The International Journal of the History of Sport

ISSN: 0952-3367 (Print) 1743-9035 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/fhsp20

Cultural Ambassadorship and the Pan-American

Games of the 1950s

Brenda Elsey

To cite this article: Brenda Elsey (2016) Cultural Ambassadorship and the Pan-American
Games of the 1950s, The International Journal of the History of Sport, 33:1-2, 105-126, DOI:
10.1080/09523367.2015.1117451

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/09523367.2015.1117451

Published online: 17 Mar 2016.

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The International Journal of the History of Sport, 2016
VOL. 33, NOS. 1–2, 105–126
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09523367.2015.1117451

Cultural Ambassadorship and the Pan-American Games of the

1950s
Brenda Elsey
Hofstra University – History, Hempstead, NY, USA

ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
This paper examines the history of the early Pan-American Games, Latin America;
held in Buenos Aires, Mexico City, and Chicago. The history of the Pan-Americanism; Peronism;
Mexico; women
Pan-American Games demonstrates the decline of goodwill between
the US and Latin American sports organizations, audiences, and
journalists during the Cold War. Despite the diplomatic failures of
the Pan-American Games from a US-centred perspective, they are
vital to understand the history of women’s participation in sport and
solidarity among Latin American delegations.

The death knell of the Pan-American Games may have sounded in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on
8 July 1979. That evening, the Brazilian women’s basketball team entered the gymnasium to
begin their practice. To their surprise, the US men’s basketball coach Bobby Knight barred
their entrance. Knight claimed that the Brazilians arrived early and asked a police officer to
eject them. The Brazilian women reported that Knight called them ‘prostitutes’.1 When the
officer refused to eject the Brazilian squad, an altercation ensued. According to the police
officer’s testimony, Knight punched him on the left side of the face and yelled, ‘get your
dirty hands off me, ni**er’.2 The officer arrested Knight, but sports delegates orchestrated his
release in time to coach the men’s final game. Knight justified his behaviour as a patriotic
reaction to the anti-Americanism among the rest of the continent.3 A judge convicted
Knight of assault in absentia and sentenced him to six months in jail. Knight refused to
appear in court for the trial or sentencing, stating, ‘The only f__king thing they know how
to do is grow bananas’.4 Puerto Rico’s delegate to the International Amateur Basketball
Federation, Genaro Marchand, called Knight, ‘an ugly American’.5 Despite his behaviour,
Knight received support at home. The president of Indiana University refused his resignation
and he continued to coach the US Olympic basketball team.
The reactions to Bobby Knight marked a dramatic decline in the role of US sports
associations as cultural ambassadors in the hemisphere. This decline began by the
third version of the Pan-American Games held in Chicago during the summer of 1959.
Knight was one in a long line of celebrities that portrayed the USA as a victim, despite
its disproportionate power in the region. This attitude contrasted dramatically with the

CONTACT  Brenda Elsey  Brenda.Elsey@hofstra.edu

© 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
106    B. Elsey

tournament’s early history. Leaders of sport clubs organized the inter-American tournament
as a diplomatic event. At times, they used these claims of ambassadorship to procure state
support. Yet, sports tournaments offered just as many opportunities for tensions between
national representatives to fester. While early organizers shared many of the underlying
racist and sexist assumptions of Knight, they would have been shocked by his violence.
The Pan-American Games failed to dispel suspicion of the United States’ intervention in
the hemisphere.6 However, athletes created experiences beyond diplomatic agendas and
frequently challenged national chauvinism. By focusing on sources from outside of the
USA and relationships between Latin American countries, this paper seeks to understand
the significance of the Pan-American Games beyond US foreign policy objectives.
The history of the Pan-American Games reflects different epochs of inter-American
relations. According to historians, in the period from the 1890s to the 1930s, Pan-
Americanism replaced the Monroe Doctrine as the dominant hemispheric vision of US
policy-makers. In that moment, the integration of the region ‘depended on the diffusion
of US products’ and scientific knowledge.7 In the Cold War period, the polarization and
increasing military intervention by the USA in Latin America politicized transnational
cultural events.8 In particular, the US sent talented performers abroad to build ‘goodwill’
and showcase the innovation of its free market democracy. Sport differed from other cultural
practices that crossed the Americas, such as art and music, in that it lacked an individual
author and was governed by local, provincial, national, and transnational organizations with
rules of membership and regulation. It also demanded consistent interactions. Because of
a relatively objective measure of excellence, government officials could not easily serve as
arbiters of talent.
Despite the difficulty in dictating the outcome of sports, their value to diplomacy
was a constant refrain of governments through the Americas during the Cold War
period. The rhetoric that assumed sports built goodwill obfuscated four processes of the
mid-twentieth century. Firstly, state support for cultural diplomacy, whether from the USA
or Latin America, glossed over the fact that improving trade relations was the primary
purpose of Pan-American initiatives. Furthermore, international sports tournaments
promoted the belief that there were equal relationships between nations. This not only
applied to the USA, but relations among other North, Central, and South American
countries. Thirdly, the rhetoric of cultural diplomacy served the function of reducing
warfare to the problem of familiarity, rather than systemic, political, or economic factors.
Finally, when politicians and journalists reiterated the importance of sports tournaments
in diplomacy, the marginalization of women in those tournaments only served to reiterate
their exclusion from national politics. Since the nineteenth century, feminists worked across
borders to place women’s rights on a hemispheric agenda.9 They refused to be shut out of
the Pan-American Union, and likewise persisted in participating in international sports
tournaments.10 Women athletes in Latin America found more opportunities for international
than domestic competitions. The important precedents set by the Women’s Olympics of the
1920s and the Central American and Caribbean Games, where they participated since 1938,
helped legitimate their efforts to participate in the Pan-American Games.11
Recent studies of transnational cultural exchanges offer nuanced evaluations of
how events like expositions, scientific conferences, and concerts shaped participants’
understanding of national, racial, and gender identities. It is a product, in some ways, of
the Pan-American movement itself, which shaped the professionalization of Latin American
 The International Journal of the History of Sport   107

studies in the USA.12 With a turn towards transnational studies, a wave of new research on
Pan-Americanism has emerged with a sharper understanding of the ambiguities and local
adaptations of the broad themes of Pan-Americanism.13 These new works have included
actors beyond powerful diplomatic architects to consider more everyday exchanges and
alternatives, sometimes disruptive visions of Pan-Americanism, for example, trade union
organizations and socialist organizations.14 In other words, recent scholarship has turned
to analyze those groups outside or subjugated by state-driven projects.15
It is not only in hindsight one can recognize the relationship between cultural exchange
and economic disparities between American nations. In 1889, for example, at one of the
many Pan-American conferences of that era, The Nation, pointed out that the speeches
about cultural collaboration avoided the issues of tariffs, fishing rights, and land disputes.16
The first sports events called ‘Pan-American’ occurred long before the officially recognized
tournament of 1951 by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). San Francisco
advertised a Pan-American tournament in track and field in 1915, for example. Soccer
tournaments frequently used the name Pan-American, despite the split between North
and South American soccer in the 1910s by the International Federation of Association
Football (FIFA). That the Pan-American Games fell under the auspices of the IOC owed a
lot to the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA).17 The YMCA organized an important
precursor in the 1922 celebration of the centennial of Brazilian independence. During
the organization, directors encouraged the Brazilian sports associations to accept official
IOC support and tutelage.18 They also pressured Latin American sports organizations to
create closer ties to their governments, which jeopardized their autonomy in the 1920s and
1930s. Once the Confederação Brasileira de Desportos secured official recognition from
the Brazilian Government, YMCA directors called upon the government to intervene in
the 1922 Brazilian games.
The Central American and Caribbean Games, held formally since 1926, provided another
template for the Pan-American Games. The first of these games included 269 athletes from
Mexico, Guatemala, and Cuba competing in seven sports under the aegis of the International
Olympic Committee.19 Periodically, delegates to the IOC proposed a Pan-American sports
tournament, but it was not until there was a renewed interest in Pan-Americanism, more
broadly, in the inter-war period that sports directors took concrete measures to organize
it. In the USA, there were concurrent efforts to extend the regional Olympic movement
throughout the Americas. President of the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) and Democratic
Congressman, George Murray Hulbert, presented such a proposal in 1925, but it was not
universally accepted.20
Violence in Europe prompted public appreciation for the relative peace in the Americas
during the 1930s. Barbara Keys has identified the 1930s as the decade in which sport
emerged as a truly global language and synced world fans around a common calendar,
a pantheon of heroes, and a set of rules. According to Keys, ‘The world of sports was
built on a fundamental dualism: based on the principle of national representation, it
nevertheless claimed a universalism that transcended nationalism’.21 Between this dualism
lay the possibility of a hemispheric identity. In the 1930s, there were discussions to organize
Pan-American Games, which led, in part, to a series of games to accompany the
Pan-American exposition held in Dallas, Texas in 1937. Reasons for needing such exchange
differed. US organizers emphasized the need for Latin American military support, whereas
Latin American delegates were more interested in the repeal of US protectionism and harsh
108    B. Elsey

