An Ancient Ballgame Makes A Comeback In Mexico
Ulama is a pre-Columbian team sport played with a solid rubber ball that's bounced off players' hips. In olden times, the game is said to have decided the winners of wars.
Drums rumble between the stone walls lining the court. An ancient ritual is underway. The smell of incense wafts across the concrete, as wiry men and a woman wearing leather waist wraps and headbands volley a ball back and forth. They use only their hip bone to hit it.
Emmanuel Kalakot tilts his head back and blows into a conch shell horn. The sound echoes off the brick walls of the apartment complex next door. For an instant, this doesn't really feel like 2018.
"It's not so much about returning to a moment that once was," says Kalakot, 40. "But we want to take something that was great in its time and make it great again, in a new, contemporary way."
Kalakot is leading a small group of players in the return of.
