Mexico: Roller derby chicas rule
By JOHN DICKIE
Roller Derby, a manic combat sport on wheels, is taking off in Mexico. It has become especially popular among girls, who are attracted by the action, the fashion and the girl gang camaraderie.
Twenty-five year-old Lizzy Santander (aka “Lizzy Bitches Bark”) kick-started this underground movement in Mexico City a year ago after seeing a video of a game in Texas. The team she founded, Las Disasters, now has 40 regular members who gather to train on Saturdays in a sports center in Garibaldi.
“The difference between roller derby in Mexico and in the USA where it was born,” she says, “is that in the US there are organized leagues already. We aspire to that in Mexico.” Now, Lizzy and the girls are preparing for the first national roller derby tournament in Monterrey on April 14th, which promises to be an explosive encounter.
