| Summary: | In the period from 1902 to 1910, the Mexican branch of the Young Men's
Christian Association (YMCA) attracted a large Spanish-speaking membership composed
primarily of urban white-collar employees or empleados. The Association's Mexican
members found the YMCA useful in the pursuit their own social objectives. First, the
Association provided Mexican empleados with a means to promote the formation of a
new national identity through the transformation of cultural practices. The encouragement
of sporting activity became a primary element in this program. Second, the YMCA
provided a platform from which the Mexican members proclaimed their collective political
power and distinct identity. Public athletic demonstrations provided the most prominent
means of making these assertions.
In pursuing these two objectives, the Association's empleado members
constructed sexual identity alongside nationality and class. As a result, they frequently
utilized concepts of gender to produce rhetorical effects in their assertions of national and
class identity. The Association's empleado members consequently sought a masculine
national identity in the hope of attaining a new and more powerful position within the
community of nations. The linkages established between these elements of identity also
enabled Mexican Association members to project a "male" class identity. The
establishment of this collective "persona" enabled their attainment of visibility within the
public sphere and the assertion of their combined political power.
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