Diego Maradona: His Guaraní blood and the unprecedented theory about the idol's ancestral origins

The book Maradona Sangre Guaraní, by the journalist from Misiones, Sergio Alvez , proposes a unique interpretation of the popular idol : not only as the greatest exponent of football, but as a living emblem of the Guaraní roots that ran through him . Based on research that combines oral history, Jesuit documentation, and cultural testimonies, Alvez constructs a narrative in which indigenous identity, mestizaje, and regional belonging take on a new role in the biography of the Ten. In this interview, the author reconstructs how Maradona made his origins a symbol of pride , from the village to the world.

The book also delves into a hypothesis as provocative as it is well-documented : that football, far from being invented in England, has its origins in an ancient game played by the Guarani people in the South American jungle. The manga ñembosorái , mentioned in ancient Jesuit texts, serves as a starting point for rethinking the origins of the world's most popular sport from a decolonizing perspective. Between memories of the city of Esquina , chamamé songs, and traces of indigenous memory, Maradona appears as more than just a footballer: a son of the people, a body in which the profound history of Latin America beats.

–How did the idea for the book come about?

–Well, I live in Posadas, Misiones, about 600 kilometers from the city of Esquina, in Corrientes, where Don Diego and Doña Tota, Diego Maradona's parents, or father and mother, are from. It's a city that always intrigued me to visit, but for various reasons I never got around to it, until 2023, when I decided to spend a few days there with the intention of also meeting people who could tell me about Don Diego, Doña Tota, about Maradona, about the Maradonas. On that trip, I ended up learning many things I didn't know about Maradona, and especially about his connection to the city of Esquina, to the land of his parents, and to the province of Corrientes. A very close relationship, too, and strongly influenced by culture, not just genealogy. Some time later, I watched a video of a 1993 interview between Diego and the Spanish journalist Jesús Quintero, and it was there that I understood that Maradona's connection wasn't only with the city of Esquina, but that he was proud of and rightly vindicated his Guaraní blood, which is the same blood that runs through the veins of all of us who live here in this region: Misiones, Corrientes, Formosa, and obviously all of Paraguay. We are united by that history, in turn linked by the indigenous presence of the Guaraní, influenced by the Spanish colonization through the Jesuit settlements, the Jesuit experiences, and the interbreeding that also occurred later with European immigration.

–It's an almost unexplored side of Maradona.

–Yes, from there I tried to delve deeper into Maradona and that identity connection. Like all of us, he's not the only one. Maradona also has a genealogy composed of African descent, like many of us. I, too, have ancestors who were slaves in Brazil and escaped across the Uruguay River to the province of Misiones. In other words, there's a very strong mix in our blood, but I was interested in delving deeper into that Guaraní blood and, from there, into what Maradona means as a symbol of the people. In terms of identity, as someone representative of the pride he always felt in his roots. And there I'm not just talking about Guaraní blood, but also about his shantytown origins, poverty, Cabecita Negra, Peronist, Indigenous, etc.

–Could you tell us about the origin of football as a Guaraní invention?

–In researching this book, I came across another, slightly less-explored story that has to do with the vindication of football as a Guaraní invention. This takes us to Paraguay, specifically to the municipality of San Ignacio Guazú, which is still demanding recognition as the world's birthplace of soccer. These origins can be seen in Jesuit texts, documents from various priests who reported, through their records of observations and experiences with the Guaraní indigenous people, that a game very similar to football, with its own characteristics but extremely similar, was already played ancestrally in the Guaraní jungle. In other words, football wasn't invented as a game in England, but in the Guaraní jungle. There's a documentary I recommend called The Guaraní Invented Football, by Paraguayan director Marcos Ibáñez, which premiered in 2014 in Paraguay and addresses all these issues. In fact, I'm planning to present my book with Marcos Ibáñez in San Ignacio Guazú in a few months.

–What did Diego know about his origins?

–There's an interview with Maradona when he was only 12 years old, not yet well-known, just a kid playing for the Cebollitas. It was conducted by a journalist named Horacio del Prado, from the magazine El Gráfico , and Maradona answers: “I'm from Corrientes, I'm 12 years old, and my idol is Ricardo Bochini.” That is to say, despite the fact that Maradona was born in Villa Fiorito, in Buenos Aires, he already felt that identity as his own. He didn't even say in that interview “I'm the son of people from Corrientes,” but rather “I'm from Corrientes.” Later, over time, as he expressed in that interview thirty years later with Jesús Quintero, and on countless occasions when he returned to Corrientes, Maradona was always closely connected, not only to the Corrientes territory, but also through chamamé, gastronomy, and other customs. He was deeply rooted in that Corrientes identity that linked him to that Guaraní blood.

–Did you carry those identities everywhere?

–Also, on one occasion when he visited Croatia, Maradona was going to play a tribute match and said: “I came to see if they left me any inheritance.” This has to do with the fact that his mother, Dalma Salvadora, was descended from an immigrant who had come from the very area that is now Croatia. Without a doubt, I believe that Maradona's constant vindication, pride, and reinterpretation of the elements that make up his origins—among them his Guaraní blood, but also many others—make him a global, universal symbol that transcends and far surpasses sport.

Maradona Sangre Guaraní, by Sergio Alvez.