For immediate release:

Cal State L.A. Fieldwork Focuses
on Mesoamerican Ballgame

Heard of quidditch, the fantastical ball game made popular by the fictional Harry Potter? Cal State L.A. art historian Manuel Aguilar, who was quoted in The Science of Harry Potter: How Magic Really Works (Viking Press, Oct. 2002), theorizes that the sport “created” by author J.K. Rowling was probably inspired by ulama—a 3,500-year-old Mesoamerican ballgame with magic-religious connotations.

In March, Aguilar, with Cal State L.A. archaeologist James Brady, CSULA students Mario Davila, Luis Ramirez and Maria Ramos (art history), and Sergio Garza and Cesar Espinosa (anthropology), were invited to the first international conference on ulama in Mazatlan. There, Aguilar gave a talk on “The Mesoamerican Ballgame as a Portal to the Underworld,” and the students and professor Brady manufactured latex balls following ancient techniques. The student team members also presented preliminary reports on their fieldwork focusing on aspects of ulama and the communities where the game is played. They observed demonstrations of the rarely-seen sport in Los Llanitos, a tiny Western Mexican pueblo of 151 people.

Ulama, played with a nine-pound hard rubber ball, was popular throughout ancient Mexico and Guatemala, says Aguilar, but is now on the verge of extinction. “It only exists in the general area of Mazatlan,” notes archaeologist Brady, “and the number of people today who have actually seen this game played is very small.” Brady points out the danger of a game in which participants have little protection except for leather padding around the knees. “It’s very difficult to play—the players can only hit the ball with their hips, and the rules are incredibly complicated.”

“Our research project, and the forthcoming publication of its results, is an attempt to document the importance of this tradition and the need for its survival. In the [western Mexican] communities, parents are teaching the game to their children,” says Aguilar. (Brady notes that their project is the first to study the role of women in the ballgame.)

Aguilar adds “the Historical Society of Mazatlan is encouraging the manufacturing of the rubber balls in order to provide them to the communities.” The historical society has even sent a proposal to UNESCO, asking it to include the game on its world heritage list of unique cultural expression. “All these efforts are aimed to raise awareness of the importance of ulama—to let people know the game still exists and to preserve and protect its practice,” Aguilar says. “In Mexico, there is a federal institution dedicated to preserving the practice of traditional and native sports,” he notes, “and the president of that institution attended the conference.”

A six-page article on Aguilar and Brady’s research is the cover story in the September-October issue of Archaeology magazine.

California State University, Los Angeles, is a comprehensive university at the heart of a major metropolitan city. The 175-acre hilltop campus is located five miles east of Los Angeles’ civic and cultural center. Since 1947, Cal State L.A. has been a leader in providing quality higher education. Today, the campus comprises a faculty of internationally recognized scholars and artists, and more than 21,000 students with a wide variety of interests, ages and backgrounds that reflect the city’s dynamic mix of populations. The CSU: A leader in high-quality, accessible, student-focused higher education.

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