Pelota mixteca explained
Pelota mixteca ("Mixtec-style ball") is a team sport similar to a net-less tennis game. The players wear sturdy, elaborately decorated gloves affixed to a heavy flat striking surface, using them to strike a small solid ball. The game has roots extending back hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of years.
Today, the game is played in the Mexican state of Oaxaca and Guerrero and in emigrant communities including those in the Mexico City, Los Angeles and Fresno areas.
The members of each five-player team take their positions on one-half of a long narrow court—roughly 100 m long by 11 m wide—which has been measured out on compacted soil. To serve, the ball is first bounced on a flat stone, and then struck on the rebound. The complex scoring system is similar to tennis.
Gloves, balls, and variations
The large gloves, which are usually studded with nails, weigh between 3–6 kg (7–12 lbs).[1] Although the ball was traditionally made of wool,[2] a wide variety of materials are used today:
- The most commonly played game uses a ball made of rubber rolled with stocking thread, and fitted with a suede outer lining. The resultant ball weighs about 300–330 grams (12 oz) and measures 8–10 cm (3–4 in) in diameter (see photo on left). To differentiate it from other versions, this game is sometimes referred to as pelota mixteca de forro ("Mixtec-style lined ball").[3]
- A version named pelota mixteca de hule ("Mixtec-style rubber ball") uses a heavier, 900 gram rubber ball, with no outer lining, often painted in bright colors (see photo above).[4]
- A version of the game played in the Los Angeles area uses a plastic ball weighing 1–1½ kg.[5]
- The little-known pelota mixteca del valle uses a very light (less than 100 gram) sponge ball which is struck with a wooden paddle strapped to the hand.[6]
The game is claimed by many writers to be a descendant of the 3000+ year old
Mesoamerican ballgame, perhaps the particular version shown on reliefs at the Mixtec archaeological site of
Dainzu.
[7] Heiner Gillmeister, on the other hand, has argued that
pelota mixteca may instead be descended from a Franco-
Flemish ancestor of
real tennis, likely through intermediate games similar to the
Basque pelota or
Valencian pilota, and from there brought to
New Spain[8] and this would put the game's roots back 412 years ago.
References
- (2005) Encyclopedia Of Traditional British Rural Sports, Routledge, .
- Ulama, accessed October 2007.
- Book: Filloy Nadal, Laura . 2001 . Rubber and Rubber Balls in Mesoamerica . The Sport of Life and Death: The Mesoamerican Ballgame . E. Michael Whittington . Thames & Hudson . New York . 20–31 . 0-500-05108-9 . registration . https://archive.org/details/sportoflifedeath00emic/page/20 .
- (1997) Tennis: A Cultural History, New York University Press, .
- (2005) Un juego ancestral in El Oaxaqueño, N 167: 14 November 2005, accessed October 2007.
- (2005) "Pelota Mixteca:Modern version of a traditional game"
- (2003) Could We Speak of the Super Bowl at Flushing Meadows?: La pelota mixteca, a third pre-Hispanic ballgame, and its possible architectural context, Ancient Mesoamerica (2003), 14: 319–342
External links
Notes and References
- Penick. Martinez.
- Federación Mexicana de Juegos y Deportes Autóctonos y Tradicionales.
- Penick. Filloy Nadal (p. 30) finds a slightly lighter ball, at 170–280 grams.
- Federación Mexicana de Juegos y Deportes Autóctonos y Tradicionales, which also states that a heavier glove is used, weighing between 5 and 7 kg.
- Martinez.
- Federación Mexicana de Juegos y Deportes Autóctonos y Tradicionales.
- See, for example, Taladoire.
- Gillmeister, p. 71-75, which is supported by Collins, p. 259.
