Argentines await derby against Mexico as if it were a World Cup final

In Brazil, the rivalry between Argentina and Mexico is less known. This Saturday’s match (26th), for Group C of the World Cup, is a source of great tension due to a long history in common between the countries, which goes through the land dispute in southern Patagonia since colonial and post-independence times.

The geographic distance and the technical disparity between the two would suggest that the game would not be so important for the fans. The amount of history involved, however, cannot be overlooked.

Mexico, despite loving disputes with Argentina and considering the match an early final, is used to being the customer.

“With Argentina, we always play like never before and lose like always”, he tells the Sheet the Mexican writer Juan Villoro, who still holds out hope for today.

If they lose, the selection led by Messi will be eliminated from the tournament.

In a bloodier past, Mexico was one of the host countries, as well as Venezuela, to be persecuted by Triple A —a death squad at the service of Peronism— and, later, by the repression of the Argentine dictatorship (1976-1983).

The gratitude of Argentines who sought exile in Mexico, and many of them never returned, is enormous.

These exiles were in part brief, but stellar figures of Argentine intellectual life ended up putting down roots in Mexico even after the dictatorship ended, such as Néstor García Canclini.

The anthropologist, who fled the leaden years in Argentina, became an important professor, academics and critic, residing in Mexico from 1976 onwards.

Like him, there are hundreds of professors at Mexican universities who found refuge and work there, leading them to want to put down roots in the country, after years of dictatorship.

Mexico’s thriving cultural life is one of the main legacies of the 1910 Revolution. Festivals, cultural spaces, public notices and State initiatives are just a few examples.

But friction and cultural exchange are not always shown on the four lines of the field. Argentina has eliminated Mexico in two World Cups — 2006 in Germany and 2010 in South Africa.

“We celebrate for the Brazilian team when it wins or plays well here. With Argentina it’s different, they took us out of the World Cup twice, and even so we are very receptive to having an Argentine coach, as is the case with Tata Martino, this time time, and Funes Mori, the Argentine who became a naturalized Mexican to be on the pitch today,” says Mexican writer and literary critic Rafael Toriz.

Striker Funes Mori, who was born and started playing in Argentina, decided to make the change to defend the “tricolor” today.

Argentines have only been talking about this game for days, even with the illegal dollar exceeding 314 pesos (R$ 10.26), and tourists without access to the rare “tourist dollar”, which recently came into force, but is not operational.

On the symbolic corner of Libertator and Sarmiento avenues, the Fan Fest is set up, already full in the early afternoon of this Saturday. “A match that we would have taken kind of softly on other occasions, but now it’s turned into a drama,” comments Argentine sportscaster Andrés Burgo.

The expected temperature in Buenos Aires for the time of the game is 29^OC. Many are already disputing the few shadows that there are in space, and television teams, trying to get the best image from the screen that will transmit the match. There are options for eating, with choripán food trucks, empanadas and ice cream.

“I didn’t like the idea of ​​coming here because, the other time, Argentina lost, but the boys are delighted”, says Valerio Ugaz, 24, about his children. The idea that something was supposedly unlucky, “muffed”, is very strong around here.

At 2 pm, there was not a soul in the streets of the microcenter, and the bars with big screens were crowded. No one dared go to the bathroom and lose their place. Tata Martino receives affection from the fans, but the same does not occur with Funes Mori.

Mexican writer Juan Pablo Villalobos, passionate about football and who has a book about Brazil, said: “Please, let’s not forget that this is just a football match. Eternal love to my Argentine friends and their writers and wonderful musicians, their poets and filmmakers. All this without forgetting to add: we hope we put three goals in them and eliminate them!”.