"Hip, Hip, Hip: Hurrah, Por Club Atlético De Cuba": The CAC, American Football, and National Identity

Sport participation and success can challenge power dynamics and foster collective identity. In the wake of the second U.S. occupation, two Cuban League baseball clubs won several international contests in November and December of 1909 including two series against the reigning American League champion Detroit Tigers. Considered national victories, these wins suggested the quality of Cuban baseball was on par with U.S. major and minor leagues and by extension opened the possibility of Cubans being treated as peers in other areas. Baseball diamonds were not the only battlegrounds; U.S. and Cuban teams also met on the gridiron.

On New Year’s Day 1910, the Club Atlético de Cuba football team defeated Tulane University’s varsity squad by a score of 11 to 0 at Almendares Park. This victory marked the first Cuban win against a U.S. team in an American football game. Continuing into the 1910s and 1920s, Atlético built a reputation for strong performances against U.S. colleges, universities, and athletic clubs, earning the nickname the glorioso arananjado and the label los defensores del honor nacional. Similar to Cuban baseball success, newspaper accounts framed the C.A.C.’s wins as national triumphs proving Cubans can compete against U.S. opponents and should be considered equals.

My paper will examine Club Atlético de Cuba, its American football team, and conceptions of Cuban national identity. It will address the C.A.C.’s place in the Havana social athletic club culture and how its American football games against U.S. teams promoted Cuban collective identity, challenged negative stereotypes, and displayed Cuban inclusion in modern North American sport culture. Drawing from U.S. and Cuban archival and media research, and secondary literature, my paper will contribute to our understanding of the transnational nature of American football and its place in Cuba.