The story of the photo with Maradona’s shirt …

Tributes to Diego Armando Maradona continue and multiply. They persist in the virtuality of social networks. His death definitively consecrated him to the Olympus of the modern gods and there, struck by this absurd wound which means becoming aware of no longer having Diego “among us”, his faithful build the digital memorial. Standing on sturdy totem poles of superimposed images, memories link feats and dribbles.

Among these images, there are those recovered from old pages of newspapers and magazines, as well as other unknowns, disseminated by the force of their messages. An eloquent example is when the albiceleste of Maradona ignites in front of the graves of Darwin’s cemetery, where the remains of fallen soldiers lie in “the Falklands”.

There is no one in the photo. Loneliness and death are the underlying presences, along with Diego’s magic. Those who shared it, overwhelmed with pain, didn’t notice the date, or it didn’t matter. It was shared for its significance, for the sporting gesture that Maradona’s hand repaired, on goals and in part, the affront of the 1982 conflict.

The match Argentina won against England with two goals by Maradona in 1986 in Mexico is a world legend. With “the hand of God” and “the goal of the century”, Diego left England out of the game. And he consumed “the revenge” that, according to his teammates, the Ten mumbled on the eve of the match which would be the prelude for the world title, held a few days later at the Azteca stadium. In this sporting feat as social, collective and emblematic, Maradona has crowned in a few minutes part of this pain, this defeat. This, among other losses and victories, was mourned with his death, in a requiem that recurs with the litany, as the days passed.

The photo taken at Darwin’s cemetery symbolizes this. It dates from 2018. It is recorded by David Rodríguez’s Instagram post where his partner, Felisa Colombo, is delighted. They took the photo on a trip to the islands when, motivated by the urge to travel, and to bolster a tourism business that might have the Falklands as a destination, they arrived in Darwin and, in their own way, ” planted a flag “.

“There is no Argentinian flag in Darwin, that surprised us, that’s why we put Diego’s”, explains David. They chose the one he used in 1982 “because it has the colors of Argentina and because with that we became champions”, he adds. “Now the photo has gone viral, it has crossed borders, it makes sense, but it’s not from now, we took it when we were there,” says Felisa. “I only regret that no one quotes the source, or who drew it, whether it was us when we were there, in tribute, on April 2,” he recalls.

Felisa and David arrived on the islands on March 30 by plane from Chile. It was a tourist trip. “You can go sightseeing in the Falklands”, they explain to Page 12, from his home in San Martín. It can be visited, they insist, despite memories of the conflict, despite the desolation evident in the viral image of this 1982 T-shirt – the same year of the war – which flames on the cemetery railing, with the crosses in background, with wind.

Memories of the Falklands War

“A long time ago, we wanted to go there, because of the dream of traveling, but also because of the history of the Falklands,” explains Felisa. His family is present in this trip. His uncle was the ship’s lieutenant, now retired. Mario Alberto Aguilera. One of the survivors of the cruise ship ARA General Belgrano, sunk in May 1982. For Felisa, the Falklands are a recurring theme: “At home, they talked about it every day, until my uncle returned”. She was 10 years old and remembers another photo “where we see the orange raft and the huge ship sinking”. This photo “was taken from the lifeboat where my uncle came from, from that inflatable boat,” he explains.

Embarked on the theater of operations from the naval base of Punta Alta, Aguilera, after the shipwreck and the drift in the Argentine Sea, he was rescued and transferred to the federal capital. There his wife María Luisa, Felisa’s mother’s sister, and her two daughters were waiting for him. “We were girls, but I remember it,” says Felisa. And he remembers his brothers running around shouting “Communiqué!” whenever the General Staff issued an official message. The whole family was attentive. First to find out what was going on in the south, then to find out if Aguilera had survived. “We were on standby and everyone had signed up to volunteer, including my grandmother, who is a nationalized Paraguayan from Argentina,” he explains, adding: “As there were nurses in the room. air force and on the hospital ship, she wanted to go. ”

In this root of fighters “of the Guaraní people”, the bond with David is born. His mother is of Paraguayan origin. He was born in González Catán “and he had knowledge that was going to fight”. He remembers the letters to the military and the “communiques”. But the most sincere memories are from football: “When everyone celebrated the goals of the 1982 World Cup, I cried, it was painful for me. And I remember after the veterans, I saw them. I’ve always seen them, asking on buses, on trains. Before, not now, ”he explains. He gets excited.

