Isolated from the nearest city, Malargüe, well south of Mendoza, the goat and goat breeders at the foot of the Andes mountain range live the soccer world cup connected to the Internet or to a radio broadcast that often comes only from Chile. but rooted in the national anthem and the light blue and white flag.
“The technology has impacted most of the farmer’s stalls that have already incorporated Wi-Fi thanks to a Nation project that allowed connectivity along the entire national route 40, solar panels and cable television that make the world cup what live on the surface”the director of Tourism of Malargüe, Marcelo Rivarola, told Telam.
Is about families of muleteers who live all year round or these spring and summer months raising and taking care of goats and young goats in Malargüe and go up to the veranadasan ancient tradition where they must assume the risks and sacrifices of spending the summer season in the green soil of the Andes Mountains.
There, near the El Sosneado lagoon, or the Bardas Blancas, La Junta or Agua Escondida spots, anything goes when accompanying the Argentine national team and Lionel Messi’s team.
Rivarola stressed that among this population group there is “very strong attachment to the national symbols, and when the light blue and white flag comes out or the players sing the national anthem, they even stand up as a show of unanimous respect.
Others, on the other hand, experience it without television because the summer season has already begun, this period of the year when the stallholders go up with their animals to the top of the mountains in search of fresh positions after the snow has cleared, and there they can only receive a signal from radio that often comes from Chilean transmissions.
“There are times when there is a lot of wind or there are neighboring hills, which makes it difficult for national radio to reach and due to the proximity to the Chilean border, only radio broadcasts come from Chile, it must be strange to follow the World Cup like this…”the official imagined.
In the match to the final against Croatia, a group of friends from San Rafael were camping out over the weekend near the abandoned El Sosneado hotel and had decided to return to the nearest service station to watch the game, when a janitor from the place invited them to share the Rivero’s humble home to watch the game together.
“We surrounded the television and that photo all together with Messi on the screen, I print it for a painting,” said Carolina Olmedo, who celebrated the pass to the final with her friends and all the hospitality of the goat producers.
“Little by little they added to where we were… we were all nervous. I think the nerves, anxiety and emotion brought us together so we were all in there,” recalled the Mendoza woman.
