MEXICO CITY.- Deep in the misty jungle of Veracruz, surrounded by birdsong and the cries of howler monkeys, a new documentary by Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History begins with the sound and memory of one of Mesoamerica’s oldest traditions: the ballgame.
Titled The Ancestral Ballgame: The Cosmos in a Sacred Game, the documentary brings together more than three thousand years of history, ritual and cultural continuity. Produced by INAH TV, the film explores the origins, symbolism and living legacy of a practice that was never merely a sport. For ancient Mesoamerican peoples, the ballgame was a sacred act connected to the cosmos, the renewal of life, political power, fertility, war and communication with the gods.
The documentary was presented on July 1, 2026, at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. It forms part of the cultural programming created around the Mundial Social, an initiative that uses the global attention surrounding soccer to reflect on Mexico’s much older relationship with the ball.
Ana Galicia Zamora, director of Outreach at INAH’s National Coordination of Dissemination and director of the documentary, explained that the project grew out of 39 video capsules produced for the occasion. Those short pieces, released day by day, have now been brought together into a broader narrative that invites viewers to look beyond modern stadiums and into the deep ceremonial roots of ball play in Mesoamerica.
The film begins with one of the most extraordinary pieces of evidence: ancient rubber balls discovered in Mesoamerica, among the oldest known in the world, dating back more than three thousand years. From there, it follows the development of the ballgame across regions, centuries and cultures.
The documentary visits some of the most significant places linked to the practice, including El Manatí in Veracruz, where some of the earliest rubber balls were found, and the tunnel of the Temple of the Feathered Serpent in Teotihuacan. It also looks at the great network of ballcourts that once stretched from the southern United States to Central America. More than 2,500 courts have been documented, a sign of the game’s enormous importance across Mesoamerica.
Among the most notable examples are the monumental court at Chichén Itzá, the largest in the Maya world; Cantona, in Puebla, which has 27 courts; private courts such as the one at Atzompa, in Oaxaca; and early examples such as Teopantecuanitlán, in Guerrero.
For Mariana Toledo Mendieta, deputy director of Cultural Promotion at the National Museum of Anthropology, the documentary opens a door into one of the most meaningful cultural practices of ancient Mesoamerica. The courts, she noted, were places where ideas about the universe, time, life and the sacred were expressed.
Jesús Torres Peralta, from the Teotihuacan Archaeological Zone, emphasized that the ballgame reveals how pre-Hispanic peoples understood life as an integrated whole. Unlike today, when sport, art and religion are often treated as separate worlds, the ballgame brought them together. It could be a ritual, a symbolic reenactment of cosmic creation, a political act and even a way of resolving conflict.
The documentary also examines the making of the balls themselves, produced from the sap of the rubber tree, as well as the equipment used by players, including yokes, axes and palmas. It turns to pictographic manuscripts such as the Borgia, Selden, Tudela and Nuttall codices, along with the Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca, to show how the game was represented and remembered.
Importantly, the film also addresses subjects that broaden the conventional view of the ballgame, including the participation of women, the orientation and symbolism of the courts, and the survival of traditional ball sports among Indigenous communities today. These include games practiced by Purépecha, Ñuu Savi and Rarámuri peoples, as well as ulama in Sinaloa, a living descendant of the ancient ritual.
With The Ancestral Ballgame: The Cosmos in a Sacred Game, INAH offers more than a historical overview. It presents the ballgame as a living thread that connects ancient cities, sacred landscapes, Indigenous memory and contemporary Mexico.
The documentary will premiere soon on several public television channels and on INAH TV’s YouTube channel. A presentation of the project will also take place on July 9, 2026, at 7:00 p.m., at the Audiovideorama in Parque Hundido, Avenida Insurgentes s/n, Colonia Extremadura Insurgentes, Benito Juárez, Mexico City.
