Mexico is embracing its ancient ballgame, ulama, as it prepares to co-host the 2026 FIFA World Cup. This 3,400-year-old sport, nearly erased during the Spanish conquest, is gaining attention alongside international soccer. Ulama, played with a heavy rubber ball using only the hips, was once a ritual practice.
Pedestrian dies after being hit by Frontier Airlines plane that was taking off at Denver airportOlivia and Liam top the list of most popular US baby names for the seventh year runningVirginia Supreme Court strikes down Democrats' redrawn US House maps, giving Republicans a winSpike Lee, Timothée Chalamet and non-famous Knicks fans enjoy a Game 3 win in PhillyFrom Taylor Swift to the Oscars, 400-year-old 'Hamlet' flourishes in the age of TikTokAP Entertainment WireViral phenomenon in Argentina has young people identifying themselves as animalsFatou, the world's oldest gorilla living in captivity, celebrates her 69th birthday at Berlin ZooOne Tech Tip: Why digital devices and online accounts need spring cleaningA photo captures President Trump and first lady awaiting British royals from rare White House angleThe World in PicturesTrump is lifting restrictions on hunting in national parks, refuges and wilderness areasWhat to know about hantavirus, the illness linked to a cruise ship outbreakFDA announces its first OK of fruit-flavored e-cigarettes for adults in major shift under TrumpOne Tech Tip: Don't use rice for your device.
Here's how to dry out your smartphoneDear Readers: Yes, pen pal programs still exist in a digital worldVatican sending new signals of openness but limitations in outreach to LGBTQ+ CatholicsOn the cruise ship hit by hantavirus, some fear what awaits them at homeThe Afternoon Wire'Somebody stole from me': Mom mourns after 2 fatally shot in kids' soccer disputeBright lights and hot orbs: UFO files shed light on sightings but leave interpretation to the publicNaomi Osaka recounts her show-stopping Met Gala outfit at the 'Grand Slam' of fashionDozens of artists bring new life to a gigantic former ironworks on UNESCO's world heritage listViral phenomenon in Argentina has young people identifying themselves as animalsFatou, the world's oldest gorilla living in captivity, celebrates her 69th birthday at Berlin ZooOne Tech Tip: Why digital devices and online accounts need spring cleaningA photo captures President Trump and first lady awaiting British royals from rare White House angleThe World in PicturesTrump is lifting restrictions on hunting in national parks, refuges and wilderness areasWhat to know about hantavirus, the illness linked to a cruise ship outbreakFDA announces its first OK of fruit-flavored e-cigarettes for adults in major shift under TrumpOne Tech Tip: Don't use rice for your device.
Here's how to dry out your smartphoneDear Readers: Yes, pen pal programs still exist in a digital worldVatican sending new signals of openness but limitations in outreach to LGBTQ+ CatholicsWorld NewsMexico is embracing its ancient ballgame, ulama, as it prepares to co-host the 2026 FIFA World Cup. This 3,400-year-old sport, nearly erased during the Spanish conquest, is gaining attention alongside international soccer.
Youth play ulama, a traditional Mesoamerican ballgame dating to pre-Hispanic times, in Los Llanitos on the outskirts of Mazatlan, Mexico, Saturday, April 25, 2026. Iker Salgueiro stands still as an adult fastens a pre-Hispanic-style “fajado,” or leather belt, in preparation for ulama, a traditional Mesoamerican ballgame dating to pre-Hispanic times, in Los Llanitos on the outskirts of Mazatlan, Mexico, Saturday, April 25, 2026.
Iker Salgueido plays ulama, a traditional Mesoamerican ballgame dating to pre-Hispanic times, in Los Llanitos on the outskirts of Mazatlan, Mexico, Saturday, April 25, 2026. The Osuna family poses for a photo before a match of ulama, a traditional Mesoamerican ballgame dating to pre-Hispanic times, that they organized in Los Llanitos on the outskirts of Mazatlan, Mexico, Saturday, April 25, 2026.
Juan Osuna plays ulama, a traditional Mesoamerican ballgame dating to pre-Hispanic times, in Los Llanitos on the outskirts of Mazatlan, Mexico, Saturday, April 25, 2026. Mexico is embracing its ancient ballgame, ulama, as it prepares to co-host the 2026 FIFA World Cup. This 3,400-year-old sport, nearly erased during the Spanish conquest, is gaining attention alongside international soccer.
