Indigenous Mexican softball team fights against machismo

Her simple desire to play sports was also a major fight for women's rights as she fought against the conservative social mores of her rural Mexican village, captured in the film "Las Amazonas de Yaxunah," premiering at the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival on Sunday.

The documentary focuses on Canul and the softball team she formed in her small, Indigenous hamlet -- and their push against the stifling machismo culture that saw their participation in sports as an affront.

On a makeshift field, Canul and her team played with a baseball she took from her husband, ditching their sandals to run faster barefoot and carving a bat from a tree.

"My husband told us it's not okay for women to go out and play -- what will people say?" Canul told AFP.

"I told him that doesn't matter to me."

As a young child she had a passion for baseball, a hugely popular sport in Latin America.

But in her teenage years, her desire to play sports ran up against a culture that considered a woman's proper place to be in the house, the mother of four said.

So she gave up the idea of playing sports, until years later, in 2017, when a government program helping to fight against obesity organized Zumba lessons in her jungle town.

The softball team became so controversial that some of the players' marriages fell apart.

Canul ran into her own roadblocks -- such as her husband asking her to cook dinner right when she was about to go play.

"There's food in the pan, I'm leaving," she would respond as she told her son to grab the bats and gloves.
Viral fame
The Amazonas' fame escaped a the thick jungles of the Yucatan peninsula thanks to a viral video, and soon more cameras were arriving to capture the women playing ball in huipil, a traditional dress made famous by Frida Kahlo.

US sports juggernaut ESPN soon caught wind of the story, with a producer tapping documentary filmmaker Alfonso Algara to work on the project.

"It was a super conservative community, where literally a few years ago they still couldn't go out in the street alone," he said.

Women weren't even allowed to vote, Canul said, with their husbands demanding they hand over their IDs on election day.

But slowly, softball has helped change everything.

"Between four years ago and now, there is a big difference. We are slowly undoing the machismo," said Sitlali Poot, team captain and Canul's daughter-in-law.

"We have made it clear to most of the men that we also have the opportunity to go out and play, to get to know each other, to have fun, because to play softball or baseball is to unite the family."

Her husband has been swayed as well -- and is now the team manager.

Canul's husband died a year and a half ago, but he also came around, she said, telling her he felt "proud" of her.

"I am thankful that before he passed away he accepted that I can play softball with my children," she said.

With the team's fame has come invitations to play internationally, including in the United States.

"It doesn't matter if we win or lose," Poot said at a match against a local high school in California on Friday to promote the film.

"The important thing is that we show we know how to play."

"Las Amazonas de Yaxunah," featuring narration by Oscar-nominated Mexican actress Yalitza Aparicio, will be available on ESPN in English and Spanish this fall.