Fiorito, ‘city of ‘D10S’… (Opinion by Jorge Barraza, Último tango)

Neglect hurts. Why is this like this…? Why isn’t it a temple, a museum, a place of worship dedicated to the one who dribbled all the English and scored the greatest goal of all goals, to the one who made so many delirious with emotion, the one who drove the Neapolitans crazy with his Magic…? It is the thought that assails us as soon as we see that. The excitement of reaching Diego’s initial house collapses as soon as he sees it.

–Is this Maradona’s house…? –we asked the next-door neighbor.

“This one,” he answers.

Three days before what would have been his 61st birthday and a few weeks before the first anniversary of his death, the birthplace of Pibe de Oro was declared a national historic site by the Government due to the “enormous influence” that the footballer had on popular culture. Argentina, which transcended its “sports merits” and became one of the “most recognizable symbols of our identity.”

“The birthplace of Diego Armando Maradona, located at Azamor Street n.º 523 of the City of Villa Fioritogame of Lomas de zamora, province of Buenos Aires,” says Decree 733, signed by President Alberto Fernández on October 27, 2021. The ruling sounds pompous after seeing that ruin. The walls are historic, containing experiences, that sheltered the dreams of that boy who dominated the ball like a god. It was a kitchen, a living room and two bedrooms. Don Diego, Doña Tota and their eight children were crowded there. Then, the unmatched skill of the fifth of those boys would get them all out of there, give them a different life.
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Why would the Government, the province, the mayor, the fans, Diego’s family or himself Diego They didn’t do anything to preserve it…? “It still belongs to the Maradona family,” a neighbor approaching from across the street informs us. “Mrs. Tota He lent it to a woman who worked as a maid in her house in Villa del Parque because she had nowhere to live. Then the lady died and now her son lives. She kept it for him. She charges anyone who wants to come in to see the house.”

Azamor already has pavement, which gives it a certain urbanism, but it continues to be a neighborhood forgotten by politicians, especially by those who claim to fight for them, the poor. Maradona didn’t look back either. The one who stayed in Fiorito is Goyo Carrizo, the boy who introduced him in Argentinos Juniors, where the legend began. She lives a few blocks away.

–I had a boy in the Argentinos children’s schools, Goyo Carrizo, who was from Villa Fiorito.

He was quiet, but every day he came and told me the same thing: “Teacher, in my neighborhood there is a kid who plays better than me.” It happens that many times the kids want to bring their little brother or a cousin. I didn’t pay much attention to him; However, he repeated it to me. Until one day I asked him why doesn’t he come? “Because he doesn’t have money,” he responded. I gave him a ten peso bill and said: “Bring it tomorrow.” The boy was Maradona…

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The story belongs to Francis Cornejo, whom we interviewed for El Grafico in 1986. Francis was one of those delegates who served as technicians, parents, guides, counselors. And the first one who arrived at that house in Fiorito with the proposal to sign him.

–I was born here and I never left. We were always together with Diego, from the time he was born until he was sixteen when Argentinos Juniors took him to live in La Paternal. We played in the street, which was dirt, there were some barbaric games – says Norberto Fernández, el Vaca, owner of the house next door. –I gave him the ball, he grabbed it, he dribbled five and scored the goal. Or sometimes we would all stay watching him play a little game, he would do incredible things. Anyway, we never imagined that he would get where he got. We thought he was just good in the neighborhood.

–But he arrived quickly at Primera, at the age of fifteen.

–Yes, against Talleres de Córdoba. Went. From here the whole block went to see him that day.

–Is it true that you were an Independiente fan…?

-Fanatic. The Maradona family was from Boca, but he left Independiente. And I am from Boca. When Independiente and Boca played it was a war here. Later he became Boca due to the passion of the fans. His idol was Bochini. Bocha came here one day to see Diego’s house, he wanted to see it and we stayed chatting for a while.

Very humble, Bochini.

–What was Diego like…?

–For me he was always great, football and personally. For many people he was very arrogant, temperamental, but it happens that fame costs. He didn’t like being touched, he was picky about it. “Don’t touch me,” he told you.

–Did you come this way…?

–Yes, while he played for Boca he always came. Until he couldn’t be there anymore, he arrived and it was a world of people, all on top of him and he escaped from that. Afterwards he went to Spain, to Italy and left. Besides, every time he arrived there was a crowd of people. The last time he came with that Russian film director who made the film about him.

–Did you see him again, Norberto…?

–Yes, not long before his death. At a family member’s wake. It was said that she was not doing well. I went, he took good care of me. She was in a separate place. “What are you doing, Vaquita…?, come in.” I didn’t like what I saw, I was with four friends. I told him why do you live like this…? Stop kidding, if you have everything… She answered me: “I would exchange seven days of my life for seven of yours.” She wanted a normal life and she didn’t have it. She couldn’t live.

–Are people coming to see the house, Norberto?

–A lot, from everywhere. They come from China, from Japan, from Italy, many English people come, tourists, fans, journalists… They stay a while, take photos, bring candles and light them here on the sidewalk, pray for him, leave a T-shirt. When Diego died, a crowd gathered for three days.

Trapped between the Riachuelo and the railroad tracks, Fiorito is at a diffuse confluence of Avellaneda, Lanús and Lomas de Zamora. It is in the funds of the three municipalities. And no one looks into the background. They are all ordinary people there. Dogs loose on every corner, more than one horse, mounds of garbage in the streets. Diego is Fiorito’s pride, the only one. It has been fifty years since he left that suburb, but he is still present in everything.

In each street there is a mural painted by people, or allusive legends, the most frequent, “Fiorito, city of D10S”.

Four or five blocks from the idol’s birthplace is “The pasture of D10S”, the Estrellas del Sur court, where the lefty began to show great things.

The dream that another Diego I always draw on that dirt floor, but the surrounding corners are full of kids with motorcycles and cell phones in their hands.
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Last tango
JORGE BARRAZA
For the time
@JorgeBarrazaOK