New Books In Sports

Today we are joined by Stephen Allen, Associate Professor of History at California State University, Bakersfield, and the author of A History of Boxing in Mexico: Masculinity, Modernity and Nationalism (University of New Mexico Press, 2017). In our conversation, we discussed the origins of boxing in Mexico, the local and transnational logics of its development, and the racial dynamics underpinning Mexican nationalism. In A History of Boxing in Mexico, Allen investigates the rise of Mexican boxing through the lives of five of its greatest champions: Rodolfo Casanova, Raul “Raton” Macias, Vincente Saldivar, Rubén Olivares, and José Nápoles. Through these five case studies, Allen raises questions about the nature of Mexican masculinity, pushing past stereotypes of machismo to address changes in both its performative and affective qualities over time. Allen’s work deftly engages with the historiography of boxing, anthropology, and ethnography in order to recapture the local, familial, and sporting environment tha