Sport in the Americas and Caribbean and their connection to popular culture and politics: Basketball in Mexico and Guatemala
Friday, January 8, 2018 at 1:00 PM
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In the United States NFL football (American style) is still king but television ratings are slipping, pro and NCAA basketball begins once again anew – yet in in Latin America, soccer is the reigning passion of the people.
The land-locked country of Bolivia once again struggles to qualify for a World Cup spot in Russia for 2018 – catch up with Doc Stull as he gives his final report on his Bolivian adventures in the high-altitude wine country country in southern Bolivia near the Argentinian border in the soulful town of Tarija, his “game-changing” tour in the surreal oxygen-deprived bowels of the Cerro Rico silver mine at 12,300 feet in Potosi where two centuries ago it was written that the Spanish Empire mined enough silver to build a bridge from the heart of South America to Madrid, and many more adventures with Humboldt County’s own Anthony Bourdain before Doc’s return next week back to the Redwood Curtain.
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Remember the movie classic Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid with Robert Redford and Paul Newman? The two real-life American adventurers and outlaws escaped to….Bolivia! This month, join Danielle when she speaks with Doc live from Sucre, Bolivia! They’ll talk about one of the biggest games of the year – Bolivia’s re-vitalized national team as they take on powerhouse Olympic Gold Medal winner, Brazil, in a qualifying match at the halfway point for the upcoming World Cup in Russia. We’ll discuss the the world of ChiCha, the famous corn-based beer and the game of sapo (toad or frog) in the tiny town of Yotalla, Bolivia where the locals looked on as Doc and the players got animated with Bolivia’s own traditional home-brew! And we’ll finish with one of Bolivia’s folk singing treasures – Zulma Yugar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cIdhgP_-ZQ
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This month, we’ll speak about Hall of Fame baseball player Ted Williams – considered by baseball scholars to be one of the, if not greatest, hitter of the twentieth century. Williams, a California native born and raised in San Diego, played his entire 19-year career with the Boston Red Sox and retired in 1960. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966. A complex, controversial, multi-talented and enigmatic individual, it was little known during his career that Williams mother was Mexican. Williams consciously hid his Mexican heritage, fearing that prejudice would hinder his chances playing in the major leagues – a fascinating story that has great cultural significance today in the United States with its changing demographic.
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He was a political activist whose heroes included the Beatles’ John Lennon and Communist revolutionaries Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. He drank and smoked but was a medical doctor. He was a political and economic columnist, writer and actor. And, he was one of the greatest midfielders to play the game of soccer (football)– and, in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s he became a living symbol and force for democratic justice for the nation of Brazil. Muhammad Ali and Billie Jean King were perhaps the most famous athletes in the past who took principled political stands in the United States. But Brazil had their philosopher-king of football – and his name, fittingly, was Socrates.
Listen in for a fascinating picture of a true rebel who also played the game with unabated joy. In an era today where the best athletes command high-priced endorsements it is uncommon to see them take political stands. What effect would someone like Socrates have today in the age of social media? Would he have simply been a Brazilian phenomenon? Tune in!