Sisyphus in the Atanasio Girardot Myth and aguante in the literature on Deportivo Independiente Medellín

Abstract

Deportivo Independiente Medellín, DIM, has exerted an irresistible fascination for some of the foremost writers of Colombia today. Authors such as Héctor Abad Faciolince, Juan Manuel Roca and Darío Jaramillo Agudelo have produced texts on DIM in addition to those written by journalists as Reinaldo Spitaletta, Guillermo Zuluaga or Gonzalo Medina. In all of them we find some common motifs on the suffering and relapsing character of this team’s fans. From the approach to the concept of aguante, studied by the Argentine sociologist Pablo Alabarces, and the analysis of some mythical elements in the narrative of football, this article aims to demonstrate how literature helps to consolidate an autonomous discourse on the Poderoso claiming ideas like the seduction of failure or complacency in defeat.