Pelota mixteca

-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 in Oaxacan 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). [Penick. Martinez.] Although the ball was traditionally made of wool, [Federación Mexicana de Juegos y Deportes Autóctonos y Tradicionales.] 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"). [Penick. Filloy Nadal (p. 30) finds a slightly lighter ball, at 170-280 grams.]
*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). [Federación Mexicana de Juegos y Deportes Autóctonos y Tradicionales, which also states that a heavier glove is used, weighing between 5 and 7 kg.]
*A version of the game played in the Los Angeles area uses a plastic ball weighing 1-1½ kg. [Martinez.]
*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. [Federación Mexicana de Juegos y Deportes Autóctonos y Tradicionales.] The game is assumed by most writers to be a descendent of the 3000+ year old Mesoamerican ballgame, perhaps the particular version shown on reliefs at the Mixtec archaeological site of Dainzu. [See, for example, Taladoire.] Heiner Gillmeister, however, has made a strong argument that "pelota mixteca" is instead 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. [Gillmeister, p. 71-75, which is supported by Collins, p. 259.] This pedigree would put the game's roots back "just" 400 years ago.

Notes

References

*aut|Collins, Tony (2005) "Encyclopedia Of Traditional British Rural Sports", Routledge, ISBN 041535224X.
*aut|Federación Mexicana de Juegos y Deportes Autóctonos y Tradicionales, A.C. [http://www.codeme.org.mx/autoctonoytradicional/Deportes/Mixteca.html Ulama] , accessed October 2007.
*cite book |author=aut|Filloy Nadal, Laura |year=2001 |chapter=Rubber and Rubber Balls in Mesoamerica |title=The Sport of Life and Death: The Mesoamerican Ballgame |editor=E. Michael Whittington (Ed.) |publisher=Thames & Hudson |location=New York |pages=pp.20-31 |isbn=0-500-05108-9
*aut|Gillmeister, Heiner (1997) "Tennis: A Cultural History", New York University Press, ISBN 978-0814731215.
*aut|Martinez , Gabriel (2005) [http://www.oaxacalifornia.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=58&Itemid=2 Un juego ancestral] in "El Oaxaqueño", N 167: 14 November, 2005, accessed October 2007.
*aut|Penick, Tom (2005) " [http://www.tomzap.com/mixtecball.html Pelota Mixteca:Modern version of a traditional game] "
*aut|Taladoire, Eric (2003) [http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract;jsessionid=DC6E94E592F567966284E1376A6828D8.tomcat1?fromPage=online&aid=186662 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

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yvLUYnUqeA A short video of an actual game in Oaxaca] Note the player on the far right as he serves the ball, first buoncing it against a flat stone.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6soAiA_GG0 A shorter video of an actual game in Oaxaca]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKmB-o8vXT8 A short video of a game in Ejutla de Crespo, Oaxaca] . This court is wider and shorter than the court in the first two videos.
* [http://www.flickr.com/photos/sakraft1/sets/72157594330034590/ A set of Flickr photos of a game]
* [http://www.mayavase.com/dainzu/figure5.html Rubbings from the site of Dainzú] , by Ruth Hardinger. A rubbing of 'Ballplayer #36', one of several carved figures at the pre-Columbian Oaxacan site of Dainzú, engaged in an action resembling the playing of pelota mixteca.