"The Eagle has landed": this is how it was lived in Barranquilla



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Five people remember this episode that marked their lives. This is how EL HERALDO covered the journey of Armstrong, Collins and Aldrin.

"The global movement for landing on the moon" was the title of THE HERALD in 1969. It was July 21 and the world was waking up with the news that the human being had achieved what was for years a struggle between the Soviet Union and the United States. : reach the moon

It was announced that Gloria Díaz, Miss Philippines, had won the Miss Universe Award and that three people had died and more than three hundred and fifty wounded during the collapse of a portable arena in Buga, Valle del Cauca, in red letters and with a six-column title. gave an explanation of the duration of the march of the moon.

"The Barranquilleros saw last night, stunned and overwhelmed by shocking emotion, the great space feat accomplished by American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, who walked for two hours on the surface of the moon," says the internal memo 50 years ago. .

When Armstrong laid his plants on the lunar surface, it is written in THE HERALD: "Many people showed their joy and others could not believe what they saw." On this occasion, the image was Nearly perfect The newsrooms of local newspapers received an avalanche of appeals in which was appreciated the enthusiasm that seduced the people for this feat, which he said divided the history of the newspaper. Humanity in 20 centuries of existence ".

The barranquilla cinemas screened that day, Doctor Dolittle, directed by Richard Fleischer with Rex Harrison; Planet of the Apes, film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner. Meanwhile, John Dennis, former director of Centro Colombo Americano in Barranquilla, transmitted from Bogota the flight to the Moon via a system developed on national television.

"It was like a theater in the house.I put it on the patio of the house with the television and its chairs," recalls Alfredo Rebolledo, 81, whose TV had been brought to him. by a friend from the United States and he was the only one in his stable, making it the perfect rendezvous point to watch the landing on the moon of Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins. The next day, he says, he read it in EL HERALDO. "Now they even take pictures on the other side of the moon, and they plan to reach Mars," says Rebolledo, recalling that which was at the time "unthinkable" and is today a 50-year-old anecdote.

Six people then remember the day when the biggest leap of humanity took place.

A feat celebrated with family

The coastal artist Álvaro Barrios.

The coastal artist Álvaro Barrios.

The artist Álvaro Barrios refused to see the moon land with his friends, he wanted to do it in the privacy of his home "to express his emotions". And it was so.

"I was with my family watching TV as the rest of humanity.We were gathered to see this because we were following from the ship left Florida until the lunar landings." C & # It was chronologically accomplished, we already knew the day and the hour, "he says.

For him, it was a unique experience, not only in the sense of an exceptional achievement, but it was a feat. "At that time, we thought it would become commonplace and it was not like that, it increased the importance," says the then 24-year-old artist. "I did not see him with friends because I wanted to express emotion with confidence with my closest friends, and they met at parties and public places. something gigantic, I preferred to feel it in my intimacy, "he concludes.

"News Jaime reported"

Zunilda Espinosa

Zunilda Espinosa

Zunilda Teresa Espinosa, 82, recalls that she "was very poor and did not have a TV" at that time. But a cousin, with whom he grew up young, enjoyed listening to the news on the radio where he worked. "What's funny is that they told him the news of Jaime," he said in the middle of a laugh.

This cousin was in charge of bringing the details to all his young friends. So it was for him, for Jaime News, who knew that Armstrong, Collins and Aldrin had reached the Moon on July 20, 1969.

"I felt happy, I was at home and I did not understand how such a thing could happen in the world," she says. From that moment, I started to dream of the moon. "I always thought about it when I was looking at the sky."

The literary and poetic that hides the moon

In those moments, Jesús Ferro Bayona was in Medellín. He admits that on the moon he was not a scholar, but he knew philosophy and cosmology on related topics. However, he points out, what he had most literally presented was "Nocturno" by José Asunción Silva. "To see at that moment that this man walked for me was more than poetic, it was magical, like when the Internet appeared, it was a very great emotion, a human stage, a scandal, it was great." says Ferro without saving the qualifications for this moment. "It all surpbaded us, impressed." He then realized how far he was taking on unfamiliar ground and even hard to imagine in another era. lived between the literary and the scientist, a factor that went hand in hand with the admiration for the great progress that the human being was making this 20th of July.

Days without sleep waiting for the announcement of the moon landing

"They are of those moments for which psychologists have a very special name", so it is that the vice-rector of the Northern University, Joachim Hahn, begins to remember how he lived this moment . "They are unforgettable, you remember perfectly the place, the time, the people you were with, and that's what happened on July 20, 1969," he adds. .

Remember that the friends who had invited the television to those who did not have it, in his family, he did not have this device for which he had to go to another house. "A friend invited me to his home and it was very exciting because it was the first time that an event of this magnitude was broadcast live, the whole family was reunited in front of the house." only black and white television set. "

"I was 13 years old and it was an absolutely wonderful time.The press of the time made an outstanding cover.Emotion was an unforgettable moment that even today, I bristled, as a famous actress says, remember it, "he said nostalgically. At his friend's house, he left two days ago "to be there when it was transmitted". "I think that those days, I almost did not sleep, I imagine that that day, I did not even have lunch to be aware. was absolutely phenomenal, "he recalls.

An eternal admirer of the firmament

"The plan was in the family to see what was happening and what was then used in my house even told me," You see, Eli, I badure you, it's a lie, these people do not reach the moon. "This is how Elizabeth Vargas, 81, remembers July 20, 1969." I told her to see that they landed there and she insisted. But it was that size, "he laughs.

"This one never forgets," he says. In addition, the extra touch gives it its romanticism with the Moon, the stars and everything related to the sky. "I've always been an admirer of the moon, I love seeing her, I'm an eternal admirer of heaven," he says. A sigh escapes in the middle of the conversation.

"I live on the eighth floor and I see her when she goes out, I tell her that she is very beautiful.When he comes out small, decreasing, next to him comes a star, it's like a net, "he admits.

The writer of Barranquillero, Julio Olaciregui, was 18 years old and was studying industrial engineering. "It was an event, impressed by this doll who moved there," he said.

I had had the book of Jules Verne's "The Journey into the Moon & # 39; and I badociated it with all that. "With friends, we jokingly said that the moon was not so inaccessible and that we were on the moon.Also, Armstrong's sentence was left to us, we felt part of humanity because we were guys throwing stones, "he said gracefully. In one text, Olaciregui says that he mentions the event "because he has marked an era".

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