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Latin Americans take their sports very seriously, sometimes deadly seriously. A taste for relatively violent games comes from deep cultural roots. Pre-Columbian Meso-American societies played violent games that regularly resulted in serious injury or death. Today, scholars believe that the Spanish conquerors misunderstood the significance of ancient ritual games like Ollama, which was common to the Maya, Toltec, Mixtec, and Aztec cultures. It had similarities with modern soccer and basketball, and it was the origin of rubber balls introduced into Europe. But it also had profound cultural significance. For example, the seven ball courts discovered at the ruins of El Tajín, on Mexico's Gulf Coast, are now thought to have been the center of ritual contention among Aztec cities, with the game symbolizing the movement of the stars and a contest between day and night deities. Ollama is still played today in isolated regions.