Sociability, Institutional Organization and Ethnic Insertion. The Beginnings of Ping Pong in Costa Rica (1933-1950)

Abstract

Ping pong in Costa Rica emerged under the interest of some sports organizations and social clubs in 1933. This sport was concentrated mainly in the Central Valley in the capital San José and in the ports of Limón and Puntarenas. The State provided little support to the promotion of ping pong. One of the first places where ping pong was practiced in the capital was in the premises of the Catholic Worker Youth, which demonstrates the interest of the priest in charge of said establishment in continuing with the policy of the archbishopric of Monsignor Víctor Manuel Sanabria that young people will not identify with the ideology of the communist party. Ping pong allowed the ethnic inclusion of women of Jewish community and some men from the Chinese colony, allowing these sectors to be more visible in the public sphere. The methodology used to carry out this ethnographic historical record as qualitative research is based on the review of the commercial press where pertinent information and images that illustrate what was narrated are gathered. The objective of this article is to describe the beginnings of ping pong in Costa Rica, its private promotion and the state position regarding its promotion from the first attempt to create a national ping pong championship in the country in 1933 until the founding of the National Ping Pong League in 1950.