immigration policies.22 The 1937 spectacle featured athletes from the USA, Canada, Cuba,
Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Peru who competed in track and field, soccer, and
boxing. The tournament attracted little attention among the US public and has not been
counted in the official results of the Pan-American Games.23
Following the 1937 tournament, the Argentine Olympic Committee convened a meeting
of American sports associations in 1940, hoping to organize the first continental games.24
Sixteen delegations met in Buenos Aires to form the Pan American Sports Committee, which
later became PASO. Delegates elected Avery Brundage as PASO’s first president. Brundage
had served as president of the AAU and the US Olympic Committee. Brundage’s support for
US involvement in the 1936 Olympics, held in Nazi Germany, was less controversial among
Latin American nations who felt more sympathy towards ‘neutrality’ in relation to Europe.
Electing Avery Brundage, known for his opposition to professionalism, perpetuated the
importance of amateurism to the tournament. Brundage hoped the Pan-American Games
would take place in 1942 to substitute for the Olympics. However, he could not muster
support for his efforts among US delegations.25 The USA did not commit to the games
until the 1948 London Olympics, where Argentina was chosen as the first host nation for
the 1951 tournament.

1951 Buenos Aires

The 1950s brought important changes in the relationship between the USA and Latin
America, as well as relationships between Latin American governments. Latin American
diplomats celebrated the continent’s relative peace during the Second World War. However,
they watched with distress as the Marshall Plan hurt their access to European markets and
marginalized them from US economic support. The relationship between the administration
of Juan Domingo Perón and the US diplomatic and business communities was strained
because of Perón’s economic nationalist policies. Perón viewed the 1951 Pan-American
Games as an opportunity to strengthen Argentina’s economic and political ties to their
neighbours, but not primarily to the USA. In developing his ‘third position’ in the early
Cold War, Perón hoped to convince his neighbours to reject the imperialism of the USA,
as well as the Communism of the Soviet Union. The year 1951 marked a shift, albeit an
uneven one, between the staunch anti-imperialist rhetoric of Perón’s first term and a more
business-friendly approach to his second term. Historian Eduardo Elena found that the
Peronist government ‘stressed the benefits of doing business in the “New Argentina” lauding
“social peace” and an orderly union movement as a boon for would-be investors rather
than as signs of victory over capitalist injustice’.26 The 1951 games successfully showcased
the success and modernity of Peronist Argentina for Latin American visitors. Perón’s ‘New
Argentina’ sought to incorporate women as citizens, workers, and, of course, Peronists.
This was reflected in the Peronist efforts, spearhead by Perón’s wife Eva, to secure women’s
suffrage, which was passed in 1949.
The Pan-American Games reflected Juan Perón’s skill at orchestrating cultural spectacles
as forum to mobilize workers’ support.27 Perón cultivated his relationship with sports
associations, even some with elite status, through which he promoted his vision of a nation
united through sports programmes.28 Perón spared no expense in the games and assured
sports directors that they could rely on a steady flow of funds for their preparation.29 Eva
created strong ties between the Peronist Party and working-class sports clubs by sponsoring
 The International Journal of the History of Sport   109

tournaments and providing funds for equipment. Perón’s vision of class harmony was
expressed through the creation of ‘evil’ oppressors and the virtuous, but downtrodden
workingmen. Cultural practices offered a venue for resolution of this antagonism. Also,
sporting events reconciled individual and collective glory. At the Pan-American Games,
Perón promoted sports other than football, including traditionally elite sports, such as
fencing. Perón encouraged workers to participate in these sports as part of their incursion
into the privilege of Argentine aristocracy.30
The constant refrain that sport ‘transcended’ politics, echoed by journalists, politicians,
athletes, and fans, short-circuited conversations about their use for political propaganda.
Avery Brundage prefaced every report of the Pan-American Sports Organization with
reminders that the Olympic games were, ‘beyond the most powerful political manipulation’.31
At times, politics arose in the reports of the Pan-American experiences. Mexican journalists
reported that they were warned of Peronist censorship.32 As the tournament progressed,
the Mexican paper El Universal became involved in solidarity activities with the editors of
the Argentine newspaper La Prensa, which had been closed by Perón for its criticism of his
administration.33 The editors placed a prominent editorial on the sports page recommending
that Mexico withdraw its ‘Embajada Deportiva’ because of this repression.34
Criticism from the Mexican delegation was muted by the decision of the Pan-American
Sports Organization congress to award Mexico City the 1955 Pan-American Games.
Mexican officials assured the Argentine audience that they did not share their journalists’
scepticism of Perón. At the closing ceremonies, the Mexican delegation presented Juan
and Eva Perón with a stallion sent by former President Manuel Ávila Camacho.35 The
Guatemalan delegation offered a mixed analysis of Peronism in Argentina, admiring the
great number of public works that benefitted the working class while also commenting on
the feeling of oppression present that prevented people from discussing the government
openly.36 By the end of the tournament, the writers concluded that Perón’s subsidizing of
athletic programmes had paid off.37
At the opening and closing ceremonies of the games, Perón positioned Argentina as a
continental leader, one that could collaborate in trade and respect the ideological differences
among American nations. In the closing ceremonies, Eva, referring to herself as a, ‘humble
woman of a noble people’, promoted Peronism as a Pan-American movement that promised
economic independence, political sovereignty, and social justice. Eva Perón told the visitors,
‘We have defeated the hate that divides humanity’.38 She told a massive crowd, ‘From this
corner of America, illuminated by the star of the Peronist doctrine that hopes to offer the
world a new solution’.39 The Chilean and Mexican presses reviewed the speech favourably
and seemed persuaded that Peronism may offer an alternative to Cold War bifurcation.
The Pan-American Games in Buenos Aires generated antagonism, rather than goodwill,
with the US State Department. In the midst of the tournament, the USA sent Assistant
Secretary of State Edward Miller to discourage Perón from making anti-capitalist speeches
and to quiet Eva’s criticism of US corporations.40 Miller claimed that Eva Perón, who gave
him a tour of the hospitals built by her foundation, genuinely wanted to improve relations.
The US officials’ visit was lost on the Argentine public, as none of the major newspapers
or magazines picked up the story, whether because of disinterest or censorship.41 US
sportswriters compared Juan Perón to Adolf Hitler when discussing the politics of the
tournament. The New York Times lamented, ‘It is indeed unfortunate, though, that the
first Pan-American Games had to encounter the same political hobgoblins that haunted
110    B. Elsey

Figure 1. Jean Patton greeted fans on her return to Tennessee State University after winning a gold medal
in the 200 m at the 1951 Pan-American Games. Image reproduced with the courtesy of Tennessee State
University Archival Collection, Special Collections.

the 1936 Olympic games at Berlin. Today we have Perón. A decade and a half ago it was
Hitler’.42 This sort of gross caricature spilled into coverage of the events, as well. Sportswriters
and directors fumed when Argentina took the lead in the tournament, describing it as,
‘one of the blackest days in the long illustrious history of the United States track’.43 Further
upsetting expectations of US dominance, the Cuban runners won several sprinting events.
The Argentine and Mexican presses viewed the victories of a small Caribbean country with
admiration, whereas the US papers reported the news with dismay. Despite the negative
US press coverage, Argentine crowds cheered US athletes. They responded with particular
enthusiasm to black athletes in track and field, like Jean Patton and Mal Whitfield, who
put in impressive performances.44 Athletes like Jean Patton (Figure 1) seemed far removed
from the diplomatic animosity.
In the 1970s and 1980s, US journalists recalled the games of the 1950s as exhibitions of
anti-Americanism.45 However, as Greg Grandin has pointed out, ‘What is often taken for
Anti-Americanism in Latin America is, in fact, a competing variation of Americanism’.46
The recollection of hostility towards US athletes may have been influenced by the climate
of the games following the Cuban revolution and US intervention in Central America.
However, during 1951, there was praise for US athletes in the Argentina press. For
example, a laudatory article on the US cycling team appeared in the Argentine sports
magazine La Cancha.47 Sportswriter Dante Panzieri chastized Argentines for being
unfriendly to Chilean, not US, athletes.48 He lamented that the tournament aggravated
tensions between Southern Cone countries. Complimentary articles on US athletes also
 The International Journal of the History of Sport   111

