Contribution of the YMCA to body culture, sport, and Physical Education in Latin America. Confrontation and alternative to the eugenic discourse

Abstract

This is an essay that has a historical and philosophical cut around Latin American body cultures, highlighting the environments of Physical Education and sport. In Latin America, at the end of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century, the projects of these cultural manifestations began to be systematically configured, including a strong eugenic and biologicist moral discourse that promoted racism and classism. This discourse manifested itself in individual and cyclical sports practices, such as gymnastics and athletics, which promoted a conservative and hygienist sports discipline. At the same time, in the first third of the twentieth century, other modern sports began to be introduced in Latin American nations that brought a more comprehensive moral discourse, since they considered the social, cognitive, and affective aspects as relevant, highlighting soccer, basketball and volleyball. Thus, a liberal and playful sports discipline was promoted. In this context, the YMCA appeared as an ecumenical and non-governmental institution that favored this approach. The YMCA's link is made more significant by the fact that two of the sports that were introduced and popularized, namely basketball and volleyball, were created at its Springfield headquarters. In any case, the participation of the YMCA is complex and not all its work confronted the eugenic discourse, as can be seen in historical records of the INEF General Belgrano of Argentina. This expresses the complexity of historical processes and the need to study them with epistemological openness.