Keeping the Game of the Gods Alive

Keeping the Game of

the Gods Alive

‘Pelota Mixteca,’ a Sport with Ancient Roots,

Thrives in Santa Barbara

By Ryan P. Cruz | Photos by Ingrid Bostrom | March 23, 2023

FLY BALL: Venancio López launches the ball to the opposing side. During matches, players will smack the ball hundreds of feet in the air across the field. | Credit: Ingrid Bostrom

Pelota mixteca, an ancient ball game with roots stretching back thousands of years and thousands of miles to pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica — a sport nearly snuffed out of existence when the Spanish took control of the region in the 16th century — is alive and thriving here on the Central Coast, thanks to a group of locals who brought the tradition with them to Santa Barbara from Oaxaca.

*LOS AMIGOS PELOTEROS*: Santa Barbara’s *pelota mixteca* team, from top left, Esteban Castillo, Venancio López, Genaro Cruz, Ramon Cruz, Ernesto Garcia, Julio López, Angel López, and Arturo Pacheco | Credit: Ingrid Bostrom

They call it El Juego de los Dioses, or The Game of the Gods, and it resembles a higher-flying five-on-five version of tennis, where instead of a racket, each player is outfitted with a 10-pound, metal-studded leather glove used to smack a three-pound rubber ball hundreds of feet in the air, back and forth in a dizzying spectacle of power and precision.

It’s a game full of legends and lore, where distinguished members of societies and warriors with names like Garro de Tigre (Tiger’s Claw) and Pata de Perro (slang for “barefoot,” because he played the game without any shoes) represented their territories in epic battles for power, and where modern Oaxacan pelota players are bigger than celebrities in their villages.