*Post is in reference to From La Bomba to beisbol
Manifest Destiny seemed inevitable for the United States and the Spanish American War only further convinced the world of this “truth.” However, the expansion of influence the States had wasn’t always through bloody strife, but rather through a societal modernization and westernization. Puerto Rico shines as an example of this rapid shift in a nation’s culture and the lasting effects it has not only for itself, but even for others. Puerto Rico not being the only nation the U.S. was present in allowed for the surrounding culture to evolve and adapt alongside this U.S. “colony” further influencing Puerto Rico’s culture all the while also making it evidently more unique. The most blatant and important element to this identity comes from none other than the nation’s most popular sport, baseball, which sits as the odd man out compared to the rest of South America who has come to favor soccer.
Unsurprisingly, what allowed sports to have such a meteoric rise in the nation is education. Having physical education go hand in hand with traditional “western” education (which was prominent across the nation) provided the necessary platform and ample “player base” which propelled its influence across the nation. The YMCA, who were also present, had an effect on the growth and popularization of such, yet I’d argue the mandatory phys-ed in schools still garnered more support and was the primary driving force for the widespread adoption of sports.
Funny enough, sports in turn of the century Puerto Rico remind me a lot of sports day, one line in particular really hits home as it could be said today. The quote goes states, “many people in Puerto Rico had become so fanatic that they payed considerably more attention to athletic activities than to all other activities put together.” The quote did catch me off guard upon first reading it as I didn’t expect to find the same level of enthusiasm for watching sports that early in the nation’s history, yet I can’t truly be too surprised knowing the grasp sports have had over civilization for centuries. Overall, the article was incredibly informative and it was equally as interesting to see that “relatively” early in Puerto Rico’s adoption of western sports, that there was also an adoption of female sporting events as well.
