The writer Álvaro Cepeda Samudio once baptized Junior as the ‘Querida de Barranquilla’ (Barranquilla’s darling). Some interpret the nickname as the love-hate relationship between the fans and the team.
According to the criteria of
Sports journalist and writer Ahmed Aguirre Acuña explains that this phrase was practically exalting this kind of putative love, saying that when Junior was doing well, people felt happier than even being with their own wife.
Indeed, the fans are there preparing a great activity from this Sunday until the Wednesday holiday, for what will be the celebration of the 100 years of the ‘shark’ team.
But, really, what does Junior mean to the city beyond the ‘Querida de Barranquilla’? Experts and those close to the history of the club, founded on August 7, 1924 by Micaela Lavalle, try to decipher this phenomenon with the capital of the Atlantic and the Colombian Caribbean in general.
Why Junior is seen as more than just a football club
A phenomenon that is not limited to appearing on a football field, but transcends into other fields, such as the Carnival, with costumes alluding to the red and white institution; in the celebrations, weddings and baptisms of Barranquilla homes, without distinction of social classes, races or beliefs.
In conversation with EL TIEMPO, one of those who dared to describe the meaning of ‘Your Dad’ is precisely Aguirre Acuña, author of the books Junior, a story of diamonds (2003), Junior, passion and Caribbean soul (2015) and Ephanor and Dacunha, two soccer aces (2021).
“Junior is like a beautiful metaphor for mixed feelings, feelings that contrast according to what a victory or a defeat brings us, because when Junior wins we are the happiest men in the world. Dads become more dads, women become more women, they sleep enthralled listening to their husbands’ stories about the genius of the team’s players,” the man says.
For Aguirre Acuña, Junior becomes a devotion especially for the people of Barranquilla and the Caribbean coast.
“Junior is the team at the national level that has perhaps aroused the most support throughout history. In its amateur days, between the 30s and 40s, it was considered the best team in the country. It was invited by leagues in the interior of the country, by Cali, Antioquia or Bucaramanga to represent Colombia in international competitions. Junior is like a symbol or that mark that does not distinguish between the good and the bad, between the poor and the rich. When Junior wins, happiness is complete until Monday, and when it loses, we are enveloped by that sadness for not achieving the objective. It is a devotion of the people that always revolves around what happens,” says the writer.
Jesus ‘Toto’ Rubio
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The former defender of the Colombian National Team and Junior intervened in this regard Jesus ‘Toto’ Rubio, who analyzed what Junior represents for Barranquilla, bathed by river and sea.
“We were chosen as footballers to create a feeling and a heritage of affection for the
football society of Barranquilla, the department of Atlántico and Colombia. Junior is celebrating 100 years of history, of passion and I am part of those people chosen to build that. I had the opportunity to spend many years defending the Barranquilla flag, being happy, because everything that is built from now on is like when you build a 20-story building, you create good foundations,” says the former footballer, 79 years old, and two-time champion with Junior, in 1977 and 1980.
“The idiosyncrasy of the Barranquilla native, the people of the Caribbean have this ability to attach themselves to their affections. He clings to Carnival and to Junior, as a way of emotionally exploiting all that the joy of Carnival and the team’s work bring. The emotion moves when Junior wins, the emotions move, the market moves; but when he loses everything declines. The Colombian Caribbean is like that and the Barranquilla native has that particularity,” ‘Toto’ Rubio highlights in this medium.
Sports journalist and president of Acord Atlántico, Estewil Quesada, highlighted the perspective that the inhabitants of this region have with the red and white team. “Junior is passion, Junior is Barranquilla, Junior is a brand, a brand that stopped being a city brand to be a regional brand, of the entire Caribbean. It is, as Álvaro Cepeda Samudio once said, the ‘Querida de Barranquilla’, the one that is always loved,” says Quesada.
For others, Junior is an act of faith, an emotional dependence that on August 7th celebrates its centenary: 100 years of your dad!
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