The corner of Gijón

America and Sporting
Jesús Castañón Rodríguez (*)

Spanish version

In the summer of 2005 the football club Real Sporting de Gijón SAD celebrated 100 years of existence. A century full of stories, goals, players, trainers, statistics... that have been celebrated with various events (1) .

It is the story of thirty-six seasons in the First division and thirty-eight in the Second, six participations in the UEFA cup, runners-up in the League in 1979, twice runners-up in the Copa del Rey (King's Cup) in 1981 and 1982 and two Stadium Cups for the best sports club in 1979 and 1981.

It is also the story of a representation to the outside world of the city of Gijón (Spain), a Cantabrian sea port with more than two thousand years of existence which is defined by scholars as a place to love intensely and not to understand.

As an innovative and humanitarian feeling, a character that likes to flow lightly until it has permeated everything.
This complex and charming intensity has also been witness to the departure of many of its inhabitants, enveloped in melancholy and nostalgia, never to return.

 

El Molinón, San Lorenzo beach, el Elogio del Horizonte and the Mareo school of football. Photos: Fernando Castañón and Jesús Castañón. Photocomposition: Vidis Comunicación..

I
The diaspora

During this red and white century, many generations have left to conquer new horizons and find the Asturian dream in the world after long voyages in trains, boats and planes. Many emotions cleaved the horizon of Europe and America to be converted into a kind of offering of talent and energy.

The diaspora generated by the emigration from the north of Spain in the nineteenth century and the convulsion of Europe in the nineteen thirties and forties obliged the living of various lives and various homelands in an apparent uncertainty of identity, to feel memories, to yearn for fragrances and families... And it has also obliged us to live and dream together with people, the same and different at the same time, building spaces for respect and understanding.

The intensity of emotion from the distance forged organisations for mutual aid, the elevation of culture and the conservation of roots. For social, charitable and cultural action in which traditional festivals and modern sport formed an element of union, to such an extent that during the tragedy of the Civil War football was the only recreational activity.

The team of Juventud Asturiana, Havana. Photo: Fundación Archivo de Indianos-Museo de la Emigración.

 In the case of America, the Asturian Centres of Argentina, Cuba, the United States and Mexico stood out for their participation in sporting competitions. The first half of the twentieth century saw the triumphs of Juventud Asturiana, a team founded in 1943 in the Asturian Centre of Havana, and outstanding in football was Asturias, a team from the Asturian Centre in Mexico which was active between 1918 and 1950.

It had its own stadium in Chabacanos street and its founders where goalkeeper José Menéndez, defenders Joaquín Peláez and José Álvarez, midfielders José Romano, Demetrio Martínez and José R. Junco and forwards Enrique Sordo, Saturnino Crespo, José Huerta, Luis Argüelles and Ángel B. Díaz. It had a brilliant history, winning the Torneo del Centenario de la Independencia de México (Mexican Independence Centenary Tournament) in 1921, and the Liga Mayor de Fútbol (Major Football League) in 1922 and in the 1938-1939 season.

II
The two shores

The relationship between Sporting and America is a story of "there and back", set on both sides of the Atlantic, in three stages: American talent as a resource, the presence of the club in America, and the twinning that took place between both shores.

2.1.- America in Sporting
From 1925 to the present, the club has turned its gaze towards American footballing talent and has benefited from the contribution of five trainers and thirty two players from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico and Uruguay.

Of the seventy three changes of trainer in Sporting's history, 17.8% have been non-Spanish technical directors, 6.8% corresponding to trainers from the other side of the Atlantic. Of the thirteen foreign trainers, five have been American: the Uruguayan José Monegal in 1925, the Brazilian Nelson Adams in 1959, the Argentinians Abel Picabea in 1960 and Ricardo Néstor Rezza Pérez in the 1995-1996 season and the Chilean Vicente Cantatore in the 2000-2001 season.

The club has signed up fifty nine footballers of non-Spanish origin, of whom thirty two have come from America.

