Transforming Argentina: Sport, Modernity And National Building In The Periphery

By 1914 the sports introduced by the British werenational practices that made possible the expansion of the incipient civil society (clubs, associations and organized competitions). The practice of sports was concomitant to the rapid process of urbanization andmodernization of Argentina. The construction of the “national” through the bodily practices, created outside the country, can be seen as an example of a radical modernity that allowed Argentina to be integrated in the process of consolidation of a global sport arena. The sports discussed are football, polo, car racing and boxing that brought to great success to the nation and produced key sport idols. The great heroes , Fangio in car racing, Monzon in boxing and Maradona in football, were national but also furnished a transnational sport imaginary. Following those sports the article argues that through sports the social and cultural heterogeneity of the nation was formed in a kind of complex collage.
 

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