MEXICO CITY — One year ago, Carolina Altamirano left her home in Oaxaca City, Mexico, where she had been skateboarding for nine years, in search of opportunities to grow her skateboarding career.
In years past, this would have required moving to Los Angeles or New York City. Or even Barcelona, Spain. Altamirano, however, moved to Mexico City.
“There’s a lot of skate parks, and they’re building more,” she said of the city, which has quickly become an international destination for the sport and an incubator for an impressive roster of athletes as the skateboarding scene blooms. “The skateboarding community is strong here. If you come across someone you don’t know who is carrying a skateboard, they will greet you and talk to you.”
Itzel Granados, who is one of the top-ranked skateboarders and a bit of a celebrity in Mexico City’s skate parks, is one of them. In November, Granados, 20, finished in second place at the Junior Pan American Games women’s street competition. Prior to that, she was third in Exposure’s skateboarding contest. She hopes to qualify for 2024 Paris Olympics, where skateboarding will be the second sport in the Games.
When Granados began skating, there weren’t any skateboarding schools in the area. Now, she’s in good company. Mujeres en Patineta (Women on Skateboards), a group of women-led schools, are gaining popularity in the city. They offer classes to girls of all ages and from low-income backgrounds.
“The skateboarding scene is centralized in Mexico City, a city that is home to the best skate parks in our country,” Mariana Muñoz, the director of Mujeres en Patineta, said. “The social openness that exists here, as well as the women’s movement, have allowed women’s skate to grow in an unprecedented way.”
The city’s newfound status as a skateboarding paradise was hard won. Olga Aguilar has been documenting Mexico City’s skateboarding scene since the 1980s. She said that accessibility was a major problem. “The first problem was that it was hard to find a skateboard,” she said. “There wasn’t a skate shop. If you knew someone who was going on vacation to the States you would give them money so that they could bring it home. It was also expensive at the time.”
Skateboarding had a stigma for women that Aguilar, others are slowly removing. Skateboarding was considered male-oriented, so women were not allowed to participate.
“We had to hide our skateboards because our mom didn’t want us to skate,” Aguilar said. “There was not a skate park at the time. There were no places to learn in the late 1970s. It had to be on the street.”
In an effort to improve public spaces, the Mexican government built skate parks in the 1980s. The tide has changed in the decades since. The scene is growing in diversity.
“The atmosphere changed when availability and skate shops were opening. Nowadays, there’s access for everyone to get a skateboard, and it’s not looked at as it was before,” Aguilar said.
Oscar Meza, a Mexican skater, returned to Mexico City last year after spending most his adult life in Los Angeles. “This city is providing a real raw new generation of people really enjoying skateboarding. I felt like I was losing that in a way.”
Meza, a Mexican skateboarder, felt some discomfort as a teenager in Los Angeles. “They thought we were like weirdos. Like you’re doing a white kid sport.” But as he has grown older, he’s watched the sport become embraced and flourish in his community. “Now it’s like you’re not cool if you don’t skate,” he said.
Meza stated that Mexico City’s architecture and unique building styles make for a thrilling place to skateboard. However, Meza added that the police and security personnel sometimes have to intervene.
“In Los Angeles, you go to a spot, and the handrails are the exact same size. Everything is regulated. That doesn’t exist here,” he said.
International interest grows as the Mexican skateboarding scene develops. It has become a popular travel destination for both professional skateboarders and sponsors. Nike Skateboarding and the Mexican government built an Aztec-inspired skatepark in 2014 to encourage young skateboarders to use the park. Vans constructed a skate park and an event space in Mexico City’s Mixcoac neighbourhood in early December.
Granados is at the front, even though she has experienced a speed bump over the past year. Last summer, while qualifying in Rome to host the Tokyo Olympics, Granados fell and lost her chance. “I hit my head,” she said. “Three medics told me: ‘You can’t compete. You can’t do this.’ And that was it.”
This setback has not stopped her from moving forward. She is keeping up the pace with the Mexican City growth of her sport. There is increasing industry interest and government support. Granados hopes to skate for years to come, until, she said: “I break my knees and really can’t do it anymore. Until then, I will keep skating.”
She will also have more places to learn, along with a growing skater community like Altamirano.
“I love it,” Granados said of training in Mexico City. “It has parks for beginners to skate and intermediate and advanced levels. I think that’s what makes a skate park perfect, no? When it’s for everyone.”
Source: NY Times
