In a hyperconnected world in which one lies with a tariff war and dawns with a dead pope, it is common for events such as the 80 years of the Macarena to pass, An architectural milestone that was stopped by the 1929 world crisis and that required a “cow” in the halls of the Union Club so that it could be inaugurated in 1945.
Thanks to reader Gustavo Vélez, we remember that the old bullring served last March the “Bobadita” of eight decades of existence. Yes, for the new generations the space does not mean more than a show center crossed in the middle of the southern highway, but in its time the macarena was a city milestone. In addition, over the years he has been the protagonist of great events of the Bella Villa.
To begin with, it is worth mentioning that the bullring is called La Macarena in honor of the most popular Virgin of the homonymous district of the Spanish city of Seville, in addition to being the patron saint of the bullfighters. What does Medellín have to do with Seville? No idea, but the one who puts the money and brick, puts the name that seems to him.
The construction of the square – also known as circus in the nascent city – dates from June 1928 when the structure began to rise on a site of 1,500 “rods” owned by Don Luciano Restrepo that was located on the avenue of Los Libertadores (today the highway) at the crossroads of the “Bolivarian road” with that of America, that is San Juan.
The idea of building the macarena was to finally give the city an authentic place where there was “Fiesta Brava” as the Spanish canons sent, since because of the limited space offered The Vélez Circus (which housed only 2,000 people) or the Spain Circus (for 6,000 users), to the ring of these barely medium -haired bullfighters and animals of little bearing and innoble livestock house arrived.
“With the inauguration of the Macarena they will end up once and for all the mamarrachas that to date has supported the pagan public. In one of the last runs held in the Circus Spain, at fantastic (very expensive) prices, I had the frankness of giving my true opinion of the run and this served me to throw a multitude of enemies. That is why whoever wishes to know the Spanish party in all its splendor can rejoice with a run in the macarena, ”he wrote in the 40s Joaquín de Irazabal, an Iberian past of frankness that made a bullfighting chronicler and one of the reporters who made the most strength and advertising to the new place.
However, the effort initiated in 1928 languished following the 1929 world crisis and what had risen in the Restrepo lot began to threaten Ruina. That was until June 29, 1943 when the revelation that shook the foundations of the city’s bullfighting world.
From the halls of the union club, the idea that lending citizens of Medellín arose, which at the same time were great bull fans, They would join forces and silver to finish the works in La Macarena and make it one of the most important squares of the continent and the world.
The idea was that the square was a combination of modernity and tradition, It would have the “last in Guarachas” and on top of 36 meters and a capacity of 10,000 attendees that would place it among the four main Latin squares.
“The bullfighting afternoons of La Macarena will be for Domingo Ortega, Pepe Luis Vásquez, Juan or Belmonte son (great matadores of the time) Make the Antioquia stops from their seats. There will be a place because Medellín wants it and the fans demand it and can do it, ”Irazabal said.
The company joined notable and “cacaos” of the time such as Rafael Uribe Piedrahita, Luciano Restrepo, Carlos Ignacio Molina, Jesús Mora, Carlos Peláez and Cipriano Restrepo Jaramillo, among others. Even the famous Gonzalo Mejía and companies such as Argos, Coltabaco and Cervecería Unión joined. The idea was to finish the works at the beginning of 1944.
There was only one “but” to start the project and it was that the Medellín Council excluded or reduced the tax that the bullfighting shows should pay – At that time it was around 20% – because according to investors, if the tribute was maintained once the macarena was opened, the business would be unsustainable.
While it was about convincing the council, the “saviors” of the Macarena began To put the money together for the company that would give life to the new scenario, a figure that later reached the $ 200,000 pesos of the time (a “jurgo” of silver as Don Emel would say that of Paisa country).
It is that in his heads he was not only building the square, but to carry the fever for bullfighting as far as. That is why they thought from creating bullfighting schools, creating amateur clubs – called rocks – and even setting up a bull breed tree in Magdalena Medio.
For the construction of the square, the engineering and constructions firm were hired. On the part of this, the architect Gonzalo Restrepo Álvarez traveled to Bogotá in order to analyze the Santa María bullring to see what could be applied to the new Paisa enclosure.
