How A 3,400-year-old Ballgame Survives In Mexico Against All Odds

On a ungraded section connected Mexico’s Pacific coast, 5 cousins betwixt nan ages of 8 and 13 portion down and footwear disconnected their shoes. Nearby, adults thief them fasten nan pre-Hispanic-style “fajado,” securing loincloths and leather belts that wrap astir their hips.

The Osuna children drawback nan rubber ball, each 3.2 kilograms of it — astir 7 pounds aliases 7 times heavier than a shot ball — and statesman playing. Only nan hips whitethorn touch it, forcing players to leap done nan aerial aliases dive debased erstwhile it skims nan ground.

As Mexico prepares to co-host nan 2026 FIFA World Cup, nan federation is looking backmost 3,400 years to 1 of nan oldest squad sports: nan ancient ballgame known arsenic ulama, a ritual believe astir erased during nan Spanish conquest that survived only successful nan distant pockets of northwestern Mexico earlier its precocious 20th-century rebirth. Today, authorities and its modern players are leveraging nan momentum of world shot to radiance a spotlight connected nan ancient athletics erstwhile again.

While players admit that tourism fueled nan sport’s revival, galore interest that projecting an “exotic” image undermines a contented cardinal to their identity.

“We must free nan crippled of nan conception that it is simply a surviving fossil,” said Emilie Carreón, a interrogator astatine nan National Autonomous University of Mexico, UNAM, and head of a task aimed astatine studying and practicing nan sport.

That’s precisely what nan Osuna family is trying to do. After ustadz subordinate Aurelio Osuna died, his widow, María Herrera, 53, continued his legacy, school nan ballgame to their grandchildren successful their mini colony successful Sinaloa, 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) northwest of Mexico City.

“This seed will carnivore consequence someday,” she said.

A pre-Hispanic ritual

According to nan Popol Vuh, nan sacred Mayan book, nan world was created from a ballgame, wherever ray and acheronian fought to equilibrium life and decease and group nan beingness successful motion.

Long earlier nan Maya, nan Olmecs — nan earliest known Mesoamerican civilization — practiced nan sport; nan recreation of this conflict of opposing forces was communal successful various pre-Hispanic cultures. The grounds is successful millennial rubber balls unearthed successful Mexico and successful astir 2,000 shot courts recovered from Nicaragua to Arizona.

The game, depicted successful codices, chromatic carvings and sculptures, had galore variations and meanings, from fertility aliases warfare ceremonies, to governmental acts and moreover sacrifices.

While immoderate players were beheaded — perchance nan losers — Guatemalan archaeologist and anthropologist Carlos Navarrete explained this occurred only during circumstantial periods and successful definite regions. The physically demanding crippled was chiefly a large societal event, drafting crowds for nosy and betting.

Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés was impressed by nan spectacle presented by nan Aztec emperor Moctezuma but nan Spanish yet banned ustadz and ordered nan demolition of its courts, apt viewing nan contented arsenic a shape of guidance to Christianity. For nan Catholic Church “the shot was nan surviving devil,” Carreón said.

The crippled — played by hitting nan shot pinch nan hip, nan forearm aliases a mallet — survived only connected nan Mexican bluish Pacific coast, wherever nan assemblage process led by Jesuit priests was little fierce and ustadz was accepted successful Catholic festivities, said Manuel Aguilar Moreno, a professor of creation history astatine California State University.

On nan opening time of nan 1968 Mexico City Olympics, spectators watched arsenic burly men contorted their bodies successful unexpected ways to support nan rubber shot moving for arsenic agelong arsenic possible. The accumulation sparked studies astir nan ballgame and really to sphere it successful nan pursuing decades.

The game’s revival

Luis Aurelio Osuna, 30, Herrera’s eldest son, began playing hep ustadz aft school, conscionable arsenic his begetter did decades agone successful Los Llanitos, a ranch adjacent to nan larboard metropolis of Mazatlán. Now his 3 children besides play.

Osuna and his mother thatch nan children really to deed nan shot and guideline them done nan analyzable rules, which see a scoring strategy pinch points that are won and lost.

They do it retired of passion, but besides retired of pragmatism successful a authorities where organized crime is pervasive.

“We request to find a measurement to support them entertained pinch bully things,” said Osuna.

Hip ustadz teams person up to six players and nan Osuna family sometimes participates successful tournaments aliases exhibitions.

Decades ago, matches were large events tied to belief feasts, sometimes stretching connected for an full week. But those days are gone, arsenic liking waned and rubber balls became difficult to get.

In nan 1980s, filmmaker Roberto Rochín documented nan activity of possibly nan past rubber ball-maker successful nan mountains of Sinaloa. The artisan made them akin to nan Olmecs, who discovered that mixing basking rubber sap pinch a works created a strong, elastic and durable material. This civilization made immoderate of nan oldest balls of nan world.

A spectacle sparking mixed feelings

During nan 1990s, unit from a edifice successful nan Mexican Caribbean traveled crossed nan state successful hunt of Sinaloan families who could correspond nan ballgame arsenic a tourer attraction successful nan Riviera Maya, wherever nary 1 played it anymore.

“It’s axenic spectacle: they overgarment their faces and put connected feathered costumes,” Herrera said. Yet, she acknowledges nan value. “That’s wherever nan revival began.”

The ballgame began to dispersed and to beryllium known extracurricular Mexico. Osuna, pinch nan family squad his begetter had formed, ended up playing hep ustadz successful a Roman amphitheater successful Italy. It attracted truthful overmuch attraction that they were hired for a deodorant commercial, he said.

As nan World Cup approaches, authorities and corporations are launching exhibitions successful Mexico City and Guadalajara, and featuring ustadz players successful advertisement campaigns highlighting Mexican practice — a move that has sparked mixed feelings.

“We’re not circus monkeys,” says Ángel Ortega, a 21-year-old ustadz subordinate from Mexico City who precocious participated successful a TV commercialized alongside shot players.

Ilse Sil, a subordinate and personnel of nan UNAM task led by Carreón, believes that organization support will thief to sphere ustadz but officials request to beforehand nan crippled successful communities and schools to enlistee much young players, arsenic it remains a marginal athletics pinch astir 1,000 players chiefly successful México and Guatemala.

In Los Llanitos, Herrera’s grandchildren emotion playing. They don’t attraction wherever — successful nan ungraded field, successful a tribunal aliases moreover successful nan location corridor — but ever pinch nan precious inheritance: a handmade decades-old rubber shot from nan mountains of Sinaloa. They opportunity it cushions nan blows better.

Eight-year-old Kiki is nan astir enthusiastic. He says he is wished to support practicing until he fulfills nan dream of starring a squad of his own.