“Those who expect secret revelations, pandering, biographical findings, strictly documentary accuracy about the main character, will not find it in this book. It is useless, do not look for it: it would be like going to buy vegetables at a pharmacy. Here you will find a series of stories inspired –very freely– by an idolized national and global person. All of this told from the frequency of delirium, precisely, one of the few ways of, so to speak, empathetic to that which, oscillating between helplessness and stupor. , we name as our ‘reality'”. The warning is given by the writer and journalist Rodolfo Braceli in his recent book Once upon a time Maradona – Being the inhuman Diego is (Al Arco Editions).
If Diego was missing something, it was for Braceli to dedicate a book to him. That a sports publisher like Al Arco, which already has twenty years of history and an enormous number of quality titles, bets on this material is a great goal. Braceli’s poetic career can be judged not only in his poetry books, but also in the essays and biographies he has published since he came from his native Mendoza. At 83 years old, Braceli continues to enjoy and enjoy his writings. Not to mention his interviews. He has interviewed the characters who marked Argentina from the sixties to this day. For better or worse, there are Susana Gimenez, Carlos Monzón, Alberto Olmedo, Carlos Bilardo, César Luis Menotti, Fito Páez and even Aldo Rico. He has gotten into the ring to try to hit Nicolino Locche and was Juan Manuel Fangio’s co-driver to see for himself how the man who raced on the tracks managed to drive in the city. And he even sat down with García Márquez in his Colombian house without knowing what to ask him but, in the end, he gave him a great report.
He also biographed Julio Bocca and gave us an unforgettable biography of his admired Mercedes Sosa (Mercedes Sosa – La Negra). And now, Maradona.
He tells us about Diego’s mother, the poverty of the Maradona family in Fiorito and a God who, from Heaven, gets angry because down on Earth, there is a kid who plays ball and attracts so much attention that It makes him envious. He brings together, for the privilege of his readers, Diego with Charly García: “Maradona lifts Charly’s trembling, he holds him like a maternal father. He speaks in his ear with a whisper that I can hear. I can continue writing down in my little notebook. I’m still inside of the dream…”, writes Braceli. And a few lines before: “Little brother: where do your knees get the strength to support your mustache and explain to me where my knees get the strength to support my desolation.” And a few lines later: “Charly: we can’t complain. In this little time in life we have indulged ourselves a few times. It is logical that the well-heeled ladies and the starchy gentlemen hate us like hell: we committed, weakling, the imprudence of letting out the words , we tripped him at random, we put caps on the traffic lights, we stuck our finger in the commissioner’s tear duct, we kicked God’s collectors on Earth in the ass on even days and on odd days too. We touched the ass of death, and the mother who gave birth to it, the mother of death. But this is not all: we were given the only commandment that is humanly necessary: whatever it is, it will be with us until the last consequences. “.
Braceli comes and goes with and about Maradona. He takes him to the poor room where Oreste Omar Corbatta slept in the Racing stadium, in the 80s, when the club was in bad shape and the idol was even worse. Then Braceli gave him a formidable interview, both emotional and human, without falling into the low blow. Obligatory report for those who want to practice journalism. In Once upon a time MaradonaBraceli revives that talk, which can be found in its entirety in his quintessential football book: We are football. If you haven’t read it, go look for it right now. In We are football Braceli anticipates all the authors who came later to tell us how football reflects us as a society and as individuals. He does this through essays, stories and interviews. He invents a story for us in which they kidnap the referee of Ricardo Bochini’s farewell match only for Bocha to take a little longer to withdraw. In We are football Interviews with Hugo Gatti and stories starring Omar Labruna are read. There are his talks with Carlos Bilardo and César Luis Menotti. There is, of course, Maradona.
Back to Once upon a time Maradona, the story “Where are you going, dad?” is not to be missed, in which a man does not believe that it is true that Diego has died. So, to prove it, he crosses the suburbs without a penny in his pocket to get to the Casa Rosada, where Maradona is supposedly being watched, and see the event for himself. Argentina in its purest form.
Perhaps the phrase that best summarizes what we have before us when we read Once upon a time Maradona not from Braceli but from his colleague Ariel Scher, who writes in the prologue: “Know how to apologize one last time, but with Braceli and Maradona together, it is difficult.”
