The 1971 Pan-American Games and the Search for Colombian Modernities

The VI Pan-American Games in Cali, Colombia were planned as a harbinger of a modern Colombia. The games featured many impressive athletic performances but failed to create the lasting impact organizers had imagined. Timing was bad. Colombia had seen a decade of economic growth after a generation of civil war. However, much of that progress was compromised beginning in the mid-1970s with the escalation of new internal wars fuelled in part by the quick growth of the cocaine sector, controlled in part by a Cali-based cartel. At the same time, games organizers did not grasp that Cali’s modernization problems were in large measure the product of growing urban social inequalities as a function of severe race and class divisions. The inability to recognize that linkage was explored in a low-budget documentary, Oiga, Vea (Listen, Look), released during the games. The film anticipated the impossible distance between grinding urban poverty and games-related projects to modernize the city. In keeping with the film’s criticism of games planners’ narratives on modernization, the manner in which the games were iconified for Colombians reflected that same distance. This is evident in projections of race and identity in games imagery and architecture

Economic geography · Geography · Political science · Sociology · History and Politics in Latin America · Sport and Mega-Event Impacts · Sports, Gender, and Society

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  Open Access•David M K Sheinin, Carlos Ronderos Torres et al.•EIAL - Estudios Interdisciplinarios…•2021

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