The “Falklands Cause”

David did his military service when he was still compulsory, in the Patricians Regiment. There he became more involved in the cause of the Falklands. “Not because of the military, but because I accepted my feeling of love for the country,” he explains. In 2011 “everything came together”, he met Felisa and the dream of discovering the islands began to materialize between them.

She has been working in tourism for many years. And in a conference where they talked about destinations they would like to know, “the Falklands have emerged”. They were able to clarify this in 2018 and link it to the tourism company that they carry out “tailor-made trips and international certification”, where they also promote places linked to rural communities and indigenous peoples. “We chose this trip also to fight against our demons, against the pain, it was a peaceful trip, to explore. A journey of friendship and respect. Peace, ”says Felisa.

“It’s the holidays, what are they going to do there?” His friends asked him. Others have asked, “bring a stone, something.” So that they didn’t know what they were going to find. They went to Chile and Punta Arenas, they had the first surprise: the Malvinas-Faklands Islands, the airport sign said. A sign, they thought, of coexistence.

Since they are “in love with Maradona”, they decided to wear her shirt. “Felisa wore the 1982 one from Spain, but we also wore another one – explains David – that I had made with the same fabrics and the same design as the original, a replica of the jacket Diego wore in 1986, because with that we were champions in Mexico. It is not the blue of the goal against the English, but the one that our colors have “, he adds.” We always wear Diego’s t-shirts when we let’s travel, ”says Felisa,“ we’re fans, I cried for a week when Lobo took him – to the technical direction of Gimnasia – because I’m Pincha, but David is from Boca. ”

“We carry 10 del Diez everywhere,” David confirms, “and we took it to Cuba last year and hung it in Che’s mausoleum.” Since “Diego lived in Cuba, we paid that tribute, but he didn’t go to the Falklands, and he wasn’t going to go,” says Felisa, “we decided to take her and give her that tribute, in life”.

In the Falklands

When they arrived in Puerto Argentino, they were advised not to wear the Argentinian colors when they were “around”. Be careful, they were told, be careful. “People have been wounded by the war – explains Felisa – and there could be a problem.” There is even a neighborhood where they were told “directly not to go”. The legend goes that there are “there are bars that have toilets with Galtieri’s face. That’s what they say – David warns – I don’t know if it’s true, we didn’t go. We didn’t want to confront each other, we wanted to meet and be there on April 2 ”.

As they did not want to wear the shirt in the street, they chose “thermo et mat”. And we found others that also used thermos and mat. “Another surprise!” Says Felisa, who remembers when they explained that “before the war there was a fluid agreement with Argentina”. Many had studied here. They even had an Argentinian DNI and many were treated here when they had health problems “because there are no hospitals there”.

In Puerto Argentino, the Chilean population is significant. Also Romanians or Filipinos who work in the fishing industry. “Only one Argentinian family lives. They do receptive tourism. But it is difficult to contact them because there is no free internet, ”Felisa emphasizes.

Shortly before, the Argentinian forensic anthropology team had gone there to scout the remains of the soldiers. “We stayed in the same place as them, an island house that treated us very well,” says Felisa. And like a short time ago, “there was also a family trip, at the cemetery we found everything they had left, the new rosaries, the flowers,” he says. “And we wore ours, both T-shirts: Mexico 86 and Spain 82,” explains David.

“On April 2, we were in Darwin, as we wanted,” describes David. We were calm, we were alone and we went through all the tombstones, it’s a big hill, it’s a mountain, and there are only the graves, they are far away ”. In his memories, the image of the black plates of the unknown soldiers contrasts with the white crosses. “It’s special and very windy” defines David. Felisa adds: “Darwin is just that, the road and the cemetery, surrounded by private rooms”. There is nothing else, they insist. And in the absence of a flag, they decided to “put on Diego’s shirt”.

In this windswept solitude, they took the photo that has become an emblem. “To honor our soldiers, that’s why we hung up the jersey, because, when they came to fight with weapons, Diego went out to fight with his champion’s claw and with our jersey,” concludes David.