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- Nolan Rada
- Special for BBC News Mundo, Buenos Aires
Image source, Nolan Rada
The football star’s death 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,” explains Héctor Rodríguez to his partner.
With “this” he refers to the wake of Diego Armando Maradona, the Argentine idol who died this November 25 of a heart attack and whose farewell, just noon, went from being a party to what they call “a quilombo”, a chaotic succession of unexpected events.
Since the early hours of Thursday, thousands of people have moved to downtown Buenos Aires to greet their leader, despite having had to queue for more than two hours, skip the social distances derived from the coronavirus and even, not being guaranteed the chance to say goodbye to what was for them “God“, or, at least, the” best of all time “.
The confrontation 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 footballer: Diego Maradona is up to the symbols that have marked Argentina because Pelusa, in his own way, kicks the ball or not, he did it too.
“The Argentine people are here who want to enter and want to see the largest in the world, the ‘cosmic kite“, to the” golden boy “”, Rodríguez explains. In front of him, thousands of people wait, more than seven blocks from Casa Rosada, to do what Rodríguez could: greet the 10.
Buried like Kirchner
“Diego is the best thing that can happen to us in life – Rodríguez explains, in this way, at the present time – for being Argentine, for having defended our flag and the people as he defended it in 1986 and 1990”.
It was the World Cup in which Maradona was the protagonist. Rodríguez’s main memory is associated with the 1990 World Cup “, when we lost to Germany, who 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 Latin American Patriots, where in 2010 the former Peronist president Néstor Kirchner was also veiled, Rodríguez felt “a lot of sadness, pain, an emptiness. But Diego has given me so many joys that I have only thank you “.
Image source, Nolan Rada
In the final farewell to Diego, flags of Argentina and shirts from different clubs from that country were seen.
At the end of the sentence, Héctor takes a breath and raises his voice: “The Argentines are not here to fire Diego Maradona, they are here to thank him for the glory he has given us and for defending the Argentine people, which no one has done”.
Everything in his gesture and emotion evokes the speeches of one of the many Argentine trade unionists, of the political culture of Peronism, of those massive marches that often take place in this center of Buenos Aires.
Around him, other followers start singing “Diegooo, Diegooo …” like the chorus of “La mano de Dios”, that song by Rodrigo (another deceased Argentine cultural icon) that functions as a biography of Maradona:
“In a village he was born.It was God’s desiregrow and survivehumble expression.Face adversityeager to winat every stage of life “.
A symbol for sale
Maradona earns his living through football and actions that go beyond the sporting sphere. His successes on and off the pitch have made him a symbol of the homeland, of the Argentine sense of belonging.
In part this happened against England in 86, in the midst of a national duel after the defeat against British in the Malvinas / Falklands War.
Image source, Nolan Rada
Maradona’s death came after numerous health problems he had to face in recent years.
Lean Portillo, who sells “the poster of the greatest, look at which poster, the poster of the greatest!”, As he shouts on Avenida 9 de Julio to attract attention, he remembers that milestone in tears: “I lived it. goal of all the World Cup “.
It refers to the goal in which Maradona eliminated the English opponents with equal ease and ingenuity. The game lasted 10.6 seconds on the field. It is unlikely that one day it will be erased from the memory of the Argentines.
When Portillo remembers it, he feels “the need to cry. Diego is an extraterrestrial”.
After 1pm, the line of people waiting to see Maradona’s body exceeds 16 blocks: almost two kilometers away.
Examining them is finding a choripán clearance sale, Milanese and hamburgers, from national team shirts, hats, flags with the face of the former football player in black and white and even aluminum containers for beer with some of the Argentine symbols chiseled: the Boca Juniors shield, the face of Eva Perón and, obviously, Maradona’s face.
Mourning, like politics and football, also sells.
Like a football match
It is difficult to distinguish this atmosphere from a football match or a protest for social demands: the songs, the blue sky and the smoke from the grills are the same as in that Argentine scene.
But there is a difference, noticed by one of the amateur patients in the queue: here the fans are mixed of any team, something unthinkable within a polarized society in both politics and sport, recognized for its tragic history of stadium violence.
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.
They were there after 2.30pm, when a group of people tried to cross the police cordon that blocked the road to Pink House.
Image source, Reuters
There were some clashes between the police and fans who witnessed the Maradona vigil.
Stones that go from place to place. Flying beer bottles and cans. Detonations. People running in different directions. The roar of police motorcycles, warning people as they brandish their weapons. New detonations. Injured.
For more than two hours, with peaceful intervals where the crowd gathered again to try to advance, the duel and the wake became chaotic. Like marches and games from time to time.
A sudden end
As people disperse, Eduardo España watches the broadcast of TN, a news channel, through his mobile phone to learn how events are going.
Look around the presidential palace, where, around 4pm, there are still hundreds of people to see Maradona as it did before, after queuing from 6am.
Image source, Nolan Rada
The chaos experienced in Buenos Aires caused the vigil to be suspended early.
For him, the riots are “unpleasant. You understand the passion you can have for Diego and the sadness. But this is not true for the family, for him. If you can’t enter, you have to respect him because it’s a duel”.
Despite seeing him early, he wanted to do it again and stood in line once again. Eventually he left because a beer can hit him in the head.
“Diego is all over the world,” he adds. “Notice that there are jerseys for all the teams. We were together, like at the World Cup. This sad farewell to Diego has brought us all together“.
Image source, Reuters
The family expressed a desire to hold an intimate ceremony to greet the Argentine star.
Deepening his relationship with the symbol, he explains: “Diego and Cristina Kirchner are people I can defend. I’m a new Kirchnerist. The Argentines are very passionate. They overflow”.
When the hearse begins to leave the Casa Rosada at 5:30 pm 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 towards the cemetery, the pre-event discussions were forgotten for a while: what if it was better the court of Boca or at Casa Rosada; that if it closed at 18:00 or 19:00; that the pandemic and why, in this case, there was flexibility that there was, for example, for going back to school.
Image source, Nolan Rada
Maradona died at the age of 60 and played professional football for more than two decades.
Along the way, more people seemed to sing, to greet their idol. In the middle of the highway, some were closer than hundreds of others when the hearse skipped one of the entrances to the cemetery and had to go around the property.
That moment, that carelessness, and with the funeral controversy already on the table, recalled the kidnapping that Evita’s body suffered, going from one place to another without knowing where it is or destination.
But this time, with Maradona, it didn’t go that far.
The day of disorganization and the “bard”, another variant of the term quilombo, ended at the Jardin Bella Vista cemetery, where the parents of the deceased player are also located. He was buried in a private ceremony which, however, could be followed on television using a drone.
The transmission passed in silence, in mourning, in order. What didn’t happen after it became known that Diego Maradona was dead.
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