Abstract

This article examines the central role of sports media in the discussions about national sports programmes at the peak of Latin American populism, particularly during the governments of Juan Peron in Argentina (1946-55) and Carlos Ibanez in Chile (1952-8). By exploring sports publications such as the Argentine magazines Mundo Deportivo and El Grafico and the Chilean weekly Estadio, I argue that sports media staged stories and images that were both inspired by, and critical of, the larger populist projects in Argentina and Chile. Photographers and cartoonists, often in collaboration with sports-writers, produced and crafted populist ideas about class collaboration, the inclusion of children in the state project and women's participation in politics.