Global recognition of traditional and indigenous sports as assets of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) has been growing in the last decade. Pelota Mixteca is one example of a traditional and indigenous sport played in Oaxaca, Mexico. Designated as an intangible cultural heritage by the Oaxaca local government in 2011, Pelota Mixteca has been developed in California by Oaxacan migrants. Moreover, an annual Pelota Mixteca tournament has been held in Fresno County since 1998. This paper examines the process of diffusion of Pelota Mixteca into the United States and highlights specific cultural aspects that showcase traditional and indigenous sports as ICH.
The methodology of this study involved an ethnographic investigation of Pelota Mixteca in both the United States and Mexico, highlighting 2 annual tournaments held in Fresno County in 2015 and 2016. Now, these tournaments serve as a symbol of the cultural diffusion of Pelota Mixteca into the United States. Based on fieldwork from tournaments, this paper discusses 3 cultural aspects of Pelota Mixteca as follows.
First, the tournament participants, including organizers, players and spectators, came from diversified backgrounds, comprising immigrants and non-immigrants from Oaxaca, first-generation and second-generation Mexican-Americans, and Pelota Mixteca players from the center and periphery of Oaxaca. All of the participants symbolized the complex Oaxacan society.
Second, the tournament is an arena for cultural politics representing Mexican or Oaxacan images. Mexican government agencies and university migrant services have recognized the Pelota Mixteca tournament as a cultural device by which Mexican immigrants can express their identities. In addition, the tournament has also raised consciousness of cultural roots among the participants from Mexico.
Finally, the tournament, or location where Oaxacans play Pelota Mixteca, is a meta-home. No matter who participates, where the participants come from, or when the tournament takes place, Oaxacans feel they have found a home when Pelota Mixteca is played. Oaxacans have built Pelota Mixteca courts in their various migration sites, such as Mexico City and California, since the 1930s. It can be argued that if Oaxacans did not have Pelota Mixteca, they would not have had the motivation to migrate to the various areas they now inhabit.
From what has been said above, it can be concluded that acknowledging traditional and indigenous sports as ICH allows an understanding of the ambiguity and polysemy of that sport in relation to other cultures. For this purpose, a sports anthropology approach may prove valuable in the future.
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