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As an adult, one may be critical of national realities or disdain certain conventions associated with nationalism, but a recently won Olympic medal can generate strong emotions and boost an often battered national ego.
Jean-Pierre Brohl won bronze and Adriana Ruano won gold and set records at these Paris Games. We are very happy and excited about what these athletes have achieved. Not only does it represent the culmination of Brohl and Ruano’s efforts (their families, their coaches, and of course many more people contributed in one way or another), but it is also considered a national achievement. For example, seeing Adriana Ruano win a gold medal and hearing the national anthem, for the first time in more than a hundred years of the Olympics, filled us with what we call national pride. This is no small thing.
Other effects occur. Family, friends and acquaintances talk about the importance of the event. For a time, people’s sense of identity is strengthened, and the feelings and connections of the community are strengthened. We recreate the details, share information (there is no shortage of memes), and we feel happy. Group narcissism is temporarily satisfied.
There are always exceptions and critical points. There is no complete community here either, but a sense of joy prevails and any critics are resentful (I say this to describe what happened, not to accept said opinion).
(frasepzp1)
Seen in this light, it may seem paradoxical to try to analyze part of what is happening. Guatemala has many problems and shortcomings. It is a country with high poverty rates, informality, malnutrition and high inequality. Social indicators have a history of delays and serious dissatisfaction. At the political level, we continue to face a conflict between a democratically elected executive (who is delaying the performance of his duties and distancing himself from the sectors that allowed him to come to power) and a corrupt pact group (councilors, deputies, courts, USAC and others), which poses a risk to the country’s institutions, democracy and future.
Deep flaws and inequalities, lack of education (including sports), historical violence, lack of a national program that respects differences, tolerates differences and cares about differences are part of the difficulty we have in achieving more of this kind of success. Brower and Ruano. So there is a paradox of the situation. We are excited about this, but we have not created the conditions that would allow for greater success.
It’s not simple. I think thinking about this question requires taking into account the multiple connections between social life in a country like Guatemala and what Brower and Ruano accomplished, and the impossibility of this being part of more than just one emotional moment: the construction of a viable human community.
This situation is what we already know for us as a whole: a difficult panorama of achieving individual and collective projects. Psychologically, it translates into a drop in national self-esteem, which is frustrated and discouraged in most daily realities, indices or abilities. But in cases such as those of these Olympic medals, it temporarily improves.
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