When the Spaniards arrived on the American continent they were astonished to see among other things that the inhabitants played with balls of natural rubber, a substance unknown to the Europeans. Painted vessels, sculptures and bas-reliefs have been found all over Mexico and Central America depicting ball games being played. It indicates that these games were very much part of the religious and cultural life of the Olmeda, Mayan and other empires. A stone figure at Dainzu, in Oazaca State are almost 3,000 years old and show representation of humans in dynamic poses. The players are wearing gloves, masks and special clothing and holding balls the size of a fist. Interestingly the games seemed to have been part of a fertility rite (nothing has changed) but the modern perception that the losers were sacrificed to the Gods is regarded now by historians as an excuse by the Spanish not to play!!

Among the varieties played are Mixtecan rubber pelota played with large lumps of natural material and using gloves weighing up to 7 kilos (14 lbs.)!! But of most interest to us is the one-wall game "Hardball pelota rebounded with the hand" which sounds more elegant in Spanish "Rebotea a mano con pelota dura". This was the form played by the Chichimeca people who founded the Tolteca Empire and the game is still played in the area of the Mexican plateau. The court is 6M x 12M (almost exactly 20' x 40') marked with wires drawn tightly on the ground and walls are 20' - 40' high. The ball now used is made of coarse thread twisted around a golf ball and covered with a tightly stretched goatskin. Singles or doubles are played up to 12 points, or rayas. There are over 400 such courts in the states of Zacatecas, Aguacalientes, Coahuila, and San Luis Potosi.

Over the past number of years public and government interest in the sports and culture of the pre-Spanish era has increased. The federation of Pre-Hispanic Sports is doing great work in organizing and promoting these traditional sports. Their President Alida Zurita Bocanegra has made contact with other handball codes in Europe and Latin America. Last year the Federation held the First Mexican National One-Wall Championships in Guadalupe. The event received widespread media attention and government sponsorship. An original and impressive idea is the issuing of a post-tournament memorial booklet which lists the results of all the games and copies of newspaper reports, pictures, etc.

The Mexican players hope to travel to Winnipeg for the 1997 World Handball Championships. Their players will readily adapt to our one-wall game and provide a conduit for the spread of handball to a market of millions in Central and South America. The seeds are already there from the pelota introduced by the Spanish. Although nowadays mostly thought of a game played with the claw-shaped Chistera, the original pelota game was played with the hand against a single wall. Any of us who get a chance when traveling abroad to demonstrate our great game should seize the opportunity to do so.