appeared in El Gráfico, which described US marksmen as ‘Olympians with long and

fruitful careers and whose presence among us is very welcome’.49 Argentine writers present
at the opening ceremonies reported that audiences cheered for the North Americans
when they entered the stadium.50 The Peronist government did not outwardly promote
the anti-US agenda that the US press claimed. If they had, certainly the Peronist party’s
sports magazine Mundo Deportivo would have been the place to articulate such a position.
The reporting on the US delegation was quite complimentary, though not at the centre
of the press coverage.
In contrast, the US media was highly critical, whether complaining of the US losses
or the Argentine public. US boxing coach Patrick Duffy boasted that the US boxers were
the only ones who refused to shake hands with the Peróns.51 While Duffy conceded that
the referees were fair, he blamed the judges for all of the US losses. Fighter Norvel Lee
complained that his fight with a Chilean had been rigged so that he wouldn’t end up fighting
an Argentine boxer. However, heavyweight boxer Gene Tunney declared the officiating
and judgements, excellent.52 Argentine boxers continued to defeat US boxers in the 1959
Pan-American Games in Chicago, casting doubts on Duffy and Lee’s claims. Editorials
appeared in US outlets that offered an analysis of the ‘Argentine’ collective psychology.
This tendency to psychoanalyse shadows almost all sports writing and the Pan-American
Games were not exceptional. These ‘analyses’ were couched in benevolent terms, but carried
negative messages to readers. For example, writer John Cassidy explained, ‘Strangely enough,
Argentines admire and try their level best to emulate the British ideal of sportsmanship,
but it is an imitation of a product whose basic ingredients are lacking’.53 Argentina lacked,
according to Cassidy, a love of order and stability embraced by the USA and Western
European nations. Cassidy wrote, ‘Latin Americans do not worship law and order as
Anglo-Saxons do. On the contrary, they enjoy revolutions, disorder, emotion, leaders,
national sovereignty, noble speeches, and themselves’.54
The 1951 games garnered admiration from many in attendance, particularly the women’s
delegations. Eva Perón insured that women athletes’ accommodations were equal to those
of the male delegations. In fact, the women’s village was better located than the men’s.
Eva insisted that a female athlete recite the Olympic oath alongside a male athlete.55 In
reports of the US delegations, representatives from a range of sports praised the facilities
and sophistication of sports in Buenos Aires. Of all US delegations, track and field was the
most racially diverse and included many runners from the South. The Argentines housed
the young women together at the Eva Perón Foundation, without accounting for racial
segregation policies. Although the women’s track and field manager Evelyne Hall, former
US Olympic medalist in the 1932 games, claimed that racial segregation was insignificant
in women’s track and field, historians have demonstrated otherwise. The AAU organized
white-only tournaments in the 1940s and 1950s in the South, leaving prominent black
university teams with fewer opportunities to compete.56 Eva also found opportunities to
feature women’s delegations in the elaborate ceremonies. Hall recalled,
‘It was a thrilling and a very high honor for me to be selected by this group to present a
huge bouquet of long roses to Eva Perón during the opening ceremonies. I walked across the
whole field amid blaring lights and between rows of honored flag bearers from all nations’.57
Hall raved about the treatment they received from Argentines. The women’s track team
made fast friends with a Mexican athlete who went to school in El Paso. She translated the
announcements and signs into English for the group. Hall and her team extended their
112    B. Elsey

travel when the Chileans invited them for a friendly tournament in Santiago. She described
the plane ride over the Andes as ‘awesome’.58 The eight ‘girls’ who attended had to defray
their own expenses.59 They had stood on street corners with cans, sold candy, and held
fundraisers in their local clubs.
Juan Perón hoped to gain political capital by organizing the Pan-American Games, which
coincided with the start of his second presidential campaign. For local audiences, coverage
of the games, including infrastructural improvements and workers’ participation, echoed
the government’s emphasis on the industrial power of Argentina. This industrial success
was connected, at least visually, to Argentine male virility.60 Pictures of athletes helping one
another to stretch and butchers cutting meat for the games underscored that Argentine men
had overcome class conflict. The tournament also provided Perón an opportunity to display
his concern for the poor. Campeón covered Perón’s visit to the Confederación Argentina
de Deportes, during which he implied that to democratize sports, working-class fans’
attendance had to be subsidized. This also had the beneficial effect, for international staging,
of packing the stands.61 Perón’s slogan for the tournament, ‘It is better to lose with honor
than win without it’, echoed his broader rhetoric that positioned the poor as dignified.62
The Sub-secretary of Information published a pamphlet, only in Spanish, entitled, Buenos
Aires, capital del Justicialismo, which contained maps to sites related to Peronism. Visitors
could follow the history of Perón’s rise to power in their touristic adventures.63 Juan Perón
showed particular interest in reaching out to the delegates from Mexico. Peron spent his
fifth anniversary in office with the Mexican delegates, comparing Justicialismo and the
ideologies of the Mexican Revolution. He hosted a dinner for the Mexican delegation in
which he exalted the sacrifices that veterans of the revolution made in order to create a
sovereign nation.64 Perón stated, ‘Argentina is profoundly grateful from the heart, to this
embassy of compañeros mexicanos from their virile land that we admire here’.65
The near universal applause for cultural diplomacy is fascinating in that it placed everyday
people in an ambassadorship role. Yet, most of the countries participating afforded only
restricted political rights to citizens. For example, the Venezuelan writer Napoleon Arraiz
stated, ‘It has always been my opinion that one sports exchange between two brotherly
nations is worth one hundred speeches from jacket and tie gentlemen’.66 Latin American
sports audiences viewed the Pan-American Games with great interest. One writer explained
that all the radio stations and newspapers would be reporting extensively on the games.
While the delegation from the USA considered Argentina an exotic destination, other
Latin American nations looked at Buenos Aires as a cosmopolitan, worldly city. Writing
to Argentine sports fans from Caracas, Arraiz described Argentina as a, ‘great country,
that is yours and is all of ours, that is fundamentally Argentine and profoundly global’.67
Guatemalan journalist Edgar Alvarado also marvelled at the ‘Paris of America’, seeking out
the sites that inspired the tango.68 Sports journalists marvelled at the number and quality
of sports installations.69
Sports directors from across the continent practiced delicate diplomacy during the
meetings of each sports section. These meetings involved hours of bureaucratic back and
forth to provide a viable structure to the Pan-American Sports Organization. This included
establishing rules, providing procedures in the case of disputes, and electing officials within
each sport. The Argentine Olympic Committee arranged dinners, tours, and other events for
delegations. Sports associations, such as the Círculo de Cronistas Deportivos Argentinos,
hosted receptions for visiting journalists. The Guatemalan writers reported that they learned
 The International Journal of the History of Sport   113

about the importance of sports journalists in the construction of stronger associations

to increase youth participation in sports.70 The assistant director of the US delegation,
Gustavus Kirby, explained that sports directors tried their best to maintain cordial relations
with the Latin American countries, but that it was impossible to completely surmount
the antagonism towards the USA. Kirby admitted in his official report that the Argentine
Organizing Committee went out of their way to provide US delegation with cars and drivers,
as well as two interpreters.71 Still, Kirby found his Latin American counterparts inadequate.
Food constituted an important lens through which to understand national difference in
international tournaments. Athletes, journalists, and directors discussed the subject of food
obsessively. Marion Miller, the Assistant General Manager of the US delegation complained,
‘The US menus were not followed and the native dishes were not very palatable or appetizing
to our athletes … Breakfast foods and cereals were practically unknown, and fresh fruits
were out of season and not available’.72 According to Marion Miller, US directors had to
teach Argentines on how to cook eggs. In their reflection on the Pan-American Games,
US delegates emphasized that they would need to fly in US chefs in the future. Argentines,
renowned for their skill in preparing beef, must have been shocked about the complaints,
although it is not clear that the general public was aware of the US delegates’ dissatisfaction.
Argentine sportswriters described their food lovingly, explaining that ‘through the noble
product of wheat accompanied by a succulent piece of nutritious Argentine beef, muscles
acquire the vigor necessary to send potency and agility to the entire body and mind’.73
The journalists of El Gráfico, claimed to have spoken to the foreign delegates and they had
all been very happy with the food. Although Mexican food contrasted more clearly with
Argentine food than US food, the delegates reported that the food was ‘marvelous’.74 One
in the delegation explained the Argentines attempted to try and make mole for Mexicans,
which was not a success, but not bad either.75 The Mexican delegation constantly updated
the public about the state of the food, reassuring worried fans that they had access to high-
quality meals.76
Midway through the games, a scandal occurred that made headlines in Buenos Aires. Two
US athletes were taken into custody after refusing to turn over their camera. Evidently the
young men took a movie shot of the guards at the main gate of the military academy. The
police officer asked to see the camera, but the young man refused. The officer detained the
two athletes. This led the newspaper, Noticias Graficas, to investigate the issue. According to
the paper, the US delegation had been instructed by the Federal Bureau of Investigations to
photograph scenes of Buenos Aires that would make it seem that Argentina was a military
state. The young men vociferously denied this.77 The US Olympic Committee report
described the incident as an ‘innocent prank’, and shrugged off the accusation that the FBI
had contacted them.78 During the Pan-American Games, Perón was in the midst of seeking
allies within the Americas to create stronger economic ties and may have used this supposed
US intervention to gain sympathy with Latin American leaders.
Race and gender were central to discussions of national identity during the 1951 Pan-
American Games. At times, such discussions disrupted assumptions of ethnic homogeneity.
The Mexican press expressed their surprise to observe a Brazilian swimmer of Japanese
heritage, Tetsuo Okamoto. The journalist explained, ‘Okamoto, in contrast to what we
suspected, is an authentic Brazilian, although he is of Japanese blood. The Japanese settlers
in the South of Brazil are numerous’.79 In the case of US African-American women athletes,
Jennifer Lansbury has argued that the focus on the gender and racial identity neglected an
114    B. Elsey

