Just as hockey is seen to represent fundamental characteristics about Canadian culture, society and nation, Prof. Sheinin’s research in collaboration with Daniel Fridman of Columbia University has shown that the wild popularity of boxing in the history of several Latin America countries reflects in part dominant ideologies of racism, violence and cultural identity.

As boxing began to flourish in countries like Argentina, Colombia and Venezuela from the 1930s onward, it quickly came to chart each nation’s mythologies, reaching a popular apogee in the 1970s. “Boxing was very participatory, emerging during a time when neighbourhoods really mattered and families avidly followed the sport so that the best boxers became household names,” he explained. Prof. Sheinin noted that most boxers tended to be poor, where violence was frequently manifest in many forms, such as malnutrition, racism or police brutality. A universal story that developed around most boxing legends portrayed them as violent teenagers who underwent a dramatic transformation. They became “non-violent” thanks to a mentor who introduced them to boxing. “Boxing is elegance. Athletes must use their intelligence and skill to perform well. In this way, it is also a social expression of the control of violence.”

The rise and fall of Colombian boxing legend Kid Pambelé shows the intersection of boxing and cultural identities in Latin America. Born in the impoverished, predominantly black town of Palenque, Kid Pambelé grew up steeped in the community’s rich African heritage and pride its slave origins and a tradition of resistance. Winning matches with an unorthodox boxing style, he quickly rose to fame, assuming the status of national hero. Kid Pambelé epitomized the idea of Colombian boxing -- quicker, smarter, less formally schooled, more dependent on a raw intelligence than other boxing styles. “Boxing is a sport where national identity is bound up in how the game is played,” noted Prof. Sheinin. Once a celebrity, Kid Pambelé gained renown for his generosity. He was the first African-Colombia to own an apartment in Cartagena’s exclusive Bocagrande neighborhood.

Following his triumph as Colombia’s first world boxing champion, Kid Pambelé went through a tragic decline, involving substance abuse and squandered riches. Prof. Sheinin found that as Kid Pambelé fell from grace, the highly racialized African-American attributes that once generated national pride now emerged ominously as negative stereotypes around violence, alcohol consumption, and failure. “Here and elsewhere, the boxing narrative unifies the professional with the personal narrative,” observed Prof. Sheinin.

Through his study of boxing, Prof. Sheinin has been able to illuminate the powerful political undercurrents embedded in these shifting images of popular Latin American fighters as national figures, but also as subjects of United States dominance in the hemisphere. “In athletics, and in boxing more specifically, images of race, ethnicity, and power followed a larger set of imperial constructions that posited Manifest Destiny and subsequent American versions of the logic of imperial projects as a question of racial inevitability.” Moreover, he has shown that boxing is intimately tied to revolutionary politics, and shed important light on the role of professional sport as an organic expression of international culture and power dynamics.