Sensible Approaches to the First Sporting Activities in the Rio de la Plata: Sea Bathing and Water Use in the Nineteenth Century

The hypothesis that a ‘Montevidean aquatic sensibility’ was forged during the nineteenth century and can later be traced in the first sports manifestations developed in the Río de la Plata. A large part of the city’s daily life took place in the river. Commercial activities, the transport of people, places of recreation and entertainment, as well as the work of the time, are some examples of the uses of the river’s waters. This set of practices formed part of the education of the body, delving into subtle registers that offer the possibility of thinking in terms of sensibility. Certain traces of this ‘aquatic sensibility’ remain latent and are updated, permeating the first sporting manifestations of the time.