analysis of their athletic achievements. She suggests this continues to hurt their legacy.80
During the 1951 Pan-American Games, very few notices of women’s participation appeared
in the Latin American press. In later tournaments, particularly by 1959, media coverage
of female athletes increased, particularly in traditionally acceptable ‘feminine’ sports, such
as tennis.
The 1951 Pan-American Games gave a boost to women’s athletics in Latin America.
Given that the Argentine and US delegations fielded substantial numbers of female athletes,
countries that usually neglected to send women abroad sought out representatives. The
Central American and Caribbean Games, which included women by 1938, provided
a useful model for the integration of female athletes. In its original iteration, the Pan-
American Sports Organization did not include any women or representatives of women
in the executive committee. Women’s sports were initially included in the planning, but
not to the same extent as men’s; originally, there were 14 men’s and nine women’s sports
included in the tournament. This was a far greater percentage than had ever been included
in a continental tournament. Women faced scorn and derision for their efforts to participate.
Discussions of women’s sports frequently provided space for misogynist commentary. One
letter to the editor of the New York Times responded to women’s track and field athletes’
request for inclusion in the Pan-American Games with anger. The correspondent suggested,
‘A few women foot racers-and what a rare exception they are-are interesting to watch until
they move. Then their ungraceful waddles destroy all illusions and make men turn to the
dainty gals who walk, and do not run, to the nearest beauty parlor’.81
The animosity of sexists notwithstanding, the 1951 Pan-American Games allowed women
athletes the opportunity to showcase their talents in the hopes they would receive support
to compete in the Helsinki Olympics in 1952. This, however, did not translate as many
hoped. Argentina sent only eight women among its 123 athletes to Helsinki. Brazil sent
only five women of 92 athletes, Chile sent four women of 55, Guatemala sent one woman
of 22, and Mexico three of 64.82 Most Latin American countries did not send a delegation
at all. Cuba, Panama, Puerto Rico, and Trinidad and Tobago sent entirely male delegations.
Thus, the Pan-American Games would continue to be the marquis international tournament
for women athletes in the region. Women who found space to compete faced a difficult
challenge in funding their travel. Those who managed the trip relished the opportunity
to watch other women athletes. Mexican javelin thrower Hortensia García made such an
impression that she lost her glasses to a member of the Chilean delegation who sought a
souvenir of the great thrower.83 The Mexican press seemed at a loss for how to explain this
incident, whether the Chilean woman was a thief or perhaps enamoured with García.
Despite a budget surplus, the United States’ women’s delegation, the largest except for
Argentina’s, was forced to raise their own funds from amateur associations and educational
institutions. This created an additional obstacle for working-class women’s participation.
In Guatemala, the Pan-American Games afforded middle-class women an opportunity
to pursue competitive sport in the name of national honour, rather than women’s rights.
Dolores Castillo, a diver, who won Guatemala’s only medal in the first Pan-American Games,
set a precedent that female athletes cited 50 years later.84 Sports journalists claimed that all
Guatemalans felt great pride in Castillo, who defeated dangerous rivals from Mexico and
Cuba.85 Because of her bronze medal-winning performance, Castillo was able to represent
Guatemala at the Helsinki Olympics in 1952, the only female athlete to be included in
Guatemala’s first trip to the Olympics.86
 The International Journal of the History of Sport   115

1955 Mexico City

The 1955 Pan-American Games in Mexico City were perhaps the most successful in terms
of organization, enthusiasm, and inter-American relations. The Mexican hosts committed
to provide state-of-the-art facilities and an Olympic Village not more than 25  minutes
from the site of competitions. The Mexican sports directors felt they had a special role in
Pan-Americanism. Their delegates played an important role in the Pan American Sports
Committee in the 1940s, which had lobbied for the games. Moreover, Mexico City hosted the
Central American and Caribbean Games of 1954.87 Thus, they approached the organization
of the 1955 tournament with experience. They achieved full attendance at nearly every
event. The United States’ sports community felt the sting at placing second in the previous
tournament and arrived with a disproportionately large delegation to show their athletic
domination. Yet, participants still felt that 1955 was an opportunity for the games to offer
inter-American relations a boost. Many in the US delegation had ties to Mexico and were
invested in the notion of cultural ambassadorship, like Miguel de Capriles. Mexican-born
Capriles represented the USA and directed the Inter-American Institute of Law at New York
University. His appointment as head of the fencing team gave Mexican sports officials hope
that the games would serve a positive diplomatic purpose.88
In the years between the first and second Pan-American Games, distrust of the United
States’ foreign policy increased considerably. Although far from a general ‘anti-Americanism’,
there were growing criticisms of proxy wars in Korea, the 1954 coup in Guatemala, and the
exclusion of Latin America from foreign-aid packages.89 Overshadowed in later literature by
the Cuban Revolution, the CIA’s hand in the destruction of Guatemalan democracy caused
increasing suspicion and antipathy towards the US government among Latin American
publics.90 In Argentina, Chile, Mexico, and Uruguay, the coup affirmed US corporate
involvement in military interventions and mobilized anti-imperialist actions. The US press,
with greater frequency, complained that the Mexican crowds booed their athletes. At the
same time, sportswriters, fans, and athletes believed fervently in the role of athleticism in
diplomacy. A New York Times reporter commented, ‘There has to be some deep significance
to the fact that there have been more breaches in the Iron Curtain for sports than in any other
phase of activity. At a Government level there is little understanding. At the athletic level,
however, all speak the same language’.91 This proved literally and metaphorically incorrect.
Perhaps because Mexican state officials had more experience accommodating English-
speaking tourists than their Argentine counterparts or perhaps drawing on the difficulties
of the first Pan-American Games, the English-speaking delegations were supplied with
their own cafeteria and dormitories.92 The linguistic separation of Anglophiles was
rarely mentioned in official speeches and journalistic accounts. Separate housing likely
appeased those in the US delegation that worried about the ‘cleanliness’ of Mexico City’s
accommodations. The director of the Mexican delegation, José de Jesús Clark Flores, made a
presentation to refute the suspicion that the climate conditions and altitude of Mexico City
would harm the development of the games.93 Still, US physicians warned that diarrhoea and
upper respiratory infections could be troublesome.94 Representatives of the US Olympic
Committee, notably John McGovern, the legal advisor to Avery Brundage, showed bigotry
and provincialism. The arrogance of US officials surfaced during the disputes over the
competitions. According to McGovern, ‘Our Southern friends had not yet discovered that
we knew best from our superior experience what to do and how to do it and that our
116    B. Elsey

