San Lorenzo wanted, I will always be by your side – Enrique Roldan

“That's why I'm still in good times and bad, win or lose me I do not care anything, because despite everything we've been through, San Lorenzo wanted, I will always be by your side". It's been just over two years since I returned from Buenos Aires to Seville, two years since I left to go every Sunday to the new Gasometer as a substitute for the arena that is the end of the Palm Avenue. But nevertheless, this letter, born of the soul of the popular tier in which La Gloriosa Butteler delights the amateur football, still resonating in my mind as if it were a marimba. I sang every time you press the Pedro Bidegain during the time when I was member of the team azulgrana colors of the Boedo, Cyclone encouraging as if I were living at it, but without being fully aware of the background of the same. That phrase that said "despite everything we've been" hiding behind a fascinating story, full of feeling, policy and identification of the equipment with a neighborhood whose breast was torn.

In the same way Boca Juniors It can not be conceived without the port on which berthed Swedish flag vessel that, ni River Plate It can be separated from Núñez, the Union of San Lorenzo Y Boedo It is so strong that it is not understandable that, After so many years, Raven follow distanced from the neighborhood that saw him be born and grow. Fortunately, It is a matter of time that this affront historical remains paid off, mainly thanks to the role of a hobby that has fought for the return football to put in place what the Argentine military had the effrontery to remove. Started a story round, begins the story of how San Lorenzo He was expelled from his neighborhood and a penchant for fighting back, which not only is your home, but its raison d'etre.

The memory of The Killers (The team of San Lorenzo who he conquered undefeated Metropolitan Trophy 1968), was still present in the memory of the Argentine fans when the beginning of the decade of the 70 the most important institution of Boedo woke up with a thankless news. Nothing mattered to Rodolfo Fischer He had scored the decisive goal in the final of that tournament against Estudiantes disputed. The joy that accompanied the fans San Lorenzo since that victory vanished when in 1971 the military government of Agustín Lanusse decided to implement substantial changes in the urban layout of Boedo, which they affected the location of the stadium. But the threat of Lanusse was but a first step of what was to come. The overthrow of Isabel Peron in 1976, the rise to power of Videla and the start of the Process of National Reorganization (because it was more officially call it genocide Dictatorship), not only pain and tears accounted for a people who looked like their children disappeared from the overnight, but also it had its reflection in the world of football, Y San Lorenzo, undoubtedly, It was the biggest loser.

It is not known for sure whether the fact that the first public appearance of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo outside the Gasometer It had something to do with the treatment suffered by the club since, but from that moment, movements around the separation of San Lorenzo and Boedo They began to accelerate. After holding a World organized by and for Dictatorship, which resulted although the Argentina victory, He could not silence the screams of terror pierced the walls of the ESMA (School of Naval Mechanics and place of detention, torture and murder, situated close to River Plate Stadium), San Lorenzo was forced to abandon both his court and his neighborhood.

The first game played during the dictatorship had faced San Lorenzo Y Quilmes. Premici made the only goal of the game and fans of San Lorenzo who was first in the standings still were not very aware of what hit them. In the as neither were a few years later, when the 2 from December to 1979 They played their last game in the 1700 Avenue de la Plata against Boca Juniors. 'Crazy’ Cats he stopped a penalty Hugo Coscia, fading away any chance that San Lorenzo beat the championship this season. The vast majority of Barca parish did not know, but that they had been deprived Catch hold a last goal in the Boedo.

Osvaldo Cacciatore, Buenos Aires mayor of infamous memory, He had recovered the idea of ​​urban redevelopment devised by Lanusse, and its intention to build residential complexes, The stadium had to disappear. It was a context in which the club aroused suspicion within the senior Argentine leaders, which resulted in the fact that San Lorenzo did not receive any help from the military government (should not forget, for example, that court River It was completely remodeled by the government ahead of the World, while the possible redevelopment of the Gasometer He never was on the table). And these suspicions arose because the Gasometer was much more than just a football stadium. It was a social center where life came together in the neighborhood, and in which sporting events were organized that went beyond football, as well as social and cultural activities. Culture and subjugation of a people do not go hand in hand, and that it was well known by the dictatorship.

