‘We Have Persons with a Passion for Both the Sea and the Land’: The First Representations of Sport in the Brazilian Press (Rio de Janeiro; 1851–1855)

Abstract

Just as occurred in various countries, the British were responsible for the initial moments of the practice of sport in Brazil. Back in the first decades of the nineteenth century, in the capital, Rio de Janeiro, the first events were held, especially horse races. In fact, despite the importance of these pioneering initiatives, it was only as of the transition from the 1840s to the 1850s that the field of sport began to be definitively delineated in the capital, the occurrence having been published by the press, especially by chroniclers, who kept a watchful eye on how the city was rapidly changing. Taking these initial considerations into account, the aim of this article was to discuss the presence of sport in Rio de Janeiro, as of the early years of the second half of the nineteenth century (1851–1855), based on the representations of three pioneers of Brazilian chronicling: José Maria Paranhos, Francisco Otaviano and José de Alencar. The chronicles by Francisco Picot and Justiniano da Rocha were also used, as they followed up on the series by the first two chroniclers above.