José Sánchez Somoano: A school physical education teacher between Madrid and Mexico (1887-1913)

Abstract

At the tumultuous political and nationalist crossroads of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the formation of the different systems of gymnastics and physical education in both Europe and America represented an area of remarkable and highly-debated technical and ideological controversies. In the circumstances of that time, some professional gymnasts tried their luck in other countries and in doing so exported knowledge of the different gymnastic methods, and also tried to move closer to aspirations of progress and modernity in the host countries. One of these professionals was José Sánchez y González de Somoano, a Spanish gymnastics teacher who had a close professional link to Mexico during the second presidency of General Porfirio Díaz. His work as founder and director of the gymnasium at the teacher training college, the Escuela Normal de Profesores de México, from 1887 to 1889, has meant that his prominence, unmentioned until  now in the history of education, has been restored as an object of study in this article, through a revealing biography and bibliographical research on some of his most iconic works. A critical analysis of these works, within the historical context of his work, enables us to address the analogies and differences in the development and conceptualisation of physical education in Spain and Mexico . Furthermore, , the information presented is significantly representative, providing a glimpse of the social and cultural context of the time as well as the transcontinental relationship that existed between the two countries.