ABSTRACT
Analyzing travel books and memoirs, a number of official documents and especially local newspapers, all available in the Mato Grosso State Archives, the National Library in Rio de Janeiro, and the Army Archive, this paper examines the history of sports in Mato Grosso in the 1920s, a period corresponding to a social and geographic expansion of these practices in the region. The historical development of the sport in Mato Grosso, articulated with a rising mass entertainment market, was linked to broader and structural changes affecting the region at the time, such as changes in gender relations, intensification of civil organizations, and economic and demographic growth.
Keywords:
History; sports; leisure; culture; Mato Grosso.