aggressive approach was animated purely by a wish to be useful and helpful to them’.95
Despite his paternal concern, McGovern showed little interest in understanding the host
country’s political and cultural landscapes.
The 1955 tournament fit within President Adolfo Ruíz Cortines’s agenda to strengthen
Mexico’s role in regional cooperation, particularly in the Organization of American States.
His administration also saw an opportunity to blend ethnic nationalism with transnational
goodwill. The head of the organizing committee Manuel Guzmán Willis, a one-time discus
champion, was a senator from Tamaulipas. Formerly the mayor of Tampico, in 1955, Guzmán
was a rising star of Mexico’s ruling party, the PRI, or the Partido Revolucionario Institucional.
As such, he was experienced in mobilizing and controlling massive audiences. The opening
ceremonies included the presidential guard and canon firing. Journalists described the
atmosphere in Estadio Olímpico Universitario as electric.96 The new stadium featured a
mural of the Mexican family with a peace dove and pre-Columbian imagery. One of Mexico’s
main newspapers reported that,
The torch ceremony combined an ancient Aztec ritual with an equally-old Olympic tradition.
The ‘new fire’ kindled last night on the ‘Hill of the Star’ outside the city, in a renewal of a rite
that once was celebrated every 52 year, was carried to the stadium to touch off the Olympic
fire that will burn until the competition ends.97
The runner Eligio Galicia, who identified as indigenous, was selected to carry the torch.98
By the 1955 games, the Pan-American Sports Organization was headquartered in Mexico
City, so reports included budgets in Mexican pesos, and the publications were printed in
Mexico City.99 As an explicit rejection of US politics of segregation, PASO’s constitution
stipulated that it was ‘non-racial’.100
A thorny relationship to soccer, or football, posed a serious challenge to the Pan-American
Sports Organization. With professionalization of Latin American clubs in the 1930s, salaried
players became ineligible. Mexican journalists pointed out that without decent football, the
games would attract less audience in Latin America. In 1955, only four teams participated,
including Argentina, Venezuela, Netherland Antilles, and Mexico.101 In 1956, the Pan-
American Sports Organization wrote to FIFA requesting recognition for the Pan-American
Football Federation. As evidence of the stop and start nature of this venture, FIFA responded
that, indeed they had already recognized the Pan-American Football Federation 10 years
earlier, in 1946.102 FIFA asserted its authority over global football, pointing out that in
reviewing the Pan-American Sports Organization programme, they noted Bahamas and
Dominican Republic were scheduled to play. They forbade the match because they were not
members of FIFA. Despite FIFA’s official recognition of the games, the growing importance
of FIFA’s World Cup worked against Pan-Americanism. FIFA’s division of the Americas
between the South and North football associations meant that the Pan-American Games
were very low stakes for the countries’ national teams.103
During the Pan-American Congress held at the 1955 games, the US proposed several
cities to hold the games. The large attendance in Mexico City must have convinced delegates
that it was worth pursuing hosting the tournament. Perhaps, also, the US leadership felt
that by hosting the tournament, sports organizations would become more invested in
it. Lyman Bingham, the manager of the US delegation in preparing for the 1955 games,
explained that the amateur athletic organizations simply did not care about the exchanges
with Latin America that the directors thought so opportune.104 In the international arena,
the USA was unique in the number of facilities available for major sporting events. Latin
 The International Journal of the History of Sport   117

American delegates explained that the US presentation reflected the ‘Yanqui’ efficiency and
organization.105 James A. Rhodes, the one-time president of the AAU and future Ohio state
governor, campaigned for Cleveland, Ohio. Fellow delegations showed optimism, despite
the fairly low profile of Cleveland compared to competing cities, such as Rio de Janeiro.
As with the first Pan-American Games in Buenos Aires, women jumped at the chance to
compete in the tournament. The 1955 delegations had an even greater number of women,
particularly in track and field. Despite reporting a surplus of fundraising for the 267 men
and 86 women of the US delegations, women still had to raise their own funds for the 1955
games.106 The demand of women athletes to participate challenged PASO, which encouraged
Latin American delegations to bring women to round out events. The women’s contingents
in Latin America were less organized on the whole than their US counterparts due to their
lower university enrolment. While schools could provide opportunities for women’s athletics
beyond the sports clubs, Latin American female athletes counted on fewer resources than
in the USA.107 By Constitution, the Pan-American Games were required to have 15 sports
represented and it is fascinating to consider which ones were required to have both men’s
and women’s teams and which ones did not. The very notion of requiring delegations of
female teams was decades ahead of other governing bodies, such as FIFA or the NCAA.
The following is a list of required sports following the 1955 games:
Track and field (men’s and women’s), basketball (men’s and women’s), baseball, boxing, cycling,
equestrian sports, fencing (men and women’s), football, gymnastics (men’s and women’s),
weightlifting, wrestling, swimming and diving (men’s and women’s), modern pentathlon, polo,
rowing, tennis (men’s and women’s), pistol and rifle shooting, volleyball (men’s and women’s),
water polo, and yachting.
The Pan-American Sports Organization did not provide an explanation as to why it required
a fewer number of female representatives or why it chose particular sports for women’s
inclusion. It is quite puzzling because the exertion, physical contact, and potential harm,
factors frequently cited for limiting women’s athletic participation, are not consistent among
this list. Women’s track and field most vocally complained about the inequity of support they
received. Despite their record-breaking performances, the US Olympic Committee allowed
for only 10 women to compose the delegation, up from eight in 1951, which frustrated the
women who sought to achieve a medal in every event. The women were vocal enough to
publish these complaints in their official report.108
The Cold War pressed ever more upon the games in 1955, when it became used as a
barometer of how the West and East measured up physically, and as an extension, morally.
When Brazilian jumper Adhemar Ferreira da Silva broke a world record set by a Russian,
the PASO set up a tour of the USA for him and advised that all ‘Americans’ should view his
victory as theirs.109 Da Silva was quotable and vocal in his criticisms of the Soviet system
of athletic training.110 Da Silva had grown up impoverished and resented the benefits that
Soviet athletes received from the government. Without irony, the reporter explained that
Adhemar da Silva held a position with a government-subsidized recreation programme. The
tour of da Silva reflected the desire of Brazilians in the Pan-American Sports Organization to
promote the image of Brazil as a racial democracy in contrast with the USA. In regard to da
Silva’s African heritage, Sports Illustrated explained, ‘Brazil is one of the most tolerant nations
on Earth’.111 Da Silva emphasized that he had never been ‘oppressed’.112 Sports Illustrated did
not omit da Silva’s painful experience of segregation while in Texas. On an AAU invitational
tournament, Adhemar recalled, ‘everybody was as nice as could be and I had no trouble,
118    B. Elsey

except I just had to stay away from where white people went. I felt pretty bad. I’m never
again going any place where I have to worry about color’.113
Mexico did not have a counterpart to Eva as an advocate for women athletes. Like Peron
in Argentina, Mexican President Adolfo Ruiz secured women’s suffrage. However, his wife
was not an equivalent international sensation. The coverage of the Pan-American Games
within Mexico constituted a foundational event for televized sports coverage.114 It persuaded
advertisers of the potential of television, paving the way for Mexico’s Olympic bid and
eventual Soccer’s World Cup bid. The Argentine team did not dominate the second games
as they had the first, but they came in second to the USA and beat out the host, Mexico.
According to historian Raanan Rein, athletes felt pressured by the Peronist government to
bring home medals and exhibit loyalty to the Peronist government when abroad.115 The
Argentine news agency Agencia Latina de Noticias collapsed following the event, leaving
its representative at the games, Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, unemployed. When a military
coup overthrew Perón a few months after the 1955 games, the faction that assumed power
displaced many of the sports directors that had been leaders in the Pan-American movement.

1959 Cleveland, then Chicago

The dominance of the United States’ athletes at the 1955 games in Mexico City was muted
by the focus on Mexican–Latin American relations. In the 1959 games, however, Cold
War rhetoric and US anxiety over Latin America’s politics became further polemicized.
The US press treated Latin American athletes as sparring partners for the more important
competitor, the Soviet Union. Furthermore, the US distrust of the Cuban Government
soured much of the games for the next 30 years. The polemics established by the 1959 games
convinced many Latin American sports directors that a stronger relationship with their US
counterparts was not only impossible, but indeed, undesirable. However, the emergence
of a ‘non-aligned’ movement in the developing world meant that certain Latin American
nations expressed an intense desire to strengthen their relationships to one another. The
Pan-American Games afforded sports delegations that opportunity.
The lack of state support forced the 1959 games to change from Cleveland to Chicago.
Unlike the games in Argentina or Mexico, the state presence hardly existed in Chicago. The
games suffered from this lack of attention. Organizers complained incessantly about the
lack of funds. Visiting athletes had expected better lodgings and food, given the economic
climate of the USA. But, the US government did not need to support the games and showed
little concern with ‘soft diplomacy’ in Latin America. One of the journalists covering the
event for Sports Illustrated explained, ‘While 2,200 athletes from 24 nations tugged and ran
and sweated and strained for two weeks in the third annual [sic] Pan-American Games,
hardly anyone bothered to look’.116 Despite the best intentions of sports directors, the Pan-
American Games in Chicago exposed how little the US public cared for amateurism or
Pan-American sports events.
Latin American delegations complained about the hostility towards the Cuban athletes,
by fans, the press, and officials.117 The US was not the only delegation Cubans worried
about. The sub-regional meeting of the Central American and Caribbean sport associations
collapsed in Chicago. The Cuban representative, Rafael Iglesias, who had directed Cuban
athletes in Mexico in 1955 without a hitch, found himself in the spotlight during the 1959
games. A spat broke out between Iglesias and the Venezuelan delegate over Cuban qualifiers.
 The International Journal of the History of Sport   119

