Traditional Asturian Sports

Mouguias · Post by **Mouguias** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 5:16 am

I think no one has talked in the forum about traditional sports, am I wrong? In any case, I think the most popular and appealing sports in Asturias traditionally were bolos (bowling), baltu, (wrestling) and carreres de cintes (ribbon races, that is, horse races).
Wrestling, bowling and horse races, quite like in the US, uh?
http://www.asturies.com/belenos/memoria ... vida25.htm

Post by **Art** » Fri Oct 22, 2004 12:29 am

Hi, Mouguais,

Miguel Angel posted a detailed message about bolos quite a while back: http://www.asturianus.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=190
Unfortunately, it was never translated. (Would you be interested in doing that? I'd be happy to change your status to being a translator.)

I don't think we have many bolos players in the US, I've never seen it here, although it must exist in the more densely Asturian areas (like Tampa, Florida and around Bayonne, Elizabeth, and Newark, NJ). I have seen Italian-Americans play bocce.

In the US, I think of the most popular sports as being baseball and football. But the truth is that--especially in recent years--there are many sports and each has fans.

I'd guess that some sports are favored by the young (skateboarding, snowboarding) and others by the older (golf, racquetball, squash). I think, too that some tend to be seen as working class sports (bowling, wrestling, boxing) and some upper-middle class (golf, lacrosse, snow skiing, tennis). Of course, this is pretty variable.

---------------

Hola, Mouguais,

Hace mucho tiempo Miguel Angel puso un mensaje detallado sobre bolos aquí: http://www.asturianus.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=190 Lamentablemente, nunca fue traducido. (¿Estarías interesado en traducirlo? Sería feliz cambiar su categoría a "traductor".)

No pienso que tenemos muchos jugadores de bolos en EU, nunca lo he visto aquí, aunque debe existir en las áreas más densamente asturianas (como Tampa, Florida y alrededor de Bayonne, Elizabeth, y Newark, NJ). He visto a Americanos-Italianos jugando bocce.

En EU, pienso que los deportes más populares son béisbol y fútbol. Pero la verdad es que - sobre todo en años recientes - hay muchos deportes y cada uno tiene admiradores.

Adivinaría que algunos deportes son favorecidos por los jóvenes (el monopatinaje [skateboarding], haciendo surf de nieve [snowboarding]) y otros por los más viejos (golf, racquetball, squash). Pienso, también que unos deportes tienden a ser vistos de la clase obrera (bolos, lucha, boxeo) y alguna clase alta - media (golf, lacrosse, esquí de nieve, tenis). Desde luego, es muy variable.

Terechu · Post by **Terechu** » Fri Oct 22, 2004 5:22 pm

Art, I may be wrong, but I believe that Mouguías was being tongue-in-cheek when comparing our rural sports to yours: "bolos" to American high-tech bowling, "baltu" to your million-dollar wrestling shows and "carreras de cintes" to your million-dollar horse races.

We are so low-tech, but I do love those rural Asturianos with their huge hands and straightforward ways.
--------------------------------------

Art, puede que me equivoque, pero creo que Mouguías pretendía ser sarcástico cuando comparó nuestros deportes rurales con los vuestros: nuestros bolos con el Bowling americano de alta tecnología, baltu con los espectáculos millonarios de lucha libre americana y las carreras de cintas con vuestras carreras de caballos millonarias.

Somos de baja tecnología, pero me encantan los asturianos rurales con sus manos como remos y sus modales directos.

Terechu

Post by **Art** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 3:00 am

Ha! That could be!

What are "las carreras de cintas"? And ribbons on race horses? What's that?

-----------

¡Ja! Puede ser.

¿Qué son "las carreras de cintas"? ¿Y caballos de carrera llevando cintas? ¿Qué es?

steve garcia · Post by **steve garcia** » Fri Nov 12, 2004 8:43 pm

Glad I found this website! In St. Louis Missouri (Carondelet neighborhood) there is a organization called the Spanish Society (Sociedad Espanola). I believe it is still active though most of the Asturian Immigrants and founding members have long passed away. They played two games there, Rana and Llave. Rana was played in the winter and is a table with a cast iron frog in the middle with its mouth open. Metal disks (fichas?) are thrown at the frogs mouth. Llave was played in the summer. The llave is a spike with metal wings on it that is the target. Are these games Asturian in nature and has anyone else heard of these games being played today?

Terechu · Post by **Terechu** » Sat Nov 13, 2004 3:25 am

Hi Steve and welcome to the forum!
Rana and llave are both Asturian, but I have also seen rana tables in the province of Biscay (Basque Country) - I suppose it's rather an invention of iron mill or foundry workers, because making an iron frog was a bit beyond the skills of a rural blacksmith. Asturias and Biscay used to produce all of Spain's iron and steel and its workers were pretty much connected.

Cheers
Terechu

Terechu · Post by **Terechu** » Sat Nov 13, 2004 3:40 am

Art wrote:Ha! That could be!

What are "las carreras de cintas"? And ribbons on race horses? What's that?

-----------

¡Ja! Puede ser.

¿Qué son "las carreras de cintas"? ¿Y caballos de carrera llevando cintas? ¿Qué es?

Art, I believe this post of yours has been overlooked. Carreras de cintas are not exclusively Asturian, in fact they are held all over Spain and Italy.
I found this site from a town in the Community of Extremadura that includes some good video clips where you can see how it's done:

http://nuestramusica.unex.es/lastorres/ ... mate_a.htm

If you look at the whole thing you realize it's another wonderful mating ritual. The village beauty gets the fittest young man.

Terechu

Post by **Art** » Tue Nov 16, 2004 3:40 am

Thanks, Terechu. That does explain these horse races pretty well!

----------

Gracias, Terechu. Es verdad. ¡Esta página explica las carreras de cintas bien!