The team is called Las Amazonas de Yaxunah. They've defied gender stereotypes to become sports heroes. And these women and teens play the game wearing traditional Maya dresses — and no shoes.,
Sitlali Yovana Poot Dzib, 20 , captain of The Amazonas of Yaxunah, high fives her teammates after a home run in a game played on Sept. 10. The indigenous women on the team live in the small Maya community of Yaxunah in Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. They wear traditional Maya garb when they play — and eschew shoes.garb, 20-year-old Sitlali Yovana Poot Dzib steps up to the plate, wiggling her bat overhead as she faces the pitch.
"Our lives are different now," says Poot, who is married and cares for numerous nephews while undertaking full-time study at the Benito Juarez University of Wellbeing in the nearby town of Yaxcabá."The same people who criticized us have become our biggest fans. Sport is a powerful tool."Leaders in their community have cheered them as well. Yucatán Governor Mauricio Vila thanked the team for"empowering women and putting Yucatán before the eyes of the world.
"I've dealt with machismo my entire life," she says, recalling her childhood as the only girl in the village who dared play baseball with the boys. She started when she was 7. When she turned 14 and her mother forbade her from playing. "Sport was a no-go for women, but we had enough and decided to tell our husbands, fathers and brothers that we would play whether they approved or not," She recalls.The initial days were far from easy. Canul shares that the team had to fashion makeshift bats from pieces of wood and play without gloves, resulting in some scrapes and splinters. Nevertheless, she believes these challenges make them tougher than teams from larger towns who compete in official leagues and use full gear.
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