A fundamental conundrum that this book seeks to resolve is how Puerto Rico is able to exist as an Olympic nation while not being an independent nation-state. Although formally a territory under US jurisdiction, Antonio Sotomayor argues that the island's engagement in international sport has allowed Puerto Rico to develop an identity that recognises its close links to the United States while simultaneously constructing a form of political autonomy. He employs the notion of colonial Olympism to describe the process by which a colonial territory or postcolonial nation not only becomes fully immersed in Olympic competition but uses it in the struggle for cultural survival and political agency. In drawing a distinction between political and cultural nationalism, Sotomayor maintains that the power and popularity of Olympic sports, whether practised at a global or regional level, has allowed the island's people to develop a sense of collective identity that is at variance with their legal status as US citizens. Paradoxically, the fact that Puerto Ricans have a national Olympic committee while still benefiting from US citizenship might have the effect of prolonging the colonial relationship, in that national identity and pride can be periodically satisfied in the sports arena while political and economic stability are assured through ties to the United States. As such, the question of colonialism that is at the heart of this book is not approached from the perspective of the oppressor and the oppressed. Rather it recognises the unique space that Puerto Rico and its people occupy and the ways in which culture, in the form of sport, has allowed them to negotiate a mutually acceptable compromise.
The chronological structure of Sotomayor's analysis recognises that Puerto Rican national identity as portrayed through sport developed within the shifting context of twentieth-century international politics. The change from Spanish to US colonial rule, the Good Neighbour policy, World War II, the decolonisation movements, and the Cold War impinged upon the nation's domestic politics and Olympic participation. As such, the chapters of the book reflect the way in which Puerto Rico adapted to the contemporary international environment in order to maintain the fine balance between political dependency and sporting autonomy.
The early adoption of so-called modern sports in Puerto Rico will be familiar to sports historians of Latin America. While Spanish colonial pastimes were rejected, embracing new sports from the developed world was not only a sign of sophistication, but signalled an intention to improve the intellectual and physical preparedness of all citizens in the relentless search for modernity. Two interesting aspects of this process apply to Puerto Rico. The first is that US invasion and subsequent colonisation meant that the process of embedding new sports into Puerto Rican society came earlier than it did in Mexico, for example, where the Revolution slowed down the process by more than a decade. The second is that Puerto Ricans did not accept the ‘American way’ towards physical fitness unreservedly, but sought European examples that might best suit their Hispanic cultural values. Within this discerning tendency, Sotomayor identifies the early signs of a dualistic cultural approach that would later flourish into the ability to develop a form of sporting nationalism within the confines of colonialism.
During the 1930s, the nature of Puerto Rico's participation in regional sports competitions reflected domestic political debate. In one respect, the participation of Puerto Rican athletes showcased the progress and goodwill that could emanate from a US territory. For others, particularly in the 1935 Central American Games in El Salvador, the flying of the Puerto Rican flag underlined the extent to which those pushing for independence could test the boundaries of good neighbourliness within the sporting arena. This approach to international sporting competition allowed Puerto Rico to negotiate national identity without the need to have political sovereignty. Moreover, it allowed Puerto Ricans to position themselves as a cultural intermediary between the United States and Latin America: one that would periodically allow its sports administrators to substantiate their claim to be arbiters and active members of the community of nations taking part in the Olympic Games. This stance would come under close scrutiny after Puerto Rico gained Commonwealth status in 1952, and again when the island hosted the 10th Central American and Caribbean Games in 1966. Beyond the usual anxieties and self-doubts regarding the host's ability to meet its responsibilities, the presence of Castro's Cuba at the Games exposed the limits of Puerto Rico's autonomy under the Commonwealth and its strength as a leader in regional sports. Acting contrary to US diplomatic machinations and International Olympic Committee regulations, Puerto Rico sought to ban Cuban delegates, citing the large Cuban exile population on the island as a potential for unrest. When the organising committee was eventually forced to reverse its decision, few onlookers were in any doubt that, under the Commonwealth arrangement, Puerto Rico lacked sovereignty over international diplomacy.
Sotomayor argues that sport in Puerto Rico became a site of contested politics, popular agency, political autonomy, colonialism, progress, national identity and international belonging. While some might question the degree to which such attributes can be attached to sport, this goes to the heart of Sotomayor's thesis. The particular circumstances of the island's relationship with the United States meant that the apolitical, anti-racist, non-religious ethos of the Olympic movement gave diverse groups within Puerto Rico one of the few spaces within which to define and redefine that relationship.
Benefiting from a logical structure and accessible prose, this interesting book offers a strong analysis of the interplay between domestic politics, international relations and Olympic sports within a community seeking to reconcile the dualism that lies at the heart of what it means to be Puerto Rican. It is a welcome addition to the growing literature on the role that sport has played in modern Latin American history.
