Other Sports in Chile

Although horse racing and football were the most popular sports at the time (and indeed, football is still the most popular sport in Chile), other activities like polo, golf, hockey, and cricket were also enjoyed within the British community. The Anglophone newspapers regularly posted information about matches, teams and individual players, leagues, and cash prizes. As the most recent of our papers, The Star of Chile provides abundant information on the sporting activities of the English-speaking residents (who, by this point, were not necessarily of British or American origin, since the colony became increasingly hybrid across the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries). 

The Star of Chile also published regular stories about the sporting events taking place in what was still referred to as “Home”: Britain. Although by this point, many English-speaking residents may have married into Chilean families and assimilated within Chilean culture, sports still served as a powerful bridge between colonists and the imperial center.

Over the centuries, the sporting industry continues to flourish in Chile, so does the passion for sports. Our newspaper archive provides evidence of the ways that sports brought to the country by foreign immigrants were ultimately adopted by Chileans as well, contributing to a hybrid national identity that integrates influences from across the globe.