Artistic gymnastics in Uruguay (1937 - 1942) (Research Advance)

This work arises from the review of documents of the Uruguayan Gymnastics Federation (FUG), which attest to its beginnings and first steps in the period of time between the years 1937 and 1942. Trying to rebuild the Federation as a driving and regulating entity of artistic gymnastics (GA) at the national level is interesting in the understanding that the institution exists as long as there are people who inhabit it, that is, who practice gymnastics. The GA implies a very specific bodily development, as long as its movements are not autochthonous: they originate in other environments, and their insertion in our society responds to more general interests, related to education in general and the body in particular. Following Aisenstein (2009) "to study something from the historical point of view is to know it in its process of change" (p. 169), it also allows us to understand and legitimize its place in our country. We intend to compile the main events that could have marked the development of sport in our environment, inquiring about its process of institutionalization and sporting. From the analysis of books of minutes of the board of directors, technical commission, various documentation (letters, reports, regulations and results of championships) and photographs from the archive of the National Commission of Physical Education (National Secretariat of Sport); We will try to answer some questions: What were the main characteristics of the process of deportivization of the GA in Uruguay between 1937 and 1942? What was the contribution of the different actors or organizations in this process? How were the regulatory frameworks developed for the implementation of activities related to GA in that period? Some considerations The creation of the FUG is constituted as part of the process of deportivization (Vigarello, Holt, 2005) of practices that were being developed in Uruguay in the first decades of the 20th century. Its foundation reveals the existence of institutions of diverse origin (collectives of immigrants from European countries, state gymnasiums and military schools). The founding act (1938) evidences the interest of those summoned in "constituting a gymnastics corporation that, bringing together the existing entities in our environment, will promote its dissemination and development" Activities only related to men's GA are recorded, with tournaments and exhibitions in gyms and beaches in Montevideo being the main events mentioned. The apparatus used are the traditional ones of the modality: pommel horse, parallel bars, rings and fixed bar, free and compulsory routines were performed on them, also proposing team calisthenics exercises. The main difficulties for the implementation of the competitions lay in the disagreements in the creation of routines and their regulations, product of the ignorance of international regulations.