Quilombo they call it in Argentina when something gets out of hand again. When football fans shake the opposing team’s bus, concert spectators storm the stage or six-year-olds dismantle the painstakingly decorated rooms on a children’s birthday party: that’s all make quilombo, hit the plaster, cause trouble, cause a little trouble.
The very fact that there is a very specific word for all of this in Argentina shows how much it is quilombo here is also part of the people’s soul. And of course, Diego Armando Maradona cannot be left out of all of this. After all, he was not only a football god, but also an Argentine. And if you take it seriously, then his whole life is actually one, great, crazy one anyway quilombo been. That’s another reason why the Argentines loved him so much.
But now Maradona is dead and is to be buried in his home country Argentina. And here at the latest you have to ask: Did someone really expect quiet contemplation and gravitas?
Safety and hygiene requirements should apply, that’s how it was imagined
Early afternoon, Buenos Aires, Plaza de Mayo. The square is in the heart of the Argentine capital, at the foot of the Casa Rosada, the “Pink House”, which is actually the presidential palace, but is now a shrine. That night they brought Maradona’s body here and laid it out so that the fans could say “Adios”, or better: “Ad10s”, because of the 10, which was always Maradona’s shirt number.
Of course, safety and hygiene requirements should apply, that’s how it was imagined. The corona curve in Argentina has only just stopped rising, that’s how it should stay and people therefore get into Casa Rosada on one side and out again on the other. In between, a quick glance at the coffin, just don’t stop. That was the plan.
But now the line of people reaches down to Avenida 9 de Julio, it should be three kilometers in total, they say. A sea of flags and soccer jerseys. Chants and drums. There is grilled meat and greasy sausages on the side of the road.
And of course: there are also tears. Just like – of course – riots. It started at six in the morning, according to the news. Scuffles with the police, shoving, thrown barriers, quilombo.
A lot of people have been here for hours, they left at dawn, in Banfield, Quilmes, Avellaneda and all the other places in the Suburban, the suburban belt of Buenos Aires, which is as huge as it is often very poor. He wanted to see Diego again, says Pascual from La Matanza. “Say thank you for everything.” The World Cup victory, the joy and pride that someone from the bottom can make it to the top, from a barrack in Villa Fiorito to the presidential palace.
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