Quiotepec en Wisconsin brings Oaxacan basketball fever to the Midwest

Scores of camping chairs and event tents surrounded the basketball courts at Elver Park on Madison’s west side on a day in late June. The smell of carne asada rode a light breeze as basketballs arced through the air against the backdrop of thick summer clouds.

The crowd was gathered for Quiotepec en Wisconsin, a basketball tournament hosted annually for more than 10 years.

Event organizer Guillermo Martinez Melgar said while participating teams tend to be from the Midwest, some come from as far as California. The thing that connects them all, he said, is their shared roots in Oaxaca, Mexico.

A total of 14 men’s and 6 women’s teams appeared in the tournament. Over 100 players from Madison, Milwaukee, Green Bay, Arcadia, Sparta, Minneapolis and Chicago traveled to Madison to compete for cash prizes.

Representing Oaxaca in Madison

Angelica Navarro Gomez is the captain of Madison-based team Las Alebrijes, which has played together for three years.

“It started off with one of our friends, Itzel and her sister,” she said. “There were no girls playing [in the tournament], and she decided ‘Hey, how about we make a team?’”

Las Alebrijes had never played basketball before, but saw it as an opportunity to grow.

“We just never looked back,” Navarro Gomez said.

Her sister, Marisela Gomez Castellano, said Oaxaqueños are known within Mexico for their special interest in basketball.

The region hosts a decades-old tournament called La Copa Benito Juárez, named after Mexico’s first indigenous president. That tournament attracts teams from across Oaxaca and the Mexican diaspora in the United States.

“I think there is a lot of pride in representing where you are from,” she said in Spanish.

Gomez Castellano said playing basketball in Oaxaca is tied to the community’s indigenous identity. 

Soccer is widely accepted as the favorite sport in Mexico. The country has hosted the World Cup more than any other nation in the tournament’s 100-year history. But in the Sierra Norte region of Mexico, basketball is the unchallenged favorite. 

In the 1930s, Mexican president Lázaro Cárdenas introduced basketball as a method of folding the indigenous communities that resided in the mountainous region into Mexico’s wider national identity. Basketball has smaller courts than soccer, which are easier to build in the region’s terrain. While Cárdenas’ vision did not come to fruition — most indigenous communities remain isolated — basketball became a tradition and a part of indigenous identity itself.

Indigenous identity is still represented through the sport today. Las Alebrijes named themselves after the sculptures of mythical creatures that artisans carve in Oaxaca.

Tournament continues despite fear of immigration enforcement 

While the community feels pride in bringing their customs to Madison, she said this year felt different.

“Right now, it looks a little empty with everything going on with immigration,” she said in Spanish. “People didn’t want to come because they were afraid of not knowing what could happen.”

Increased enforcement by ICE across the country and in Wisconsin is driving Latinos to be more cautious about how they show up in the community. Gomez Castellano said it has driven the community to have more “underground” and “low key” gatherings. 

“So [at the tournament] you see the absence of the crowd, the absence of the community,” she said in Spanish. “And though we have some people here, you don’t feel the same energy and vibe as when everyone is present.”

Despite being “a little scared,” Gomez Castellano and organizers decided to publicize the Quiotepec tournament. 

“I think we’re trying to resist and we’re trying our best,” she said.

For Gomez Castellano, resisting looked like showing up and participating, in spite of what could happen.

“I think that’s also beautiful and inspiring to see that regardless of all the fear and the violence that our community is facing, they’re still showing up and being positive about it,” she said.

Guillermo Martinez Melgar, the event organizer, said he hopes that the culture he and his community built will continue to grow. 

“I would like it if there were more of these events throughout the year,” he said in Spanish. “I invite anyone to step up and host more events like this.”

After being sent to the losers’ bracket, Madison’s Las Alebrijes climbed back into the regular bracket to defeat Quitotepec Minnesota and become women’s champions. Milwaukee’s Sierra Mixe took first place in the men’s bracket.

“Wisconsin Life” is a co-production of Wisconsin Public Radio and PBS Wisconsin. The project celebrates what makes the state unique through the diverse stories of its people, places, history and culture.