Youth play ulama, a traditional Mesoamerican ballgame dating to pre-Hispanic times, in Los Llanitos on the outskirts of Mazatlan, Mexico, Saturday, April 25, 2026. Youth play ulama, a traditional Mesoamerican ballgame dating to pre-Hispanic times, in Los Llanitos on the outskirts of Mazatlan, Mexico, Saturday, April 25, 2026.
Iker Salgueiro stands still as an adult fastens a pre-Hispanic-style “fajado,” or leather belt, in preparation for ulama, a traditional Mesoamerican ballgame dating to pre-Hispanic times, in Los Llanitos on the outskirts of Mazatlan, Mexico, Saturday, April 25, 2026. Iker Salgueiro stands still as an adult fastens a pre-Hispanic-style “fajado,” or leather belt, in preparation for ulama, a traditional Mesoamerican ballgame dating to pre-Hispanic times, in Los Llanitos on the outskirts of Mazatlan, Mexico, Saturday, April 25, 2026.
Iker Salgueido plays ulama, a traditional Mesoamerican ballgame dating to pre-Hispanic times, in Los Llanitos on the outskirts of Mazatlan, Mexico, Saturday, April 25, 2026. Iker Salgueido plays ulama, a traditional Mesoamerican ballgame dating to pre-Hispanic times, in Los Llanitos on the outskirts of Mazatlan, Mexico, Saturday, April 25, 2026.
The Osuna family poses for a photo before a match of ulama, a traditional Mesoamerican ballgame dating to pre-Hispanic times, that they organized in Los Llanitos on the outskirts of Mazatlan, Mexico, Saturday, April 25, 2026. The Osuna family poses for a photo before a match of ulama, a traditional Mesoamerican ballgame dating to pre-Hispanic times, that they organized in Los Llanitos on the outskirts of Mazatlan, Mexico, Saturday, April 25, 2026.
Juan Osuna plays ulama, a traditional Mesoamerican ballgame dating to pre-Hispanic times, in Los Llanitos on the outskirts of Mazatlan, Mexico, Saturday, April 25, 2026. Juan Osuna plays ulama, a traditional Mesoamerican ballgame dating to pre-Hispanic times, in Los Llanitos on the outskirts of Mazatlan, Mexico, Saturday, April 25, 2026. Pacific coast, five cousins between the ages of 8 and 13 strip down and kick off their shoes.
Nearby, adults help them fasten the pre-Hispanic-style “fajado,” securing loincloths and leather belts that wrap around their hips. The Osuna children grab the rubber ball, all 3.2 kilograms of it — around 7 pounds or seven times heavier than a soccer ball — and begin playing. Only the hips may touch it, forcing players to leap through the air or dive low when it skims the ground.
, the nation is looking back 3,400 years to one of the oldest team sports: the ancient ballgame known as ulama, a ritual practice nearly erased during the Spanish conquest that survived only in the remote pockets of northwestern Mexico before its late 20th-century rebirth. Today, authorities and its modern players are leveraging the momentum of international soccer to shine a spotlight on the ancient sport once again.
While players acknowledge that tourism fueled the sport’s revival, many worry that projecting an “exotic” image undermines a tradition central to their identity.
“We must rid the game of the notion that it is a living fossil,” said Emilie Carreón, a researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, UNAM, and director of a project aimed at studying and practicing the sport. That’s exactly what the Osuna family is trying to do.
After ulama player Aurelio Osuna died, his widow, María Herrera, 53, continued his legacy, teaching the ballgame to their grandchildren in their small village in Sinaloa, 1,000 kilometers northwest of Mexico City.book, the world was created from a ballgame, where light and darkness clashed to balance life and death and set the universe in motion. Long before the Maya, the Olmecs — the earliest known Mesoamerican civilization — practiced the sport; the recreation of this clash of opposing forces was common in various pre-Hispanic cultures.
The evidence is in millennial rubber balls unearthed in Mexico and in nearly 2,000 ball courts found from Nicaragua to Arizona. The game, depicted in codices, stone carvings and sculptures, had many variations and meanings, from fertility or war ceremonies, to political acts and even sacrifices. While some players were beheaded — possibly the losers — Guatemalan archaeologist and anthropologist Carlos Navarrete explained this occurred only during specific periods and in certain regions.
