Mexican women and sports
Mexican women have made great advances in athletics in the male-dominated culture of Mexico. Some women are beginning to redefine their roles in the long-standing cultural traditions of women being encouraged to only follow domestic and family-centered career paths.
Mexico’s female national football team has been making strides in advancing Mexican women in sports. They qualified for both the Women’s World Cup and the Olympic Games, and are the the first women’s team from a Spanish-speaking country to do so.
Football, or futball, is the sport that Americans know as soccer. It is the biggest sport in Mexico, as well as across the word.
The women’s football team is currently coached by Leonardo Cuellar.
“Machismo in Mexico is nearly impossible to remove,” coach Leonardo Cuellar told the Las Angles Times in Feb. 2008. “It’s part of the culture. There will always be detractors for women participating in the sport.”
One of the team’s most famous players is Maribel Dominguez, said she used to play football as a kid by pretending to be a boy named “Mario.”
According to the L.A. Times, Dominguez became the first Mexican woman to sign with a men’s franchise, but the contract was voided by the country’s national soccer association in 2005.
According to The Guardian, there was “a further ban on Dominguez appearing in an exhibition game outside the league but still alongside men.”
“I just wanted to be given the chance to try,” Dominguez told The Guardian. “If I failed I would have been the first to say I can’t do it, the first to admit it doesn’t work. But at least I would have tried.”
“There must be a clear separation between men’s and women’s football,” The Fédération Internationale de Football Association stated about the decision to not allow Dominguez to play. “There could be ‘no exceptions’”.
“To play in one of those tournaments feels just incredible… The whole world, is watching. There is nothing like it. It is beyond words. It is the best thing that can ever happen to a footballer. The very best,” Dominguez told The Guardian. “Well, for a woman footballer it’s the best thing that can happen. For a man, maybe earning a million dollars a month is better. I wouldn’t know.”
Dominguez isn’t the only Mexican women fighting male machismo to play sports in Mexico.
Mexican golfer Lorena Ochoa recently won the Women’s British Open in 2007. She is currently the number-one ranked female golfer in the world.
Ochoa says on her Web site that she wants to inspire a new generation of golfers and hopes to inspire girls to achieve their dreams.
“I really hope that what we are doing inspires young Mexican girls not be afraid to get involved in sports,” Ochoa told the Christian Science Monitor. “It gives me a lot of pleasure to think we have made a difference.”
Other prominent Mexican female athletes include track star Anna Guevera, who recently broke the world record in the 300-meter sprint, and weightlifter Soraya Jimenez won Mexico’s first Olympic gold medal in the 127-1/2-pound lift.
A study of Mexican high school girls in border towns by Julie Laible, Ph.D showed that participation in sports contributed to the academic success among Mexican-American girls.
“Participation in sports helped Mexican-American girls to challenge and resist the “Maria paradox,” which steers females toward passivity and submission to male authority.”
