How does sports participation impact human culture? Through discussion, photography and video, cultural anthropologist Ramirez Rios will share how basketball is used by indigenous migrants from Oaxaca, Southern Mexico to create community and promote identity in the US and Mexico. Many migrant populations are marginalized and exploited because of their social and political status, so basketball is one way Oaxacan migrants withstand their daily struggles. Through the case of Oaxacan migrants and basketball, Ramirez Rios demonstrates how anthropology can offer a deeper understanding of sports and provide insight into current immigration debates.

Bernardo Ramírez Ríos, a third generation Mexican-American from Sacramento, CA, is a visiting faculty member at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY.  His parents, who were heavily involved in the Chicano/a movement in California, instilled his interest in equality and social justice.  An anthropologist of sports and Mexican immigration, Ramírez Ríos has conducted fieldwork in Oaxaca, Mexico and Southern California with indigenous Mexicans in Spanish, English, and the Mixtec language.  His publications include Torneo Transnacional: Shooting Hoops in Oaxacalifornia (PAST Foundation Press, 2011) and the photographic essay La Copa Benito Juárez: Oaxaqueño Basketball in the USA and Mexico (CMA, 2014).  http://www.skidmore.edu/anthropology/faculty/ramirez-rios.php