This 54.2% of American players is made up of the Argentinians Alas, Biaggini, Calandria, Cristian Díaz, Domínguez, Doria, Esperante, Ferrer, Enzo Ferrero, Óscar Ferrero, Graff, Killer, Lacampre, Landucci, Passagio, Ángel Pérez, Hugo Pérez, Rezza, Rinaldi, Rivarola, Scotto and Trotta; the Bolivian Cristaldo; the Brazilians Alcántara, Arthuro, Da Silva and Rodrigao; the Costa Rican Ronald Gómez; the Mexicans Flores and Negrete; and the Uruguayans Cabrera and Gutiérrez. This panorama is completed with the presence of the goalkeeper Romero, who played as a native although he was linked to Paraguay.

The president Manuel Vega-Arango exchanging a shirt commemorating the centenary with the Argentinian player Enzo Ferrero, in the Asturias International Trade Fair. Photo: Fundación Real Sporting de Gijón.

2.2.- Sporting in America
From the second half of the twentieth century, the club took part in various sporting tours to meet again with its citizens, memories, emotions and indelible influences of childhood.

Between 6 July and 2 August 1953, an atmosphere of peace was created in Cuba and Mexico with matches against: Atlas, the Galician Centre of Cuba, Deportivo Cali, Guadalajara and Marianao (2). And between 30 November and 2 December 1986, Sporting made a commercial tour of the United States, managed by the representative Fernando Torcal, with two matches against the Pumas of the Mexican University UNAM (3) in the Espartano stadium in San José and the Memorial Coliseum stadium.

Havana, 6 July 1953. The team that played against the Galician Centre of Cuba. Photo: Fundación Real Sporting de Gijón.
Mexico, 2 August 1953. The team that played the match against Atlas. Photo: Fundación Real Sporting de Gijón.

2.3.- Times of twinning
The communication without borders brought about by the new technologies of the twentieth century has supposed a new time, a gradual sporting, social and cultural twinning for the convergence of the two shores.

2.3.1.- Sports organisation
Regarding sports, the story begins with the presence of Latin-American teams on the oldest professional football field in Spain: El Molinón.

Official poster of the 1982 World Cup, the Gijón headquarters. Photo: Jesús Castañón.
Commemorative Centenary game between the national teams of Spain and Uruguay in 2005. Photo: Fundación Real Sporting de Gijón.

This is the case of the participation of Chile in the final phase of group II of the 1982 World Cup, the friendly against Brazil in 1987 and the celebration of a tribute by the Spanish National Team in a match against Uruguay in 2005 (4).

The story continues, in an individual form, with a Naples shirt dedicated by Diego Maradona to his former colleague at FC Barcelona, Enrique Castro "Quini". And it reaches 2005 with the exchange of shirts and plaques commemorating the Centenary and the "Xentenario xeneize" that united Sporting de Gijón and the Buenos Aires side Boca Juniors on 18 August at the Asturias International Trade Fair.

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Naples shirt dedicated by Diego Armando Maradona to Enrique Castro "Quini". Photo: Jesús Castañón.

Twinning of the commemorative flags of the centenaries of Boca Juniors and Real Sporting de Gijón. Illustration: José Carlos Alegría Díaz.

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2.3.2.- Social dimension
Worthy of mention on the social side is the emotive trajectory of the exhibition "1905-2005: It's our history", which has been on show at the Asturian Centre in Brussels and is programmed for the centres of Buenos Aires and Mexico. It is a journey through the past and present of the club, the registration of the memory of statistics and teams, panels about presidents and trainers, shirts from every era, the main trophies won, audiovisual images of goals and their celebration, old posters, pennants exchanged with other clubs, membership cards, lower level teams and summer schools... to set off memories and heartbeats.

And especially deserving of mention are the loyal fans who have converted the new technologies into forums to comment on the latest news, spaces to share unforgettable photos and exchange activities, and places in which to draw together the attention surrounding the accounts of radio transmissions by Antonio Pellico and the club's Press Officer, José Luis Rubiera.

Sporting's followers, "la mareona", in the José Zorrilla stadium in Valladolid on 10 April 2005. Photo: Jesús Castañón.

The "mareona" has not only become a navigable place for the expression of current news, feelings or historical questions.

