Mexico's chief spectator sport is
soccer
(
futbol ). Mexican teams have not been
notably successful on the international stage,
but going to a game can still be a thrilling
experience, with vast crowds for the big ones.
The capital and Guadalajara are the best places
to see a match and the biggest game in the
domestic league, the "Superclasico", between
Chivas from Guadalajara and América from Mexico
City, fills the city's 150,000 seater Aztec
stadium to capacity.
Baseball (beisbol)
is also popular, as is
American football
(especially on TV).
Jaialai (better known
as
frontón , or
pelota ) is Basque
handball, common in big cities and played at
very high speed with a curved scoop attached to
the hand. Points are scored by whacking the ball
hard and fast against the end wall, as in
squash, but the real scores are made in odds and
pesos, since this, for spectators at least, is
largely a gambler's sport.
Mexican rodeos ( charreadas ),
mainly seen in the north of the country, are as
spectacular for their style and costume as they
are for the events, while bullfights
remain an obsession: every city has a bullring -
Mexico City's Plaza México is the world's
largest - and the country's toreros are
said to be the world's most reckless, much in
demand in Spain. Another popular bloodsport,
usually at village level, is cockfighting
, still legal in Mexico and mainly attended for
the opportunity to bet on the outcome.
Masked wrestling is very popular in
Mexico, too, with the participants, Batman-like,
out of the game for good should their mask be
removed and their secret identity revealed. Nor
does the resemblance to comic-book superheroes
end with the cape and mask: certain wrestlers,
most famously the capital's Superbarrio, have
become popular social campaigners out of the
ring, always ready to turn up just in the nick
of time to rescue the beleaguered poor from
eviction by avaricious landlords, or persecution
by corrupt politicians
