Wednesday, November 13, 2024

Ancient Purépecha sport represents Mexico at World Nomad Games in Turkey

You won’t find the ancient Purépecha sport of pelota in the Olympics or Pan American Games, but it was a big hit recently at the fourth World Nomad Games in Turkey.

The biennial competition aims to showcase non-mainstream ethnic sports that have been handed down through the generations.

Most of the sports are from Central Asia, but this year a team from Mexico put on a display of pelota, a Purépecha sport using balls and long sticks — sort of like field hockey or the Scottish sport of shinty — that has roots in what is now the state of Michoacán dating back some 3,500 years.

“Everyone was very amazed by the performance that we carried out,” said Ana Claudia Collado García, president of the Mexican Federation of Indigenous and Traditional Sports and Games.

The players from Mexico explained the origins of the game, showed the two types of balls used (one of them soaked in fuel and ignited), and covered the rules and the meaning of the game. They also played some exhibitions, a few of them in a 15,000-capacity stadium used for the opening ceremonies. Fans and others were invited to give the sport a try if they wanted to.

“People were very interested,” said Collado, whose agency is part of Mexico’s Multilingual and Community Cultural Actions Program (PACMYC). She said it was the first time that Mexico had participated in an event of this nature.

The first three World Nomad Games were held in 2014, 2016 and 2018 in Kyrgyzstan; after a hiatus for COVID, the games returned this year from Sept. 29 through Oct. 2 in Iznik, Turkey. More than 3,000 athletes from 102 countries were said to have participated.

“P’urhepecha Ball” — according to the website for the 2022 Games — “continues to be practiced by [I]ndigenous communities” and is played on courts that are 120 meters long and 6-to-8 meters wide, with six to eight players on each team.

“The ball is hit with a wooden cane with a curve on the lower side (similar to a hockey stick). It has two main modalities: One is practiced during the night with a lit wooden ball, the other one is played during the day with a cloth ball. To score a point, the ball has to cross” the end line of the other team, the website says.

The game begins with a “faceoff” in which two opposing players hit their sticks three times against one another before the ball is put into play.

“The antecedents of the [game] go back to the first settlers of what is now Michoacán,” the website continues. “A legend in Michoacán tells that when the planet Mars was reborn and unleashed natural catastrophes against the Earth, the P’urhépecha people invented the ballgame as a remedy to level the cosmos.”

The Purépecha are an Indigenous people whose population is mainly concentrated in 22 municipalities in central Michoacán, including Pátzcuaro, Quiroga, Tzintzuntzan, Paracho and Uruapan, and other smaller towns and villages that are more remote. Speakers of the P’urhé language are in 95 of the 113 municipalities of the state.

Some of the other sports contested at the World Nomad Games — at which medals are handed out — include alysh (a type of belt wrestling), salburun (which combines falconry, archery and hunting) and kok-boru (a sport similar to buzkashi, in which horseback riders attempt to move a goat or calf carcass into a goal). Don’t expect to see that one on ESPN.

With reports from Excelsior

Have something to say? Paid Subscribers get all access to make & read comments.
Ontario, Canada Prime Minister Doug Ford standing at a podium with the logo of the Labourers International Union of North America giving a speech. Behind him are two men watching on

Ontario premier suggests Canada end free trade with Mexico

4
Accusing Mexico of helping China skirt heavy Canadian and U.S. tariffs, Ontario Premier Doug Ford is calling for an end to the USMCA.
A person shops at a local market in Mexico City.

Sheinbaum, business sector agree to lower basic food prices

0
“We want prices to come down for consumers, especially for those who don't have much,” Sheinbaum said Wednesday.
Germán Reyes Reyes, a former army captain who became interim head of the Chilpancingo Public Security Ministry on Sept. 30, was detained by state and federal security forces for the murder of Alejandro Arcos Catalán

Chilpancingo security chief arrested for mayor’s murder

1
The deceased mayor's decapitated body was found inside his pickup truck in the state capital of Chilpancingo, Guerrero, on Oct. 6.