Finally, the matter with the council seemed to settle and on November 29, 1943, the works of La Macarena was restarted under the baton of the Restrepo architect and his brother Antonio who was the engineer of the work with the engineer Alberto Vásquez Lalinde. The idea was to have the new place ready for February 1945. As a curious fact, at that time a nascent neighborhood of Buenos Aires planned to baptize the macarena, but following the restart of works they lived to their settlers to put another to not take the brightness of the nascent square.
-The new square was a round -made round structure made in particular and pressed brick. Its archery remembers the Neomudejar architecture. The square had lines, pens, toriles, clinic with operating room and nursing. Even chapel and jail had. However, the final design showed that it would now house 12,000 attendees and on top of the ring to 38 meters, which increased the risk of bullfighters but also improved the quality of the show. Still the critic did not miss, as the chronicler found.
“They had told me that if the ring seemed small. None of that! It is the normal of all bullring that is respected. Well, they want some, to be a big one like the Waterloo battlefield? ”Irazabal wrote.
March 1945 arrived and the square was already ready for its inauguration and even had the iconic red leather cigarero sign that had until the 1990s. The cream and cream of the Antioquia and Colombian society It was enlisted for the opening of the macarena driven by that bullfighting fever that Medellín invaded as the works advanced. Even Spanish bullfighting chroniclers came to see the day.
For March 4 to President Alfonso López Pumarejo, liberal, he came to this Goda City for the opening ceremony held That day, which had the Spanish killer Juan Belmonte – son of the legendary the Pasmo de Triana – and the Mexican bullfighters Luis Briones and Alfonso Ramírez “El Calestro”.
That day the city finally saw brave bulls of pure caste in a local ring. These were six of the Venice livestock of Mrs. Clara Sierra, A paisa matriarch dedicated to raising these mortal but noble animals. They stood out from them the jet that foraged first Belmonte.
The news of the inauguration fought the cover of the newspaper nothing more than with the siege of the allies to Berlin in the middle of World War II. Sadly, the task of that day would be at least disappointing. Only the imposing bulls of Venice saved it.
“The run was one of those bad dreams. One of those who woke up as if they were a terrible nightmare. I repeat it: there are no bull matters, ”said Marras chronicler.
However, not all runs were bad, because for many years the macarena was the epicenter of local and national bullfighting. And through its arena in the ring great figures such as Manolete, Arruza, Silverio, Domingo Ortega or the Cordoba, according to the bullfighting chroniclers.
“We have hardly vibrated and produced so much adrenaline in any other sports or artistic scenario where plethorics of emotion we leave maltrews Our vocal strings of so much screaming and our Carmersí hands frantically applaud (…) The run was already started, it was something else. We lived and felt that ‘liturgy’ of bullfighting with all passion and intensity”The Vélez reader said in his message.
But the Macarena was not only memorable in the afternoon of bulls. Other city events happened in it. As the famous “Charitable Corrida” of March 1983 organized by the Medellín Foundation without slums (by Pablo Escobar) with supposedly eight bulls brought from Madrid.
In addition to the “presentation” of rejoneadores such as Alberto Uribe Sierra.
Or “The Battle of the Bands” of Rock of March 1985, which was not only part of the consecration of rock in the city but also ended in a battlefield where punker and metal growers collided. Or the terrible carobomba of February 1991, which after a run broke out with 200 kilos of explosives that left 19 dead and 180 injured.
Or the time in October 1997 the statue of Pepe Cáceres – Gloria del Toreo Creole admired by Ernest Hemingway and Pablo Picasso – that adorned the macarena ended in the Medellín River after a concert of the Napalm Death metal band was canceled and angry fans will download their anger against the effigy. This had to be rescued by the janitors of the Macarena along with some homeless people at the tip of Lazo, something more typical of a gringo rodeo than of a Spanish run.
Or the time he is recently deceased Pope Francis He officiated a Mass in La Macarena when he visited Medellín during his journey through the country in September 2017.
But perhaps the most important act of Macarena is that it was one of the squares where little by little the end of the bullfighting era in the country was brewing. February 17, 2018 was the last day there were bullfights inside.
For 2019, its bullfighting fair was canceled and by 2020 The door to bullfighting in the city was definitively closed. A bullring that had to do with the end of local bullfighting? Things that only happen in this country.
Today the Macarena is a center of events and concerts. And although he has possibly seen better years, At least we still have the luxury of enjoying this architectural jewel arising from that sum of wills to leave the city.
