About the Book
Sport in Latin America and the Caribbean is the most comprehensive overview to date of the development of modern sports in Latin America. This new book illustrates how and why sport has become a central part of the political, economic, and social life of the region and the repercussions of its role. This highly readable volume is composed of articles on a wide variety of sports-basketball, baseball, volleyball, cricket, soccer, and equestrian events-in countries and regions throughout Latin America, including Mexico, the Caribbean, Costa Rica, Peru, Brazil, Cuba, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic. Broad in scope, this volume explores the definition of modern sport; whether sport is enslaving, liberating, or neutral; if sport reflects or challenges dominant culture; the attributes and drawbacks of professional versus amateur sport; and the difference between sport in capitalist and socialist nations. Other subjects that are addressed as they pertain to modern sport include: diffusion and globalization/internationalization; hegemony, dependency, and nationalism; politics and the state; culture, ethnicity, and race; economic class; gender; commercialization, modernization, and professionalization; health, morality, crime and vice; economics and labor productivity; and the media.
About the Author: Joseph L. Arbena teaches Latin American history and geography and modern sports history at Clemson University. David G. LaFrance is research professor in the Benemérita Universidad Autònoma de Puebla, Mexico.
