Source: Terra Sports
I think there was no place in Colombia where
the famous yellow stain had not
occupied both our minds and heart. It had been shaped during the cup’s classification
stage; however, it increased its influence because of the passion of those 23
heroes who left trace in the most important sport tournament all over the
world. Just look at news, certainly the term yellow stain bulked large as a common way to call the mass of
Colombians fans. So we all were thrilled when the yellow stain filled Brazilian stadiums singing with soul the
national anthem, and cheering on their players untiringly. A popular national journalist conveys such
sensation quite well:
“A chill run up all my body when I saw a soccer stadium of almost 74.000
seats full of Colombians cheering their team. Even though I tried to avoid falling
into their mesh, I could not refuse to the rising wave of patriotism absorbing
me. I was utterly touched by hearing the whole stadium singing the national anthem
and I cried with the majority of Colombians without really know why I did […]
At stadiums, at airplanes, at airports, the yellow stain gave us sense of
belonging in the middle of the distance from our country. Inadvertently we all
shared histories, conversations, and emotions notwithstanding our social
differences.”[1]
Likewise, I strongly believe lots of Colombians
got involved in such spiritual and physical experience, mainly those who had
the privilege of being present to worship their team over the several Brazilian
temples of Soccer.
When I am referring to the yellow stain as a collective being, I am not using it as a simple
metaphor. This systemic expression got life throughout the Colombian consciousness
whereby its body, thought and language were materialized. We clearly gazed its
physical shape both in Brazil and Colombia. It danced like the players when they scored a
goal. Eventually we saw it at every corner down the cities, at home, at the
companies. It celebrated victory and it was sad with defeat. Then, it lined
down the streets for welcoming their 23 sons and his leader as if they had won
the cup. Lots of its mind expressions were
shown upon social networks[2],
mostly on Twitter, the suitable net for identifying collective conversations. Hashtags
like: #ManchaAmarilla, #HinchasInseparables,#GraciasMiSeleccion, among many others, demonstrated it. It is possible to fathom such phenomenon
through the interesting Memes theory[3]
(replication of the collective memory). To summarize, this hypothesis
states that cultural spread -chiefly exposed on language and other inherent
cultural manifestations from each society- is analog to genetic
transmission and hence it can have an evolutionary effect both on individuals,
communities and societies. If this theory is overlapped with the yellow stain, what we did was create a meme or social memory moving onward to the next generations of Colombian partiers
who will celebrate with victory and will suffer with defeat of the Colombian
team.
Finally, it cannot be ignored the yellow stain is a phenomenon which has
positively touched to Colombia by showing its nice side around a sporting
scenario. However, we should be aware of this newborn organism is for now, just an
emotional idea. The growth of this movement in something further transcendent
than soccer depends on us, the Colombians who want to live in a good country[4].
Nobody has said it is easy, many times we prefer to take the pill for avoiding
the ill but it will still there. I think it would certainly worth regarding both the social disintegration and the no memory as two
of the most influential memes from our country.
[1] María Jimena Duzán (Column), Semana´s Magazine. “The Power of Soccer”
(EL PODER DEL FÚTBOL) Edition N°
1679, July 2014.
[2] The World Cup 2014
was the biggest social media event ever seen before.
[3] The meme expression has taken popularity as
a trend on Internet of spreading messages, pictures and videos. It was stated
by the scientist Richard Dawkins on his book The Selfish Gene.
