When Argentina was the world champion in football last time, the signatory of these lines was obscenely young - a boy of twenty summers. Proof that cheering for Argentina is not easy, well, if nothing else you need a hell of a lot of patience. My friend, also a fan of Argentina, has a theory that normal people support Brazil or Germany, Italy or France, and that supporting Argentina (and Uruguay) is a kind of symptom, or at least a sign of some form of non-compliance with the "normal" order.
Even three lost finals, as if fate wants to further confirm her name - because Argentina means "silver" - even when, in football, she is golden. Although it is on the other side of the world, above Tierra del Fuego and windy Patagonia, it is hard to imagine a more European country. One humorous quip, attributed Cortasar, says that the Argentinian is actually an Italian who speaks like a Spaniard, thinks he's French, but wishes he was English...
What a personal kaleidoscope: If i Borges, Cortazar i Monzon, Saturday i Fangio... Gombrovič, envoy from Poland, Marta Argerič, from similar sites... Macedonio Fernandes i Manu Ginobili, Gonzalez Tunjon i Gabriela Sabatini, Manuel Puig i Mario Kempes...
But let's allow ourselves to recognize/look at a few Montenegrin pebbles in the mosaic of Argentine cosmopolitanism...
"I, Timoteo Jokanovic, a sixty-year-old Montenegrin, I am sitting in front of my house, staring at the endless expanse of the pampas, and thinking about my life..."
This is how the first sentence of an extremely valuable memoir read by one of the Montenegrin immigrants to Argentina, from the beginning of the last century, reads. Listen to the music of all those names - Edoardo Vuletic, Esteban Pajkovic (notable poet), Juan Radonjic (economist and publisher), Emilio Ognjenović, a spiritual mentor Pope Francis in youth, Marcelo Bekmaz Ćetković (respectable doctor), but also brothers Karlos i Milo Djukanovic, ship owners, admittedly from Lima...
All these names that we discovered almost a quarter of a century ago, mainly thanks to the dedicated journalistic and research work of the young man Gordan Stojović, revealed an incredible world - the Montenegrin diaspora from La Montenegrina in Gran Ćak to the poor neighborhoods of Buenos Aires, the most wonderful city on earth, but also other metropolises of South America.
Jokanović's autobiographical record is interesting both linguistically and narratively - full of humorous episodes, such as the one where parents from Montenegro, from the poverty of Piva, sent their second son, Sunday, to find his brother and bring him home. Neđeljko found him, but he also stayed in Argentina, and even became Domingo Jokanović. Timoteo will, after Peron's before coming to power to be a representative of small landowners and left a significant mark as a tribune and fighter for justice, which seems to be easier for Montenegrins everywhere, from Alaska to Argentina, than in Montenegro itself. when he died Evita Peron, sent a telegram, which, completely Montenegrin, still hangs framed in the house of Timoteo's descendants.
Recently it is here, thanks to a journalist Peru Goldsmith, and one of his, primarily literary reconstructions, gained great popularity episodes with Blagoj Jovović and his attempt to assassinate the Ustasha chief Pavelić in Buenos Aires. Although this assassination is on the border of urban myth and certainly assassination dilettantism (by the way, this sloppy attempt probably saved the head of Pavelić, for whom the UDBA was preparing a much more serious assassination, and he immediately set off for Madrid, where he would die two years later), but Jovović has already received a street in several cities of Montenegro and Serbia. Wait and see when they get it Bogdan Bogdanovic or Latina Perović. Those are already our stories.
Instead, take a final listen to this line-up of the greatest masters: Di Stefano, Maradona, Messi... Until the next Argentinian magician, and the next title, which probably won't wait for thirty-six years.
Bonus video:
