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The Sportization of Rowing and Swimming in the Tietê River (São Paulo, Brazil, 1899–1949)

2023; Routledge; Volume: 40; Issue: 2-3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/09523367.2023.2177272

1743-9035

Daniele Cristina Carqueijeiro de Medeiros,

Sports, Gender, and Society

AbstractThis research analyzes the sportization of rowing and swimming in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. The period investigated in this research − 1899 to 1949 – is one when rowing and swimming were widely practiced in the Tietê river. This research uses historical sources: minutes, official documents, and Magazines produced by the regatta’s clubs; and the newspapers A Gazeta and Correio Paulistano. Our hypothesis is that the emergence of clubs, associated with sports federations, transformed the practices of rowing and swimming in the Tietê River, turning them into sports. For rowing, the adoption of new rules followed the standardization of sports equipment. In swimming, the river crossing competitions incorporated new rules. The organization of aquatic Federations, by establishing a bureaucratic regulation, brought swimming and rowing closer to global practices. Amidst these processes, the geographic features of Tietê were a considerable barrier to the sportization of these practices. The solution proposed by the regatta clubs was to look for new spaces, such as lakes and swimming pools. We concluded that, although the aquatic practices gained sports features, they conflicted with local elements. Even though water sports developed in São Paulo were inspired by global elements, they were also influenced by local issues, such as the geography of the Tietê.Keywords: Sports historylocal historyrowingswimmingBrazil Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.FundingThis work was not supported by any funding agency.Notes1 Michael Krüger, ‘Global Perspectives on Sports and Movement Cultures: From Past to Present – Modern Sports between Nationalism, Internationalism, and Cultural Imperialism’, The International Journal of the History of Sport 32, no. 4 (2015): 519.2 Many of these analyses consider not only the arrival and the reception of the sports in the states’ capitals, but also in the countryside. Some studies dedicated to such analysis can be found in: Cleber Dias, ‘Esportes nos confins da civilização: Mato-Grosso, 1920–1930, Topoi 18, no. 34 (2017): 66–90; Evelise Amgarten Quitzau, ‘Sport in Uruguay at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century: A Perspective from the Countryside, The International Journal of the History of Sport 36, no. 11 (2019): 982–97.3 Janes Jorge, Tietê, o rio que a cidade perdeu: O Tietê em São Paulo 1890–1940 (São Paulo: Alameda, 2006), 8.4 According to Saes, São Paulo is currently the largest city in the country with more than 12 million people. In the beginning of the twentieth century the city started to emerge as a metropolis. In 1890 the city had 65 thousand people; in 1920, 600 thousand; in 1940 it surpassed the 1 million mark, rapidly outgrowing the country’s capital, Rio de Janeiro. Flavio Saes, ‘São Paulo republicana: Vida econômica’, in História da Cidade de São Paulo, ed. Alzira Lobo de Arruda Campos, vol. 3 (São Paulo: Editora Paz e Terra, 2004), 215.5 Ernani Silva Bruno, História e tradições da cidade de São Paulo, vol. 2 (Rio de Janeiro: José Olympo, 1954), 16.6 Henrique Nicolini, Tietê, o rio do esporte (São Paulo: Phorte Editora, 2001), 42.7 Pierre Arnaud, ‘Pratiques et pratiquants: Les transformation de la sociabilité sportive. L’example de Lyon et du départament du Rhône entre 1850 et 1914’, in La naissance du mouvement sportif associatif en France: Sociabilités et formes de pratiques sportives, ed. Pierre Arnaud and Jean Camy (Lyon: Presses Universitaires de Lyon, 1986), 173; Georges Vigarello, ‘S’entraîner’, in Histoire du corps, ed. Alain Corbin, Jean-Jacques Courtine, Georges Vigarello (Paris: Éditions Seuil, 2006), 197.8 Marcelo Moraes e Silva and André Mendes Capraro. ‘O tiro de Guerra 19 Rio Branco: Apontamentos acerca da institucionalização esportiva de Curitiba (1909–1910)’, Revista Brasileira de Educação Física e Esporte 29, no. 2 (2015): 229–43; Carolina Fernandes da Silva and Janice Zarpellon Mazo. ‘Uma história das instrumentalidades do esporte no campo do associativismo esportivo em Porto Alegre/RS’, Movimento 21, no. 2 (2015): 377–89.9 ‘Movimento do quadro social’, Relatório Esportivo Club Athletica S. Paulo, 1920, 9; Relazione morale e finanziaria ai soci (São Paulo, 1921), 28.10 Allen Guttmann. From