ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how discourses and imageries of hybridization were channelled through sport, a practice that became global at the beginning of the twentieth century. The presence and the acceptance of new male hybrids in Argentina make it possible to define these processes in terms of cultural creativity, in the sense that change is related to continuity. Without tradition change and creativity are unthinkable. The British playing polo are transformed into criollos; they create a style, even in developing new breeds of ponies that accept the importance of the original component of criollo mares. Football very soon became a popular urban practice, while polo continued to be a sport practised by the privileged landlords of the pampas. The world of competition in polo shaped the ideas on male physical strength and an extraordinary sense of sacrifice as inner characteristics of Argentinian creole players.