Centenary flag. Illustration: Fundación Real Sporting de Gijón.

 Its force has been represented on the Centenary flag, designed by José Carlos Alegría, by two horizontal wavy bands. Moreover, it is forming a new culture thanks to the twinning in virtual supporters' clubs.

This is the case of the virtual Independiente-Sporting de Gijón supporters club: pride and passion that, since 10 February 2005, unites the desires of "¡Aguante el Rojo!" and "¡Puxa Sporting!" with which the Argentinian and Spanish fans encourage the centennial clubs of Atlético Independiente and Sporting.

2.3.3.- Culture
The experience of the club between clamour and nostalgia has left permanent influences that have been revealed in various forms in the fine arts and literature. Sporting constitutes a museum of popular culture in which its players and directors have had artistic preoccupations and artists have participated in the sphere of football.

Since its founding, its first president and its first secretary - Anselmo López and Ignacio Lavilla - showed their abilities in music and painting. Fifty eight painters followed their footsteps in collective exhibitions and picture books. More than eighteen players and a director had musical interests and the club organised a charitable concert (5). Its experience has given rise to ten songs with a Sporting theme (two pasodobles, two hymns, three rock & roll themes, two Asturian tonadas and a habanera); references to popular feeling in a tonada, a song by a singer-songwriter and a rock theme; numerous songs of encouragement in the stands of El Molinón and amusing carnival lyrics for El Antroxu, the Gijón carnival.

But the exchange with America finds its artistic form in creative cinema and literature. The history of the club has generated two short films and three feature films that form the Nostalgia Trilogy, by José Luis Garci. "Volver a Empezar" (To Begin again) tells the story of a professor of literature at the University of Berkeley (United States), an exile and a player for Real Sporting in his youth, who is granted the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Gijón, 17 April 1983. Redondo, Rivero, Maceda, Joaquín, Mesa, Jiménez (standing) and Abel, Cundi, Ferrero, film director José Luis Garci, Eloy and Esteban pose together with the Hollywood Oscar statuette. Photo: Fundación Real Sporting de Gijón.

It reflects the return to one's origins and the problems caused by lack of communication, the recuperation of pleasures denied by the past, melancholy and nostalgia, the pressing need to live in the present while football, with its shots in El Molinón and the Mareo school of football, supports this state of mind (6).

In literary creation, two players and a president were novel, biography and theatre writers and in addition the writer Juan Cueto became a member of the Board of Directors. It is planned for this panorama to be completed with the book of short stories "Sporting 100x100" (100% Sporting) thanks to contributions by journalists, writers, various club bodies and fans.

Cover of the book "Cuentos policíacos del Centenario".

 Of note in the space shared with Latin America is the novelistic view of the Argentinian Flaco Landucci, by Vicente Manuel González. And also how authors from Argentina, Chile, Cuba and Venezuela have let their special gaze rest on the club. This is the case of Luis Sepúlveda who comments on the open, participative and discursive character of the city to share this indelible influence and also of Lorenzo Lunar Cardedo, Víctor Carlos Mir and Marcos Tarre Briceño who participate in the volume "Cuentos policíacos del Centenario" (Centenary Crime Stories), organised by the Semana Negra (crime fiction week) and the Ateneo Obrero (workers' cultural association) of Gijón, to set the scene for detective cases, suicide resolutions and dramatic situations with guerrillas.

III
Epilogue

To summarise, Real Sporting de Gijón SAD not only has the oldest football field in Spanish professional football: El Molinón. It has seen a century of modern emigration, and experienced a singular history of humanity and a cultural experience of football as a focus of peace in which hearts open up, especially in moments of adversity.

The club has represented a form of value in the face of fear and consolation in sadness, a way of living that is returned with affection from the people to the players, and that the myth Enrique Castro "Quini", transmitted on his knees to the to the youngest player of the club, eight-year-old Sergio Canal Rodríguez, in the centenary Gala: "When you leap onto the field you have to give everything, because there you will always be with your fans. They will never leave you on your own".

The projection of the red and white feeling does not understand frontiers. It has percolated very deep in its followers, regardless of where life's ups and downs have placed them, to be transmitted from generation to generation.