ritual to record: The nature of modern sports (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004), 15.11 Krüger, ‘Global Perspectives on Sports’, 519.12 Ibid, 528.13 Many studies point to the institutionalization of rowing and swimming in European countries. Among them are: Thierry Terret, Naissance et diffusion de la natation sportive (Paris: Éditions L’Harmattan, 1994); Christopher Love. A Social History of Swimming in England, 1800–1918: Splashing the Serpentine (New York: Routledge, 2008); Eric Halladay, Rowing in England: A Social History: The Amateur Debate (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1990).14 Edivaldo Gois Jr, ‘O esporte e a modernidade em São Paulo: Práticas corporais no fim do século XIX e início do XX’, Movimento 19, no. 4 (2013): 113–14.15 Jorge, Tietê o rio, 28.16 Heloisa de Faria Cruz and Maria do Rosário da Cunha Peixoto. ‘Na oficina do historiador: Conversas sobre história e imprensa’, Projeto História 35 (2007): 263.17 Ana Luiza Martins. Revistas em revista: imprensa e práticas culturais em tempos de República, São Paulo (1890–1922) (São Paulo: EduSP, 2001), 340–54.18 Martin Johnes. ‘Archives and Historians of Sport’, The International Journal of the History of Sport 32, no. 15 (2015): 1–15.19 Douglas Booth. ‘Sities of Truth or Metaphors of Power? Refiguring the Archive’, Sport in History 26, no. 1 (2006): 91–109.20 David Kirk. ‘Physical Culture, Physical Education and Relational Analysis’, Sport, Education, and Society 4, no. 1 (1999): 63–73; Pablo Scharagrodsky, ‘Palabras Preliminares’, in Miradas médicas sobre la cultura física en Argentina (1880–1970), ed. Pablo Scharagrodsky (Buenos Aires: Prometeo, 2014), 9.21 Saes, São Paulo republicana, 215.22 Suely Queiroz, ‘Política e poder público na cidade de São Paulo (1899–1954)’, in História da Cidade de São Paulo, ed. Alzira Lobo de Arruda Campos, vol. 3 (São Paulo: Editora Paz e Terra, 2004), 15.23 Nicolau Sevcenko. Orfeu extático na metrópole: São Paulo, sociedade e cultura nos frementes anos 20 (São Paulo: Companhia das letras, 1992), 23.24 In Brazil, more specifically in Curitiba, some authors analyzed the significances tied to physical culture. They found similar relationships involving the practice of sports and entertainment and the new connections between urbanization and modernization. Marcelo Moraes e Silva, ‘Novos modos de olhar outras maneiras de se portar: A emergência do dispositivo esportivo da cidade de Curitiba’ (PhD. thesis, Faculdade de Educação, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, 2011); Marcelo Moraes e Silva and Evelise Quitzau, ‘A cultura física na cidade de Curitiba: A emergência de uma pedagogia corporal (1899–1909), Revista de Ciencias Sociales 41, (2018): 275–96.25 Gois Jr, ‘O esporte e a modernidade’, 99–100.26 Edivaldo Gois Jr, Soraya Lódola and Mark Dyreson, ‘The Rise of Modern Sport in Fin de Siècle São Paulo: Reading Elite and Bourgeois Sensibilities, the Popular Press, and the Creation of Cultural Capital, The International Journal of the History of Sport 32, no. 1 (2016): 1664–65.27 Nicolini. Tietê, o rio do esporte, 61.28 Ibid, 62.29 ‘Club Esperia’, Correio Paulistano, April 20, 1904, 3.30 ‘Hoje’, Correio Paulistano, March 14, 1907, 5.31 ‘Rowing’, Correio Paulistano, June 29, 1907, 5.32 Guttmann, From Ritual to Record, 26.33 ‘Rowing’, Correio Paulistano, May 6, 1910, 4.34 ‘Rowing’, Correio Paulistano, November 8, 1911, 7.35 ‘Ás 4 e meia horas da tarde’, Correio Paulistano, June 29, 1907, 5; ‘O resultado de diversos páreos’, Correio Paulistano, June 30, 1907, 4.36 ‘A regata de hontem’, Correio Paulistano, April 11, 1910, 4.37 Victor Andrade de Melo, ‘O mar e o remo no Rio de Janeiro do século XIX’, Estudos Históricos 13, no. 23 (1999): 55.38 ‘Federação paulista do remo’, Correio Paulistano, August 6, 1907, 4.39 In the states of Santa Catarina, Pará and Rio Grande do Sul independent leagues were also organized. Carina Sartori, ‘Na alvorada de um sport: O remo na ilha de Santa Catarina’ (master’s thesis, Centro de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, 2011); Douglas Dias and Carmen Lúcia Soares, ‘Entre velas, barcos e braçadas: Belém no espelho das águas (do final do século XIX à década de 1920)’, Projeto História 49 (2014): 19–49; Silva and Mazo, ‘Uma história das instrumentalidades’.40 Studies about the development of sports equipment technologies can be found in: Georges Vigarello. Une histoire culturelle du sport. Techniques d’hier…et d’aujourd’hui (Paris: R. Laffont, 1988)41 Vigarello, Une histoire culturelle du sport, 64–88.42 Relatorio da directoria – Club Esperia S. Paulo (São Paulo, 1906).43 Antônio Souza. Esperia 100 anos (São Paulo: Clube Esperia, 2000), 41.44 Luis Sucupira, ‘Um pouco de história da “Associação Atlética São Paulo” na comemoração do seu cinquentenário’, Resumo Histórico 1, 1964, 19.45 Jorge, Tietê o rio, 71–6.46 ‘Tempos e recordes em natação’, A Gazeta, February 19, 1925, 3.47 Vigarello, Une histoire culturelle du sport.48 ‘O concurso aquatico da Federação foi um sucesso para os nadadores do Esperia’, Revista Mensal do Clube Esperia 4, no. 1 (1929): 16.49 ‘O remo nas olimpiadas de Los Angeles’, Revista do Clube de Regatas Tietê Issue 3, nr1 (1935): 27.50 Jorge, Tietê o rio, 198.51 ‘Natação’, Correio Paulistano, February 27, 1898, 2.52 Ibid.53 Ibid.54 This debate can be found in some club magazines’ articles. ‘A questão dos campeonatos de natação e polo aquático’, Revista Mensal do Clube Esperia 9, no. 1 (1929): 8. In addition, there is a study that specifically analyzes the relationships between sports practice and the morals attributed to them by regatta clubs. Daniele Medeiros, André Dalben and Carmen Soares, ‘Education through sports in São Paulo city (1920–1936), Cadernos de Historia da Educação 21, no. 1 (2022): e065.55 This discussion is based on Terret’s research about swimming in France. According to him, the sportization of swimming in France was not the result of existing practices transformations, but a consequence of a cultural implementation. It was imposed with the purpose of erasing other practices, including traditional swimming. Terret. Naissance et diffusion.56 ‘Club Esperia’, Correio Paulistano, April 20, 1904, 3.57 Souza. Esperia 100 anos, 74.58 Vigarello. S’entraîner, 197–250.59 Love. A Social History of Swimming, 9.60 Terret. Naissance et diffusion, 124.61 Many authors studied the river and seas crossing competitions in Brazil. Daniele Medeiros and Nara Montenegro, ‘Entre rios, mares e piscinas: A natação nas cidades de São Paulo e Fortaleza (décadas de 1920 a 1940)’, Conexões 18, no. 1 (2020): e020039; Lygia Bahia, Maria Cecília Silva, ‘Relações de gênero no. esporte: “O belo sexo” na competição de natação em mar aberto – travessia mar grande – Salvador, Bahia, Brasil’, Movimento 24, no. 2 (2018): 569–80; Silva and Mazo, ‘Uma história das instrumentalidades’.62 Vigarello, ‘Stades. Le spectacle sportif des tribunes aux écrans’, in Histoire du corps, ed. Alain Corbin, Jean-Jacques Courtine, Georges Vigarello, Vol. 3 (Paris: Éditions Seuil, 2006), 343.63 ‘A II travessia de S. Paulo a nado’, A Gazeta, December 10, 1925, 5.64 ‘A IV travessia de S. Paulo a nado’, Correio Paulistano, December 07, 1927, 8.65 Daniele Medeiros, Evelise Quitzau and Marcelo Moraes e Silva, ‘A Travessia de São Paulo a Nado (1924–1944) e o processo de esportivização aquática paulistana’, História questões e debates 68, no. 37 (2020), 88.66 Guttmann, From Ritual to Record, 40–4.67 ‘A questão das piscinas’, A Gazeta, February 20, 1925, 3.68 Terret and Wiltse developed the idea that the pool standardized sports movements. Terret. Naissance et diffusion; Jeff Wiltse. Contested Waters: A Social History of Swimming Pools in America (North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 2007).69 Jorge, Tietê o rio, 2870 Guttmann, From Ritual to Record.71 Marisa Carpintéro, ‘Arte, técnica e política na trajetória de Francisco Prestes Maia’, Urbana 5, no. 2 (2013), 8.72 ‘O que a retificação do tietê póde significar para os clubes da Ponte Grande’, Revista do Clube de Regatas Tietê Vol. 3, no. 1 (1940): 2.73 Jorge, Tietê o rio, 198.74 ‘A torcida do Tietê’, CR Tietê Revista Commemorativa da Inauguração da Pisicina 1, no. 1 (1934): 46; ‘Club de Regatas S. Paulo’, Correio Paulistano, August 9, 1904, p. 4; ‘Grupo C.R.T., Revista do Clube de Regatas Tietê 1, no. 5 (1936): 10.75 In São Paulo, the Clube Germania was located on the banks of the Pinheiros River and, at one time, promoted rowing activities on its waters. However, the river was never used for official competitions.76 Krüger, ‘Global Perspectives on Sports’; Gois Jr ‘O esporte e a modernidade’77 Georges Vigarello. Du jeu ancien au show sportif: La naissance d’un mythe (Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 2002), 61–4; 78–9.Additional informationNotes on contributorsDaniele Cristina Carqueijeiro de MedeirosDaniele Cristina Carqueijeiro de Medeiros obtained her PhD in education at the State University of Campinas-Unicamp (Brazil). She currently teaches at the Higher Institute of Physical Education of the University of the Republic, in Paysandú, Uruguay. Her research focuses on the history of aquatic sports in Brazil, and sports geography.