Physical Culture and Batllismo

This article explores the role of physical culture in Uruguay’s modernization process in the early twentieth century. To this end, the analysis focuses on the debates surrounding the amateur nature of physical culture practices. From a cultural historical perspective, it examines the development and dissemination of a state-driven physical culture proposal promoted by the National Commission of Physical Education (CNEF) and its connection to the progressivist reforms implemented by Batllismo between 1911 and 1915. These years coincide with what we propose to call the gestational period of the CNEF – from its creation to the second change of elected authorities – and José Batlle y Ordóñez’s second presidency, one of the most transformative periods in Uruguay’s history. The primary sources for this research are the session minutes of the CNEF, through which it is possible to affirm that the Commission’s proposal for physical culture acquired specific characteristics shaped by Uruguay’s progressist context. In this article it demonstrates that within this scenario, unique transformations of the concept of physical culture took place and that, as a result of the Batllista project’s universalist and social justice aims, the notion of amateurism played a central role in this resignification process

Archaeology · History · Physical Education and Sports Studies · Sports and Physical Education Studies