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- Nolan rada
- Special for BBC News Mundo, Buenos Aires
Image source, Nolan rada
The death of the soccer star mobilized tens of thousands of Argentines this Thursday.
“Perón and Evita, how many days did they have? Three days, three and a half days. This gave us more time,” Héctor Rodríguez explains to his partner.
With “this” he refers to the wake of Diego Armando Maradona, the Argentine idol who died this November 25 from a heart attack and whose farewell, barely noon, went from being a celebration to what here they call “a quilombo”, a chaotic succession of unforeseen events.
Since the early hours of Thursday, thousands of people moved to the center of Buenos Aires to say goodbye to their leader, despite the fact that they had to stand in lines for more than two hours, skip the social distancing derived from the coronavirus and even, not being guaranteed the possibility of saying goodbye to what was for them “God“, or, at least, the” best of all time “.
The comparison with Juan Domingo and Eva Perón, perhaps the most important politicians in the history of the country, serves to dimension the figure of the former soccer player: Diego Maradona is at the height of symbols that marked Argentina because Pelusa, in his own way, kicking or not the ball, he did too.
“The Argentine people are here wanting to enter and wanting to see the greatest in the world, the ‘cosmic kite‘, to the’ golden kid, ‘”explains Rodríguez. In front of him, thousands of people wait, more than seven blocks from the Casa Rosada, to do what Rodríguez could: say goodbye to 10.
Buried as Kirchner
“Diego is the best thing that can happen to us in life -explains Rodríguez, like this, in the present tense-, for being Argentine, for defending our flag and the people as he defended it in 1986 and 1990.”
Those were the World Cups in which Maradona was the protagonist. Rodríguez’s main memory is associated with the 1990 World Cup, “when we lost to Germany, that they stole the final from us. Seeing Maradona cry like a creature was impressive. “
When he was able to see him again, but this time in the Hall of the Latin American Patriots, where former Peronist president Néstor Kirchner was also veiled in 2010, Rodríguez felt “a lot of sadness, pain, a void. But Diego gave me so many joys that I only have thanks “.
Image source, Nolan rada
Flags of Argentina and shirts of different clubs of that country were seen in the final farewell to Diego.
At the end of the sentence, Héctor takes a breath and raises his voice: “The Argentine people are not here to fire Diego Maradona, they are here to thank him for the glory he gave us and for having defended the Argentine people, something that nobody did” .
Everything in his gesture and emotion evokes speeches from one of the many Argentine trade unionists, from the political culture of Peronism, from those massive marches that frequently take place in this center of Buenos Aires.
Around him, other followers begin to chant “Diegooo, Diegooo …” like the chorus of “La mano de Dios”, that song by Rodrigo (another deceased Argentine cultural icon) that works as a biography of Maradona:
“In a village he was born.It was God’s wish,grow and surviveto the humble expression.Face adversityeager to winat every step of life “.
A symbol for sale
Maradona earned his living through football and actions that are beyond the sporting arena. His achievements on and off the field made him a symbol of the homeland, of the Argentine sense of belonging.
Part of that was what happened against England in 86, in the middle of the national duel after the defeat against the British in the Malvinas / Falklands war.
Image source, Nolan rada
Maradona’s death came after numerous health problems he faced in recent years.
Lean Portillo, who sells “the poster of the greatest, look at what poster, the poster of the greatest!”, As he shouts on Avenida 9 de Julio to attract attention, he remembers that goal through tears: “I lived it. The best goal of all the World Cups “.
It refers to the goal in which Maradona took out English opponents with as much ease as ingenuity. The play lasted 10.6 seconds on the court. It is difficult that one day it will be erased from the memory of Argentines.
When Portillo remembers it, he feels “the urge to cry. Diego is an extraterrestrial.”
After 1:00 p.m., the line of people waiting to see Maradona’s body exceeds 16 blocks: almost two kilometers away.
