Deporte nacional

gooooooooooooooool!

You might hear that in Latin America, as in much of the rest of the world, futbol (soccer) is king. In Chile, this may indeed be viewed as an accurate appraisal of the situation. Just about everyone has a favorite team, with Universidad de Chile, Universidad Catolica, and Colo Colo topping the lists. (A side note: coming from the USA, where sports coverage is divided fairly evenly between collegiate and professional leagues, I initially thought Universidad de Chile, was a school team. It is, in fact, a professional team, which was started at the Universidad de Chile. There are many teams named for schools, but such teams currently have no official affiliation with their namesakes.) Pretty much all sports journalism starts and ends with futbol, and sports makes up a hefty percentage of all journalism here. When you go to website of biobio, one of the largest news conglomerates in Chile, and go to the economics section, the sidebar shows the latest futbol scores instead of the latest stock prices. Chile's biggest celebrity (as measured by television coverage that I've watched) is also its best futbol player: Alexis Sanchez. Futbol is a big deal; however...

In my entirely experiential and anecdotal investigation of Chilean sports, I have identified an even more popular spectator activity: smooching. No other single endeavor garners as much interest among practitioners and spectators alike. Kissing in public ought to be considered the national sport of Chile. The ratio of couples to single people among the Chilean youth is absurdly high. And since the home is such a family-dominated space, there is no better venue for affection than outside en el aire libre. Consequently, in parks, sidewalks, cafes, and buses, you see couples everywhere making out like two seals fighting over a candy bar. They have little to no regard for who may be watching, and the passersby, for their part, accept it as part of the scenery. From the perspective of a norteamericano, it's shocking at first. It's kind of uncomfortable at times. It's funny as hell. It's Chile.