So the driving question asks: What sports are favored down in Latin America? So up here in North America, especially here in the United States, we know all about which sports we play and follow: Hockey and Lacrosse in Canada, American Football all over USA, Basketball on the East Coast of USA, and Baseball in the "Bible Belt." But what about the the rest of the rest of the Americas to our south? Most people will just think "Soccer" when asked the question, and while that isn't wrong, here you will find that the sports favored down in Latin America are not what you'd expect. Lets get started!

Everyone already knows, Football is king in Latin America. What else would you expect from a region colonized by Spain and Portugal? Football is commonly played on the streets by children and the hype lives all the way up World Cup games. Speaking of the World Cup, Latin America has won 9. The only other region to have won even one title has been Europe with 11.

World Cup games get taken so seriously in Latin America that there have been riots over lost games and violence towards opposing fans and even the players themselves. One example is when Colombian defender Andres Escobar was murdered by drug cartels after accidentally kicking the ball into his own goal and losing to the United States 2-1.

But saying Football is the only sport that matters in Latin America is like saying American Football is the only sport that matters in USA.

Surprising to many, Baseball is a popular sport in the northern areas in Latin America mainly in the Caribbean's, Central America, and Venezuela. In fact, in the countries that favor Baseball, it is actually more popular than is is in the United States. The aforementioned countries that Baseball in popular in produce the most MLB players out of all countries outside the United States. Just like Football, Baseball is played at all levels, even on the streets by children.

The first Latin American country to pick up Baseball was Cuba in 1864 when Nemesio and Ernesto Guillo returned from Springhill College in Mobile Alabama and started the Habana (Havana) Baseball Club. Many Cuban men that went to the USA to study during the second half of the 19th century returned with a love for Baseball. Another example of a Cuban Baseball duo is brothers Teodoro and Carlos de Zardo who studied at Fordham College in Bronx, NY from 1875 to 1877 and returned in 1878 founding the Almendares Baseball Club, who became Habana Club's rival.

While American Football is only growing in Mexico and Brazil, the fact is that this sport is usually ignored outside the United States, which is what makes this surprising. Mexico, like Canada, have a fair level of interest because they border the United States. Brazil is the country that makes this interesting.

Brazilians started watching American Football for the first time when ESPN started broadcasting NFL games. Viewership increased as Brazilian broadcast channels such as Esporte Interativo started showing NFL games as well. Brazilians play American Football as well with more than 120 organized teams and near 5,000 active players. Championship games between these organized teams draw thousands of fans and there has been a rumor of a Pro Bowl played in Rio De Janeiro in 2017.

Brazil has the third most NFL fans per country in the world and Mexico has second most.

In Mexico, American Football was first introduced when a group of students from Mexico that had studied in the United States visited family in Xalapa, Mexico (the city I'm studying abroad in!) and organized a match. This was in 1896. In 1920, American Football started to grow in Mexico when Universities started arranging teams. The two most important university teams are Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) and Instituto Politecnico Nacional (Poli).

In 1950, American Football became the 2nd most popular sport in Mexico and by 1960, broadcast channels has started featuring Dallas Cowboys (or Vaqueros de Dallas) games due to the proximity of Texas to Mexico as well as because of Danny Villanueva: a Hispanic place kicker.

The first NFL game that was played in Mexico was a preseason match in 1978 featuring the New Orleans Saints and the Philadelphia Eagles in front of 30,000+ fans as the first game to be played outside the USA. In 1994, the first regular season game was played in Mexico as the Arizona Cardinals took on the San Francisco 49ers and drew an attendance of 103,467 fans, setting a new attendance record for a NFL regular season game.

So there you have it!

Note that I also did some research on Basketball but unfortunately it wasn't popular enough to make this list. You can pretty much find all the popular sports in any region due to globalization. Therefore, Basketball will be most popular in the most globalized countries, notably Brazil and Argentina.

I chose this topic because as someone that has a passion for sports, has played sports in high school, and plan on playing American Football when I study abroad in Mexico for my Mexican school, I wanted to research about it in one of my favorite regions of the world: Latin America. I would like to share this topic with athletes and sport fans in North America that are interested in learning about sport cultures of Latin America. Thanks for reading!

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