Spanish America

Modern Popular Sports

In the 21st century, basketball, long played throughout South America but never before widely known, has become more popular in the mainstream as a popular urban and playground sport. Argentina's traditional but still somewhat obscure sport, pato, combines elements of basketball with polo. Two four-player teams on horseback compete over a ball outfitted with six handles, which must be held with the arms outstretched (giving other players a chance to grab it) while the rider approaches a vertical ring to throw it through. The game's name is the Spanish word for “duck”—originally a live duck was used instead of the special ball.

Tennis is popular in much of Spanish America, and a variant, padel tennis (not to be confused with paddle tennis), is the most-played sport in Argentina, which is home to over 35,000 courts. Padel tennis is played on courts half the size of traditional tennis courts and follows generally the same rules—but the courts are indoors and enclosed, so that the ball may be played off the walls as in squash. The serve is delivered underarm instead of overarm, and the ball has more give than a squash ball, so it is not as physically demanding as squash, nor must the players cover as large an area as in tennis, making it an accommodating sport for all skill levels and ages.

Also popular throughout much of Spanish America is Basque pelota, a racquet sport from the Basque region. The game is played on a two-walled court, often built by using the exterior wall of a public building, like a church, and attaching a wall perpendicular to it (not always with [Page 673]the permission of the church itself, since the lateral wall may be portable). A number of variations are played, and in Mexico the variation of frontenis is especially popular. Played on the smallest version of the pelota court, with a third wall, frontenis is noteworthy for its distinctive ball, for which there are only two manufacturers. Slightly smaller than that used in racquetball, the frontenis ball is hard and extremely bouncy.

Rodeo is popular both in Mexico and in Chile, where it is the national sport. Chilean rodeo thrives in the country's rural areas, but is strictly regulated and formalized, distant from its folksy origins. Modern Chilean rodeo has two riders riding laps around the arena, trying to pin a calf against massive cushions lining the walls. In Mexico, a form of rodeo called charreada is common, and like American rodeos, it consists of a number of different events—usually nine for men (mostly roping) and team precision riding for women.

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