Mareo school of football, the bench and match day in El Molinón. Photos: Fernando Castañón and Jesús Castañón. Photocomposition: Vidis Comunicación.

 

Notes

(*) Thanks. This article uses information provided by Carmen Bayona, Fundación Archivo de Indianos-Museo de la Emigración, Fundación Real Sporting de Gijón, Idiomaydeporte.com, Real Sporting de Gijón SAD and José Luis Rubiera.
The illustrations and photographs correspond to José Carlos Alegría Díaz (Sociedad Española de Vexilología), Fernando Castañón Rodríguez, Jesús Castañón Rodríguez, Fundación Archivo de Indianos-Museo de la Emigración and Fundación Real Sporting de Gijón. The photocompositions have been prepared by Vidis Comunicación from photographs belonging to Idiomaydeporte.com.

(1) The organisation of the centenary of the club benefited from a Committee of Honour presided by the Prince of Asturias and comprising: The President of the Spanish Government (José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero), President of the Principality of Asturias (Vicente Álvarez Areces), Mayoress of Gijón (Paz Fernández Felgueroso), Director general of Sports of the Principality of Asturias (Daniel Gutierrez Granda), Councillor of Sports of the Council of Gijón (María Teresa Ortiz Asenjo), President of the Real Federación Española de Fútbol (Ángel María Villar), President of the Real Federación Asturiana de Fútbol (Maximino Martínez Suárez), Secretary General of the League of Professional Football(Carlos del Campo Colás), President of the Association of Sports Journalists (María del Carmen Izquierdo), Presidents of Real Sporting de Gijón S.A.D. (Manuel Vega-Arango, Juan Pérez Arango, Angel García Flórez, Eloy Calvo Capellín and Manuel Calvo Pumpido), Patrons of Honour of the Real Sporting Foundation (Margarita Salas Falgueras, Agustín Antuña Suárez, Álvaro Cuervo García, Antonio Fernández Fidalgo, Arturo Fernández Rodríguez, Aurelio Menéndez Menéndez, Cosme Sordo Obeso, Francisco Álvarez-Cascos Fernández, Francisco Rodríguez García, José Carlos Alegría Rodríguez, José Luis Álvarez Margaride, José Luis Garci Muñoz, José Ramón Álvarez Rendueles, Pedro Páramo Lobeto, Pelayo Ortega, Rafael Puyol Antolín and Miguel Díaz Negrete), Delegate of the Government in the Principality of Asturias (Antonio Trevín Lombán), Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (Rodrigo Rato), President of the Prince of Asturias Foundation (José Ramón Álvarez Rendueles), President of the Federation of Sporting Supporters Clubs (José María Suárez Braña), President of the Veterans Association (Alberto Fernández), Enrique de Castro González "Quini" and the number one member of Real Sporting de Gijón (José Trabanco).

(2) The dates, results and goal-scorers of the matches were as follows. In Cuba: 6 July, Centro Gallego de Cuba 0 - Real Gijón 1 (Robledo); 10 June, Deportivo Cali 1 - Real Gijón 2 (Medina, Prendes); and 20 July, Marianao 0 - Real Gijón 0. In Mexico: 26 July, Guadalajara 3 - Real Gijón 1 (Prendes) and 2 August, Atlas 0 - Real Gijón 2 (Prendes, Sánchez).

(3) The dates, results and goal-scorers of the matches played in Los Angeles were: 30 November, UNAM (Mexico) 0 - Real Sporting 1 (Quini); and 2 December, UNAM 2- Real Sporting 2 (Flores, Jaime).

(4) The match, held on 18 August 2005, finished with a result of 2-0 in favour of the Spanish National Team, with goals by Pablo García (o.g.) and Vicente.

(5) In 1987 the concert "Asturias and Sporting united by music" was held in El Molinón.

(6) In 1983, "Volver a Empezar" obtained the Hollywood Oscar for the best foreign film in a language other than English.

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(*) Article published in number 90 of Lecturas: Educación Física y deportes (Buenos Aires, 2005)

 

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