The Cuban had accused the Venezuelan Carlos Perico of being ‘conservative’, which the
Panamanian representative, Manuel Roy, also found offensive.118
Latin American delegations were surprised by the poor accommodations. The 17 women
on Chile’s basketball squad only received two hotel rooms, Ecuadorians complained that they
were not given food, and the Brazilian athletes complained that hotels treated them rudely.119
The Costa Rican newspaper La Nación felt the nutrition at the Chicago games to be a ‘grave
problem’.120 This surprised Costa Ricans who read that more than 100,000 Latin Americans
lived in Chicago. Of course, the visitors noted the poor attendance at the games. Brazilians
were shocked that the US Organizing Committee gave free admission to sports like water polo,
and still nobody came.121 Photographs of empty seats, such as the one pictured in Figure 2 (see
below), provided readers with visual evidence of U.S. disinterest. The exception to the empty
seats occurred when the Mexican squads competed. The Mexican American community in
Chicago appeared in substantial numbers, sometimes intimidating the opposing teams. The
Brazilians complained that Mexican fans threw things onto the basketball court when they
disagreed with fouls.122 Unlike when a conflict involved the USA, the press, both in the USA
and Latin America, did not politicize the tense episodes between Latin American countries.
Despite the dominance of the USA in competition, the costly travel, and crowd disinterest,
the Latin American athletes were still not disposed to give up. The Argentine contingent,
despite its bitter disappointments and anger over funding cuts, still maintained that the games
created a sense of empathy among the delegations, regardless of the crowds. The athletes
were not depressed by being beaten by the worlds’ finest athletes; instead, they were ready to
compete and to learn from the experience.124 For the reading publics at home, however, the
message was clear – the US public simply did not respect or have interest in sports contests
with Latin Americans. Therein lay a distinction between those who participated and those
who consumed sport. Assumptions about what athletes experience are often created through
the guideposts of consumer spectatorship, including advertisements and journalistic writing.
These are often at odds with athletes’ professed experience, expectations, and hopes.
Latin American sports directors and journalists felt duped by the leadership of the
USA, particularly Avery Brundage, who overstated the enthusiasm of the USA to host the
games.125 The Pan-American Sports Congress was the site of significant animosity towards
the US sports executives, particularly for switching the seat of the games without providing
an alternate plan. The US hosts did not construct an Olympic Village in Chicago, which
meant athletes were dispersed throughout the city. An Uruguayan delegate declared this,
‘a betrayal of the spirit’ of the Pan-American Games.126 What the USA did not understand,
according to the Uruguayans, was the amount of socializing that occurred in the Village,
which constituted the grass-roots diplomacy of the games. The Brazilian press commented
that the main social attraction was the Mexican delegation, which had organized dances
for the athletes and played instruments for fellow contingents.127
The 1959 games prompted different types of social commentary depending on the
domestic affairs within each participating nation. For Argentina, if the 1951 Pan-American
Games provided a unique political opportunity for the Peronist government to showcase its
vision for a modernized nation on the international stage, and the 1955 games correlated
with desperate measures to shore up Peronism, then the games of 1959 provided a forum
to criticize the austerity policies of the government of Arturo Frondizi.128 The poor showing
in comparison with the USA at the games also sparked criticism of the university system in
Argentina. The university system gave the USA a huge advantage in a competition designed
120    B. Elsey

Figure 2. The above photograph captured a football match between Argentina and Cuba. The caption
read, ‘The indifference of the fans is visible here’.123

for amateurs. Not only did university athletes gain access to facilities and trainers, they also
had time to train.
Women’s sports continued to thrive in the 1959 games, with particular growth among
the Brazilian delegation. Given that Brazil had still banned certain women’s sports, most
notably football (soccer), it may be surprising that their women’s basketball team nearly beat
the US squad. The US women’s basketball team edged out the Brazilians. However, beyond
the score, the writers of Folha da Manhã, a popular newspaper in São Paulo, provided no
description of the women’s strategy, strengths, or their club affiliations.129 Given that Folha
da Manhã’s correspondents attended the game, one would expect a description of such a
closely contested match, but none appeared. The Brazilian women won a gold medal in
volleyball and a silver in basketball. Despite their accomplishments, the Brazilian delegation
to the 1960 Olympic games included only one woman among 71 men.130 Women’s basketball
and volleyball were not yet in the Summer Olympics, so that perhaps reduced the number
of female athletes. However, they did not send a women’s team to the inaugural volleyball
tournament at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. One sole Brazilian woman represented
the country once again. Thus, the Pan-American Games remained the premiere international
tournament for Brazilians, and many other Latin American countries.
There was significantly more coverage of women’s tennis in Brazil, which had a longer
history of women’s participation and was perceived as a more feminine sports. Moreover,
individual sports were less threatening than team sports. The victory of Brazilian Maria Esther
Bueno at Wimbledon in 1959 garnered attention from local and international journalists.
Buenos’s white identity helped her to gain positive acceptance in Brazilian sporting circles,
and beyond.131 When she was voted Female Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press in
1959, Jet magazine pointed out that Bueno benefited from her whiteness.132 Journalists from
Jet missed the collaboration between Maria Esther Bueno and the US African-American star,
Althea Gibson. Their paths crossed at the Pan-American Games of 1955. Bueno and Gibson
paired to win Wimbledon doubles in 1958 and came in second at the US championships of
 The International Journal of the History of Sport   121

1959. The Pan-American Games facilitated important athletics crossroads among women.
However, writers struggled to describe women’s athletics without emphasizing the athlete’s
attractiveness. When explaining gymnastics as a team sport, El Gráfico reassured their
Argentine readers, ‘a figure as beautiful as Canadian Ernestine Russell … cannot remain
anonymous in such a system’.133
The Pan-American Games of 1959 featured cultural exchanges other than sport. For
example, the Chicago Institute of Art held an exhibit of Latin American and Latino works.
There was also a three-day academic conference that brought 50 scholars from Latin America
to the University of Chicago. Although not popular among US sports audiences, there were
some fascinating athletic events. One incident was a contentious football game between
Argentina and Haiti. Just 20 minutes into their match with Argentina, the Haitian team
threatened to withdraw, blaming the US referee for unfairly awarding Argentina a penalty
kick.134 In protest, the Haitian players refused to give up the ball, causing the referee to stop
play and award Argentina a 1–0 victory. The Argentine press did not ridicule Haitian players,
for such antics were not uncommon in Argentina. Interestingly enough, they pointed out
a technical problem with the protest in that if the tournament continued to determine
advancements in the round robin by goal difference, ending the game at 25 minutes would
have prejudiced Argentina.135
Reflecting the dissatisfaction of Latin Americans with the Pan-American Games of 1959,
the tournament did not return to the USA until 1987. Latin American audiences looked to
Mexico and Brazil as continental leaders when it came to Pan-Americanism.136 Despite the
impressive performances of US athletes, the games reinforced the lack of interest among US
sports fans and club directors in their neighbours to the South. The Puerto Rican Games
of 1979, which this essay opened with, represented a compromise between US and Latin
American sports associations. As Mexican Americans in Chicago had been in 1959, Latin
American delegations saw Puerto Ricans as a potential bridge between North and South.
Many local journalists took great interest in the Puerto Rican independence movement, as
well as Puerto Rican opinions on revolutionary Cuba. Even before Bobby Knight’s altercation
with Brazilian women basketball players, US goodwill had become a subject of parody for
much of Latin American audiences. The ambassadorship that the architects of the Pan-
American Games hoped for had taken place here and there, but almost always as a South–
South, rather than a North–South relationship. Women athletes proved an important, and
usually overlooked, exception.

