role of sport in the region but also to bring out more about Latin Americans’ own identity, or, as noted by Capretti (2010, 246), provide an answer to ‘who are we’. Sport’s role in the social and national identity in Latin America is also highlighted by Torrres (2010, 561) who noted that sport scholars have ‘attempt[ed] to discuss, in one way or another and with different degrees of success the complexity of imagining nations, identities and subjectivities through football’. The perceived role sport plays in social life, particularly by shaping identities, accentuating or mitigating class and gender differences, and perhaps serving as mechanism to promote development, is why many governments across Latin America rationalize and find justification for their institutional involvement with sport.
