Women on the court: The rise, repression and obscurity of professional female pelota players (1917–1980)

Abstract

The Madrid pelota court opened in January 1917. There, sixteen women star- ted a new type of pelota which was played professionally by thousands of women for 63 consecutive years. Linked to a system of simultaneous betting, racket pelota became an industry, with more than thirty courts operating in Spain, Cuba, Brazil and Mexico, and with training schools located across the Basque Country, where most of the players came from. Based on material archives and informal interviews, this article examines the historical and cultural conditions which created the possibilities for this new female sport to emerge. It also explores its paradoxical development during the Franco’ regime and its disappearance and subsequent obscurity in the early 1980s.