Notes
1. 
‘Bobby Knight condenado a mais três meses de prisão’, Folha de São Paulo, 12 September
1979, 27.
2. 
‘Knight is Convicted, Given a Six Month Term’, New York Times, 23 August 1979, B11.
3. 
Fred Mitchell, ‘The Contemptuous Bobby Knight’, Saturday Evening Post, 1 March 1981, 55–7.
4. 
John Papanek, ‘Triumph and Turmoil in The Pan-Am Games’, Sports Illustrated, 23 July 1979,
21; ‘Raging Bull of Basketball’, Time, 13 April 1981, 104. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost ,
https://www.ebscohost.com/academic/academic-search-premier (accessed 7 March 2012).
For background on the politics of the 1979 games, see Antonio Sotomayor, The Sovereign
Colony: Olympic Sport, National Identity, and International Politics in Puerto Rico (Lincoln:
University of Nebraska Press, 2016).
5. 
John Papanek, ‘Triumph And Turmoil in the Pan-Am Games’, Sports Illustrated, 23 July
1979, 21.
122    B. Elsey

6.  There is a growing historiography on diplomacy and sport, including Claire and Keith
Brewster, Representing the Nation: Sport and Spectacle in Post-Revolutionary Mexico (London:
Routledge, 2010); Heather Dichter and Andrew Johns (eds), Diplomatic Games: Sport,
Statecraft and International Relations since 1945 (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky,
2014); Barbara Keys, Globalizing Sport: National Rivalry and International Community in
the 1930s (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2006); and Eric Zolov, ‘Showcasing the
“Mexico of Tomorrow”: Mexico and the 1968 Olympics’, Americas 61, no. 2 (2004), 159–88.
7.  Ricardo Salvatore, ‘The Enterprise of Knowledge: Representational Machines of Empire’, in
Gilbert Joseph, Catherine LeGrand, and Ricardo Salvatore (eds), Close Encounters of Empire:
Writing the Cultural History of U.S.-Latin American Relations (Durham: Duke University
Press, 1998), 69–106, 94.
8.  Carol Hess, Representing the Good Neighbor: Music, Difference, and the Pan-American Dream
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013).
9.  Katherine Marino, ‘Transnational Pan-American Feminism: The Friendship of Bertha Lutz
and Mary Wilhelmine Williams, 1926–1944’, Journal of Women’s History 26, no. 2 (2014),
63–87. Project MUSE, 2 September 2015, https://muse.jhu.edu/.
10. Florence Carpentier and Jean-Pierre Lefèvre, ‘The Modern Olympic Movement, Women’s
Sport and the Social Order during the Inter-War Period’, The International Journal of the
History of Sport 23, no. 7 (2006), 1112–27.
11. Sotomayor, The Sovereign Colony.
12. Mark Berger, ‘A Greater America? Pan-Americanism and the Professional Study of Latin
America, 1890–1990’, in David Sheinin (ed.), Beyond the Ideal: Pan-Americanism in Inter-
American Affairs (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000); Ricardo Salvatore, Disciplinary
Conquest: U.S. Scholars in South America, 1900–1945 (Durham: Duke University Press, 2016).
13. Stephen Park, The Pan-American Imagination: Contested Visions of the Hemisphere in
Twentieth-Century Literature (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2014); Robert
Alexander González and Robert Rydell, Designing Pan-America: U.S. Architectural Visions
for the Western Hemisphere (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2011).
14. Millery Polyné, From Douglass to Duvalier: U.S. African Americans, Haiti, and Pan-
Americanism, 1870–1964 (Gainesville: University of Florida, 2010).
15. Claire Fox, Making Art Panamerican: Cultural Policy and the Cold War (Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 2013).
16. ‘The Week’, The Nation, 10 October 1889, 281.
17. Cesar R. Torres, ‘The Latin American “Olympic Explosion” of the 1920s: Causes and
Consequences’, The International Journal of the History of Sport 23, no. 7 (2006), 1088–1111.
18. Ibid.
19. Steven Olderr, The Pan-American Games: Los Juegos Panamericanos (Jefferson, NC:
McFarland & Co., 2003), 326; Sotomayor, The Sovereign Colony.
20. ‘Pan-American Games Favored’, Boston Daily Globe (1923–1927), 11; ProQuest Historical Newspapers:
Boston Globe (1872–1979), 14 August 1925 http://www.proquest.com/products-services/
pq-hist-news.html (accessed 20 March 2012).
21. Keys, Globalizing Sport, 2.
22. Galvarino Gallardo Nieto, Panamericanismo (Santiago: Nascimento, 1941).
23. ‘Archie San Romani Will Not Run 1500’, Daily Boston Globe (1928–1960), 23; ProQuest
Historical Newspapers: Boston Globe (1872–1979), 16 July 1937 (accessed 20 March 2012).
24. Cesar R. Torres, ‘The Limits of Pan-Americanism: The Case of the Failed 1942 Pan-American
Games’, The International Journal of the History of Sport 28, no. 17 (2011), 2547–74.
25. ‘$175,000 Needed to Send Athletes to Pan-Americans’, Daily Boston Globe (1928–1960), 20;
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Boston Globe (1872–1979), 19 November 1941 (accessed
20 March 2012).
26. Eduardo Elena, Dignifying Argentina: Peronism, Citizenship, and Mass Consumption
(Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2011), 242.
27. Pablo Albarces, Fútbol y patria: el fútbol y las narrativas de la nación (Buenos Aires: Prometeo
Libros, 2007); Mariano Plotkin, Mañana es San Perón: A Cultural History of Perón’s Argentina
 The International Journal of the History of Sport   123

(Buenos Aires: Planeta, 1995); and Matthew Karush and Oscar Chamosa, The New Cultural
History of Peronism: Power and Identity in Mid-Twentieth-Century Argentina (Durham:
Duke University Press, 2010).
28. Raanan Rein, ‘“El primer deportista”: The Political Use and Abuse of Sport in Peronist
Argentina’, The International Journal of the History of Sport 15, no. 2 (1998), 54–76.
29. Ibid.
30. Ibid.
31. Asa Bushnell (ed.), United States 1952 Olympic Book: Report of the US Olympic Committee
(New York: United States Olympic Association, 1953), 24.
32. El Universal, 5 March 1951, 8.
33. El Universal, 3 March 1951, 18.
34. Ibid.
35. ‘Magnífico epílogo de una gesta inolvidable’, La Cancha, 13 March 1951, 20.
36. Edgar Alvarado Pinetta, ‘Informe de los Juegos Panamericanos’, Diario de Centro America,
26 February 1951, 5.
37. Diario de Centro America, 10 March 1951, 5.
38. Comité Olímpico Argentino, Primeros Juegos Deportivos Panamericanos (Buenos Aires: np,
1951).
39. Ibid.
40. ‘The Frankness of Friends’, Time, 19 February 1951, 38.
41. Virginia Lee Warren, ‘U.S. Aide at Games Chides Argentines’, New York Times, 5 March 1951.
42. Arthur Daily, ‘Sports of the Times’, New York Times, 27 February 1951, 44.
43. New York Times, 1 March 1951, 35.
44. ‘U.S. Captures Three …’, New York Times, 2 March 1951, 29. Whitfield later represented the
US State Department in sports programmes throughout Africa.
45. Earl Gusky, ‘Pan Am Games Legacy: 1959’, Los Angeles Times, 6 August 1987, 1–3, Los Angeles
Times electronic archive, http://articles.latimes.com/1987-08-06/sports/sp-1628_1_pan-american-
games (accessed 2 May 2014).
46. Greg Grandin, ‘AHR Forum: Your Americanism and Mine: Americanism and Anti-
Americanism in the Americas’, American Historical Review 111 no. 4 (2006), 1042–1047.
47. ‘Respondió el equipo de pista’, La Cancha, 6 March 1951, 15.
48. Dante Panzeri, ‘Cuando la limosna es grande’, El Gráfico, 9 March 1951, 30–2.
49. ‘El tiro nos ha brindado buenos triunfos’, El Gráfico, 9 March 1951, 62–3.
50. Ecar, ‘Codo con codo’, La Cancha, 27 February 1951, 12–13.
51. Harold Kaese, ‘What Price Good Will?’, Daily Boston Globe (1928–1960), 6. ProQuest Historical
Newspapers: Boston Globe (1872–1979), 9 April 1951 (accessed 25 May 2013).
52. Jules Dubois, ‘Argentines Fine Folks as Hosts, U.S. Stars Find’, Chicago Daily Tribune (1923–
1963): B1. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Chicago Tribune (1849–1988), 2 March 1951
(accessed 12 December 2012).
53. John Cassidy, ‘What Makes Argentines that Way?’, Saturday Evening Post, 26 May 1951, 152.
54. Ibid.
55. Comité Organizador Buenos Aires, Primeros Juegos Deportivos Panamericanos: Reglas
Generales y Programa (Buenos: Aires: Guillermo Kraft, 1951), n.p.
56. Susan Cahn, Coming On Strong: Gender and Sexuality in Twentieth-Century Women’s Sports.
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998), 119–22.
57. Evelyne Hall Adams, ‘Oral History’, 23–4, http://library.la84.org/6oic/OralHistory/
OHHallAdams.pdf (accessed August 2014).
58. Ibid.
59. Evelyne Hall, ‘Report on Women’s Track and Field’, in Asa Bushnell (ed.), United States
1952 Olympic Book: Report of the US Olympic Committee (New York: United States Olympic
Association, 1953), 343.
60. Mundo Deportivo, 1 February 1951. See photographs throughout this issue.
61. Campeón (del deporte popular) (Buenos Aires), 28 February 1951, 3.
62. ‘Fue apotética …’, La Cancha, 27 February 1951, 12.
124    B. Elsey