To go through them is to find a choripán sale, Milanese and hamburgers, from national team t-shirts, hats, flags with the ex-footballer’s face in black and white and even aluminum containers for beer with some of the chiseled Argentine symbols: the Boca Juniors shield, the face of Eva Perón and, of course, Maradona’s face.
Mourning, like politics and football, also sells.
Like a soccer game
It is difficult to distinguish this atmosphere from a soccer game or a protest for social demands: the songs, the blue sky and the smoke from the grills are the same as those of that scene so Argentine.
But there is a difference, noticed by one of the amateur patients waiting in line: here fans mix of any team, something unthinkable within a society polarized both in politics and sports, recognized for its tragic history of violence in stadiums.
Image source, Nolan rada
Maradona won the world championship in 1986 and a runner-up in Italy in 1990.
The devotee concludes: “This was done by Diego.”
Therefore, in a country where people kill themselves to show the tenor of their love for their team, perhaps it was not unreasonable to think that there could be riots.
There were them after 2:30 p.m., when a group of people tried to overcome the police cordon that blocked the way to the Pink House.
Image source, Reuters
There were some clashes between the police and the fans who attended Maradona’s wake.
Stones going from one place to another. Bottles and cans of beer flying. Detonations. People running in different directions. The roar of police motorcycles, warning people while wielding their weapons. New detonations. Wounded.
For more than two hours, with peaceful intervals in which the crowd gathered again to try to advance, the duel and the wake became chaotic. Like the marches and the games from time to time.
An abrupt end
While people are dispersing, Eduardo España watches through his cell phone the transmission of TN, a news channel, to know how events are progressing.
Look around the presidential palace, where, around 4:00 p.m., hundreds of people still remain to see Maradona as he did before, after queuing from 06:00.
Image source, Nolan rada
The chaos experienced in Buenos Aires caused the wake to be suspended in advance.
For him, the riots are “unpleasant. You can understand the passion that one can have for Diego and the sadness. But this does not add up for the family, for him. If you cannot enter, you have to respect because it is a duel.”
Despite having seen him early, he wanted to do it again and stood in line once more. In the end he walked away because a beer can hit him on the head.
“Diego is worldwide,” he adds. “Notice that there are shirts for all the teams. We were together, like in the World Cup. This sad farewell to Diego brought us all together“.
Image source, Reuters
The family expressed their desire to hold an intimate ceremony to say goodbye to the Argentine star.
Deepening his relationship with the symbol, he details: “Diego and Cristina Kirchner are people that I can defend. I am recontra Kirchner. We Argentines are very passionate. We are overwhelmed.”
When the hearse begins to leave the Casa Rosada at 5:30 p.m. to reach the Bella Vista Garden, a private cemetery, a crowd begins to chant “Diegoooooo, Diegoooooo, oéeee oé oé oéeee… Diegoooooo”.
The following was followed on television, live, what a chase. As the hearse moved toward the cemetery, the pre-event discussions were forgotten for a while: what if it was better at the Boca court or at the Casa Rosada; that if it closed at 6:00 p.m. or 7:00 p.m.; that the pandemic and why, in this case, there was flexibility that there has not been, for example, for the return to classes.
Image source, Nolan rada
Maradona passed away at age 60 and played professional soccer for more than two decades.
On the route more people appeared to chant, to fire their idol. In the middle of the highway, some were closer than hundreds others, when the hearse skipped one of the entrances to the cemetery and had to walk around the property.
That moment, that carelessness, and with the controversy of the funeral already on the table, he remembered the kidnapping that Evita’s body suffered, going from one place to another without knowing his whereabouts or destination.
But this time, with Maradona, it did not go as far.
The day of disorganization and “bardo”, another variant of the term quilombo, ended at the Jardin Bella Vista cemetery, where the parents of the late soccer player are also. He was buried in a private ceremony that, however, could be followed on television using a drone.
The transmission passed in silence, in mourning, in order. What did not happen after it was learned that Diego Maradona had died.
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