Sport and Society in Post-revolutionary Mexico [ 1 ]

By hosting the Central American Games in 1926, the Mexican government sought to convince international observers that the nation had emerged from the years of bitter civil war that characterised the Mexican Revolution (1910–17). [ ² ] Yet while the pomp and ceremony of the games may have provided a temporary sense of well-being, the occasion could not fully mask the disquiet that lay beneath the veneer of stability. The wounds of the Mexican Revolution went much deeper: the country’s economic infrastructure was severely damaged; political authority had devolved to those semi-autonomous provincial leaders with sufficient military clout to get their way; and as poorer Mexicans called for social justice, the wealthy demanded social control. Many refused to accept that the violent conflict had run its course: radicals pushed for greater political change while reactionaries sought to turn the clock back. Indeed, in the very year that the Central American Games took place, a rebellion against constitutional attacks on the Catholic Church caused considerable bloodshed and division. Clearly, it would take more than a few gold medals to convince onlookers that Mexico had returned to the order and progress that had characterized the late nineteenth century.