It did not help that in the year 1980 there should be a mobilization of supporters with the aim that the Gasometer again to host the club. Hunter He not only got to threaten tamping pass over the stadium, as it had happened with some towns in the Capital (for example, Trekkers Villeros receives the nickname because his field is set in the ancient village of the Bajo Belgrano), but also he threatened the then president of the club, Vicente Bonina, to the require you, for the sake of their children, both at the University, definitely leave the grounds of Boedo. No doubt the economic impact, social and psychological that the abandonment of the neighborhood had to San Lorenzo: indebted, and soul broken, They were forced to sell off your home, reaching down to the second category of Argentine football and being forced to wander for years outside stadiums.

Defeat against Argentinos Juniors in the stadium Rail West Iron in August 1981 He gave the bones of the cyclone in the B. But nevertheless, descents can become a test of the loyalty of the fans and love for colors that cross the shirt to be impregnated into the skin. After many games in fields such as Ferro, Atlanta Velez (Legend has it that many children ended up doing Velez San Lorenzo by the huge number of people dragging each meeting), Raven was able to return to the top, Counting on the honor of having sold more tickets than any team in the first category, proof being the 75.000 people who went to River Plate Stadium to see a San Lorenzo - Tigre. The final celebration took place in the field of Vélez, where narrow win against El Porvenir returned the smile to the face of the fans who saw themselves as the B disgrace left behind.

Cyclone… Cyclone…
It is just one year
We will continue
Wherever you go
... Cyclone Cyclone ...

So Barca fans sang during which has been his only year as a professional B (the other time that walked through hell still moving through the world of amateurism), and the song returned to the place they belonged. But when it comes back, we can only refer to the category, then return to Boedo He remained a desire. At this point in history would think that the odious urban reform would have already taken place, but nevertheless, the dictatorship had other plans for the land they had encroached. Although the first municipal ordinance prohibiting the construction of commercial enterprises, repeal it resulted in the sale of land to the company Carrefour, which soon lift a supermarket that for many years has emerged as the shame of a neighborhood. the Gasometer, epicenter of overflowing passions, place that had witnessed magic gallops, goals impossible and improbable stops, I was now filled with aisles with shopping carts, empanadas, alfajores and beer Quilmes.

Once he confirmed the loss of your home, San Lorenzo He wandered for several years by different stages Buenosaireans, until in the year 1993 It was partially inaugurated the New Gasometer. Located in the Bajo Flores, the new court is not far from Boedo, in fact, all my Sundays in the popular San Lorenzo were preceded by previous Boedo where the Fernet and beer served to pave the way to victory; But no matter how close you are, that is not Boedo. Nothing has served during the years of exile San Lorenzo has won league, Supercopas, South American and Libertadores. Regardless of who got to have a home stadium, and that during the years of exile the team has been able to touch silver, the fans have never stopped looking wistfully the streets of their neighborhood.

"I promise you that very soon we will lift the steps in Boedo". So the song with which I began the article continues, and the truth is that the return became an obsession that today is nearly fulfilled. The Argentine Parliament passed a Historic Restoration Act (how far we are from our brothers in the Rio de la Plata) with which sought, among other duties, restore the damage caused by years of dictatorship. There were many who breathed a sigh of relief after years of losses and humiliations, Y San Lorenzo, along with thousands of Argentines, I was satisfied his demands. Carrefour was forced to return the land to the club, yes, payment of 94 million Argentine pesos.

Without any need to have petrodollars, the fans of the club have been gradually buying square meters of the ground price 2.880 pesos, you can access the payment in installments comfortable and so back to the neighborhood where they had never from. It's only a matter of time the Avenida de la Plata flooding back every Sunday with thousands of fans who live and San Lorenzo. That's when the Crow traced back to the flight, and so, from heaven to Boedo, You can return to reign over Argentine soccer.