The physically demanding game was primarily a big social event, drawing crowds for fun and betting.was impressed by the spectacle presented by the Aztec emperor Moctezuma but the Spanish ultimately banned ulama and ordered the destruction of its courts, likely viewing the tradition as a form of resistance to Christianity. For theThe game — played by hitting the ball with the hip, the forearm or a mallet — survived only on the Mexican northern Pacific coast, where the colonial process led by Jesuit priests was less aggressive and ulama was accepted in Catholic festivities, said Manuel Aguilar Moreno, a professor of art history at California State University.
, spectators watched as burly men contorted their bodies in unexpected ways to keep the rubber ball moving for as long as possible. The exhibition sparked studies about the ballgame and how to preserve it in the following decades. Luis Aurelio Osuna, 30, Herrera’s eldest son, began playing hip ulama after school, just as his father did decades ago in Los Llanitos, a ranch next to the port city of Mazatlán. Now his three children also play.
Osuna and his mother teach the children how to hit the ball and guide them through the complicated rules, which include a scoring system with points that are won and lost. Hip ulama teams have up to six players and the Osuna family sometimes participates in tournaments or exhibitions. Decades ago, matches were big events tied to religious feasts, sometimes stretching on for an entire week.
But those days are gone, as interest waned and rubber balls became hard to get. In the 1980s, filmmaker Roberto Rochín documented the work of perhaps the last rubber ball-maker in the mountains of Sinaloa. The artisan made them similar to the Olmecs, who discovered that mixing hot rubber sap with a plant created a strong, elastic and durable material. This civilization made some of the oldest balls of the world.
During the 1990s, staff from a resort in the Mexican Caribbean traveled across the country in search of Sinaloan families who could represent the ballgame as a tourist attraction in the “It’s pure spectacle: they paint their faces and put on feathered costumes,” Herrera said. Yet, she acknowledges the value.
“That’s where the revival began. ” The ballgame began to spread and to be known outside Mexico. Osuna, with the family team his father had formed, ended up playing hip ulama in a Roman amphitheater in Italy. It attracted so much attention that they were hired for a deodorant commercial, he said.
As the World Cup approaches, authorities and corporations are launching exhibitions in Mexico City and Guadalajara, and featuring ulama players in ad campaigns highlighting Mexican heritage — a move that has sparked mixed feelings.
“We’re not circus monkeys,” says Ángel Ortega, a 21-year-old ulama player from Mexico City who recently participated in a TV commercial alongside football players. Ilse Sil, a player and member of the UNAM project led by Carreón, believes that institutional support will help to preserve ulama but officials need to promote the game in communities and schools to recruit more young players, as it remains a marginal sport with approximately 1,000 players mainly in México and Guatemala.
In Los Llanitos, Herrera’s grandchildren love playing. They don’t care where — in the dirt field, in a court or even in the house corridor — but always with the precious inheritance: a handmade decades-old rubber ball from the mountains of Sinaloa. They say it cushions the blows better. Eight-year-old Kiki is the most enthusiastic.
He says he is determined to keep practicing until he fulfills the dream of leading a team of his own. Verza has focused on immigration, violence and human rights stories in Mexico and Central America for more than a decade
Luis Aurelio Osuna General News Latin America Central America Sports Kiki Children Mara Herrera Roberto Rochn Carlos Navarrete World News Lifestyle Ilse Sil FIFA World Cup World News
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Alejandro Fernández & Banda MS to Headline the Arre Festival, Returning to Mexico City in 2026Alejandro Fernández and Banda MS will headline the 2026 Arre Festival, which returns to Mexico City after being held in Monterrey last year.
Read more »
MLS Predictions: Western Conference Clash of Titans Headlines Matchday 12The 2026 MLS season creeps closer towards the 2026 World Cup.
Read more »
2026 Bully Hill Vineyards 176 at The Glen - Final Leaderboard - May 08, 2026View 2026 Bully Hill Vineyards 176 at The Glen race, qualifier and practice leaderboards, live streams, bonus cameras, videos and odds information.
Read more »
Maná, Alejandro Fernández, J Balvin & More to Open the FIFA World Cup 2026 in MexicoManá, Alejandro Fernández, J Balvin and more will perform at the FIFA World Cup 2026 opening ceremony in Mexico. Here is the full lineup!
Read more »