63. Campeón (del deporte popular) (Buenos Aires), 28 February 1951, 3.

64. El Universal, 26 February 1951, 1.
65. Ibid., 5.
66. Napoleon Arraiz, ‘El hermoso objetivo de los panamericanos’, El Mundo Deportivo, 1 February
1951, 28.
67. Ibid.
68. Edgar Alvarado Pinetta, ‘Informe de los Juegos Panamericanos’, Diario de Centro América,
26 February 1951, 5.
69. ‘Modernisimas Instalaciones tiene la Villa Olímpica de Argentina’, Diario de Centro América,
24 January 1951, 5.
70. Sergio Alvarez, ‘Cronistas Argentinos’, Diario de Centro América, 1 March 1951, 5.
71. Asa Bushnell (ed.), United States 1952 Olympic Book: Report of the US Olympic Committee
(New York: United States Olympic Association, 1953), 326.
72. Ibid., 334.
73. ‘Las primeras comidas’, El Gráfico, 2 March 1951, 51.
74. ‘México en Buenos Aires’, El Universal (Mexico), 7 March 1951, 15.
75. El Universal (Mexico), 6 March 1951, 19.
76. El Universal, 7 March 1951, 15.
77. Unfortunately, my request to review the State Department and FBI records pertaining to this
period has not been fulfilled as of the publication date. FOIA filed September 2012.
78. Lyman Bingham, ‘Report of the General Manager’, in Asa Bushnell (ed.), United States 1952
Olympic Book: Report of the US Olympic Committee (New York: United States Olympic
Association, 1953), 331.
79. ‘Mexico en Buenos Aires’, El Universal, 6 March 1951, 19.
80. Jennifer Lansbury, ‘“The Tuskegee Flash” and “the Slender Harlem Stroker”: Black Women
Athletes on the Margin’, Journal of Sport History 28, no. 2 (2001), 233–252.
81. ‘Proposal for Patagonia’, New York Times (1923-Current file): 13; ProQuest Historical
Newspapers: The New York Times (1851–2008); ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New
York Times (1851–2008) with Index (1851–1993), 8 March 1941 (accessed 29 May 2013).
82. See official reports on Helsinki 1952 provided by the International Olympic Committee,
http://www.olympic.org/helsinki-1952-summer-olympics (accessed December 2014).
83. ‘Mexico en Buenos Aires’, El Universal, 2 March 1951, 19.
84. ‘El Rostro Femenino del Deporte’, Revista Amiga, February 2010, n.p.
85. Diario de Centro America, 6 March 1951, 5.
86. Fernando Ruíz, ‘Fallece a los 78 años ex Clavadista Nacional Dolores Castillo’, Prensa Libre
(Guatemala City), 14 September 2011, http://www.prensalibre.com.gt/deportes/mas_deportes/
Dolores-Castillo-clavados-atleta_0_554344689.html (accessed electronically 12 January 2013.
87. El Universal (Mexico), 7 March 1951, 15.
88. El Universal, 18 February 1951, 14.
89. Gilbert Joseph and Daniela Spenser (eds), In from the Cold: Latin America’s New Encounter
with the Cold War (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2008).
90. Roberto García Ferreira, ‘El Caso de Guatemala: Arévalo, Árbenz y la Izquierda Uruguaya,
1950–1971’, MesoAmérica 49 (2007), 25–8.
91. Arthur Daly, New York Times, 14 October 1954, 41.
92. United States Olympic Committee, United States 1956 Olympic Book.
93. El Universal (Mexico), 7 March 1951, 15.
94. United States Olympic Committee, United States 1956 Olympic Book, 294.
95. Ibid., 293.
96. El Universal, 13 March 1955, 12.
97. El Universal, 13 March 1955.
98. Web Ruble, ‘Eligio Garcia back in Bend’, Bulletin, 14 August 1963, 6.
99. Pan-American Sports Organization, Bulletin, 9 (Mexico City, Mexico, 1956).
100. Pan-American Sports Organization, Constitution, 3.
 The International Journal of the History of Sport   125

101. ‘Con solo cuatro equipos se Jugará el Torneo Panamericano de Futbol’, El Universal, 11

March 1955, 18.
102. CONMEBOL correspondence with FIFA, FIFA Archive and Documentation Center, Zurich,
Switzerland.
103. See FIFA Archives, Correspondence Between Member Federations (Chile), Documentation
Center, Zurich, Switzerland. The Club Transandino, for example, hoped that FIFA would
take a special interest in their case against the Central Association of professional football
clubs in Chile in 1961. Correspondence with Helmut Kaser, 1961.
104. Lyman Bingham, ‘Report of the General Manager’, in Asa Bushnell (ed.), United States 1952
Olympic Book: Report of the US Olympic Committee (New York: United States Olympic
Association, 1953).
105. El Universal, 8 March 1955, 10.
106. United States Olympic Committee, United States 1956 Olympic Book.
107. On the history of sport clubs in Latin America and the role of universities, see Rodrigo
Daskal, Los clubes en la Ciudad de Buenos Aires (1932–1945): Revista La Cancha: sociabilidad,
política y Estado (Buenos Aires: Teseo, 2013); Brenda Elsey, Citizens and Sportsmen: Fútbol
and Politics in Twentieth-Century Chile (Austin: University of Texas, 2014); and Joshua
Nadel, Fútbol!: Why Soccer Matters in Latin America (Gainesville: University of Florida,
2014).
108. United States Olympic Committee, United States 1956 Olympic Book, 297.
109. Pan-American Sports Organization, Bulletin 3 (Mexico City, Mexico).
110. George De Carvalho, ‘The Triple Jumper from Brazil’, Sports Illustrated, 31 August 1959,
34–8.
111. Ibid., 35.
112. Ibid.
113. Ibid., 38.
114. Celeste González Bustamante, Muy Buenas Noches: Mexico, Television, and the Cold War
(Omaha: University of Nebraska Press, 2013), 34.
115. Rein, “‘El primer deportista’”, 54–76.
116. ‘Despite All, A Delightful Show’, Sports Illustrated, 14 September 1959, 20.
117. ‘En Chicago’, Campeón, 2 September 1959, 1; ‘El hermoso objetivo de los panamericanos’,
Campeón, 2 September 1959, 28. If indeed Manuel Roy was the same Roy that authored Pro
Panama in 1926, he was enthusiastically in favour of US intervention.
118. Carlos Villa Borda, ‘Degenero en una batalla la Asamblea’, La Nación (Costa Rica), 29 August
1959, 33.
119. Folha da Manhã, 30 August 1959, 3. See also Earl Gustky, ‘Pan Am Games Legacy:
1959’, Los Angeles Times, 6 August 1987, 1–3, Los Angeles Times electronic archive,
http://articles.latimes.com/1987-08-06/sports/sp-1628_1_pan-american-games (accessed
2 May 2014).
120. ‘2,126 atletas’, La Nación (Costa Rica), 24 August 1959, 18.
121. ‘O Publico Não Está Correspondendo’, Folha da Manhã, 29 August 1959, 5.
122. ‘Em Busca’, Folha da Manhã, 1 September 1959, 8.
124. ‘Mucho calor con bastante frio en Chicago’, El Gráfico, 2 September 1959, 8–9.
125. ‘El precio de la irreflexión’, El Gráfico, 2 September 1959, 10–1.
126. ‘Hoje Em Chicago’, Folha da Manhã, 27 August 1959, 10.
127. Ibid.
128. ‘Deporte universitario y realidad nacional’, El Gráfico, 13 August 1959, 44–5.
129. ‘E.U.A. 45 vs. Brasil, 43, No Torneio Feminino de Cestobol’, Folha da Manhã, 29 August
1959, 2.
130. Odir Cunha, Heróis da América: história complete dos jogos Pan-americanos (Sao Paulo:
Planeta do Brasil, 2007).
131. Folha da Manha, 5 July 1959, ‘Os Pais de Maria Ester’, 2.
132. ‘Pick Girl’, Jet, 21 January 1960, 53.
133. ‘Games, juegos, jogos … panamericanos’, El Gráfico, 16 September 1959, 62–5.
126    B. Elsey

134. ‘Résultats á Chicago’, Le Nouvelliste, 31 August 1959, 1.

135. Piri García, ‘Fútbol’, El Gráfico, 2 September 1959, 51–4.
136. ‘El precio de la irreflexión’, El Gráfico, 2 September 1959, 10–1.
123. ‘Juegos, Games, Jogos … Panamericanos’, El Gráfico, 16 September 1951, 62

Acknowledgements
The author would like to acknowledge the support of the Círculo de Periodistas Deportivos de
Argentina, National Library of Chile, and the New York Public Library in completing research for
this project. I thank Alex Galarza for his research assistance and the anonymous readers of the
International Journal of the History of Sport for their invaluable suggestions.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor
Brenda Elsey is Associate Professor of History at Hofstra University and author of Citizens and
Sportsmen: Fútbol and Politics in Twentieth Century Chile. Her current research examines women’s
sport in Latin America.