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We do not yet have much information on Spanish play activuties. Our Spanish archive is still fairly limited. As far as we can tell children's play is similar to that prevalent in other European countries. An imprtant factor here is economics. Spain in modern times was a European backwater and a relatively poor country. Economics has a major impact on children's play. Children in poor countries have fewer play experiebces. many have to devote themsekves toassusting the family livlihood at an early age. And of course poor families cannot afford nuch in the way of toys for the younger children. A factor in Spamish poverty was the arid conditions prevalent in Spain, limiting agricultural producivity. And throughout much of the county's history agriculture was the primary contribution to natioanl wealth. And in the 19th century for a range of cultural matters, Spain did not industrialize like many other European contries. We have some intersting information on games from the Canary Islands. As for sports, Spain like most countries today is largely mesmerized by soccer (futbol). And has vecome very good at it. Unkike America, interest in other sports is rather limited inncomparison.
We have little specific information about Spanish children's games. A HBC reader reports, "I found an interesting piece of info about the Canarian Islands. It’s about a wrestling sport fought there amongst boys. Their trousers have to be rolled up to make it easier to win. Lucha Canaria (wrestling style) of (Fuerteventura) Canary Islands, is fought on sandy surface. You are allowed to push and pull and the sand has to be touched by your feet only. Biting and beating aren’t allowed. There are many ways to bring the combatant to the ground, most notably he has to be pulled by his rolled up trousers.
There are matches each weekends against other parties and every Canarian village has its arena, in which competitions are held and bets are made, when different parties go to fight. It’s about the same popularity as football in Europe."
Football (futbol) dominates Spanish sports. Unlike the United States and Britain where there are several major sports played on a seasonal basis, Spanish kids are obsessed with football (soccer) and play it world round. Footbsll is a passion in Spain. And Spain is as a resukt now a perenial football power house. Real Madrid and Barca are footbsll dynasties. Sport was not very important in Spamnin until after World War II. Spanish boys mostly play football through clun teans rather than school programs. One exception is bull fighting which has long been a popular sport. We do not see too many Spanish sports starts outside of football, except for somne star tennis players. We are not sure, however, how commonly tennis is played. Football is, however, played in virtually every corner of the country all year found. Basketball has grown in popularity during recent years and Spanish players have ben to appear in the Nationsl Basketball Associatiion. Baskerball dors not, however, compare with the popularity of football. There are some popular golf courses, but this is not a sport many boys play. The Pyranees provides seasonal skilling. Iberia is a peninsula. Thus there are many popylar warwer sports, including sailing. The America's Cup will be hosdted in Valencia. Cycling is alsdo popular. The Tour of spain has been growing in popularity. ]We do not know to what extent girls have begin to play sports in Spain.
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