translated from Spanish: Inaugurate the first headquarters of the Maradonian Church in Mexico

To the religious syncretism of the Mexican town of San Andrés Cholula, known for having a Catholic sanctuary built on a pre-Columbian pyramid, is now joined by the first Maradonian Church in Mexico, dedicated to the deceased star of the ball. Supporters in Mexico and the rest of the world of the stellar Diego Armando Maradona, who died on November 25, 2020, now have in the state of Puebla, central Mexico, a ceremonial center for football fans, a space almost touched by the “hand of God”, phrase of the famous footballer.EL “D10S” ARGENTINOIn the municipality of San Andrés Cholula , about 14 kilometers from Puebla capital, the second site in the world was installed to worship the Argentine “D10S”, since since 1998 a church of this type had been created in Rosario, Argentina.La Mexican Maradonian Church is located a few streets from the Sanctuary of the Virgen de los Remedios, a Catholic temple located at the top of the Great Pyramid of Cholula and that began its construction in 1594.Al enter the place you enter a unique football dimension, where the road to “the altar” is synthetic grass accompanied by mats in the shape of a ball, while on the sides are located the chairs for the “parishioners” which is decorated with shirts of different teams both Mexican and Argentine and European, as well as national teams from around the world. In what represents the parody of the viacrucis of the traditional Catholic religion, on the walls of this enclosure are high-scale photographs where the so-called “Golden Boy” appears from his childhood, to the most emblematic images in his meeting with Fidel Castro, Lionel Messi and with Pope Francis.As well as paintings with covers of national newspapers of death , achievements and “miracles” in the field of “Pelusa”, as they called Maradona.CONTRA NO RELIGIONThe creator and founder of the Maradonian Church, Marcelo Buchet, shared to Efe that this idea had been in his head for many years, but it intensified and began with the planning of this space when Maradona died due to acute heart failure that generated pulmonary edema.” As we are very lacking in identity, we Argentines have nowhere to cling and I think that between Maradona and my mother, I had no other cause; for example for Mexicans the Virgin of Guadalupe, for me, Maradona is the most important thing,” said Buchet, an Argentine nationalized Mexican and who arrived in this country 20 years ago. In addition, he said that this church “is not against any religion” and assured that there “football fans can go with a ‘priest’ to perform weddings, baptisms or first communions”, since it is an open space like any chapel on the beach or party hall, “where no one is disrespected and they can carry out their social events”. Buchet, a football fan since he was a child, revealed that in 2018 he met the Argentine star in his role as technical director of the Mexican team Dorados de Sinaloa and felt a great emotion, which made him dream of “being as great as his idol”. He recalled that he gave a letter to the Argentine “10”, in which he described his admiration and recognized him as the best player of Argentina in the 1986 World Cup that was played precisely in Mexico and where Maradona and Argentina lifted the title, the second in history after the 1978 in his country. He said that before he liked football, but that he reached the level of fanaticism in 2018 during the World Cup in Russia 2018, when with his schoolmates he collected an album of players and began to follow closely all the events of the sports fair and months later he met his idol. Although the place opened this week has had good response from attendees and both fans and curious pass through the place, “raise prayers”, admire the images and have “moments of reflection”, thanks to the tranquility of the place, the Mexican temple for the Argentine idol.

Original source in Spanish