Lolo Fernández: how her granddaughter Marina and a legion of cream fans keep her legacy alive

After the death of her mother, Marina Quiñe has assumed the role of preserving the memory of her grandfather. “What interests me is that their image is respected, I am not looking to profit”, he emphasizes. The night before this interview he had attended the presentation of the comic ‘El Cañonero’, at the Lima Book Fair, where he was able to perceive the devotion that Merengue fans profess for Lolo Fernández through songs and cheers. “Feeling a bit of that affection is indescribable, it helps me imagine the emotion my grandfather felt every time he went out on the field”says.

Marina’s memories with the extraordinary cream striker transport her to a house in Lince, on General Córdova street. She especially remembers the Sunday afternoons in which they shared a Creole menu for lunch, but, above all, the sweets and candies that her grandfather gave her when she went to visit him. He was quite fond of his family and kind to the people who stopped her step to show her affection. “Unfortunately, I did not get to enjoy it much. At the end of the eighties, she stopped seeing him due to the Alzheimer’s that was detected in her. Those were very hard moments.”

In addition to the images that come to her memory, Marina treasures some objects that belonged to her grandfather, of incalculable sentimental value: a ‘U’ insignia, a cane and various hats. She says that she also has a shirt that Lolo Fernández wore with the Peruvian team, which is not the same one that the famous collector Jorge ‘El Chupo’ Arriola keeps, who also has one of the hairnets that gave that distinctive touch to ‘9 ′ Peruvian.

“Lolo Fernández is no longer just a noble spirit among those who were his teammates and rivals. It has become the inspiration for songs for cream rock and roll bands, children baptized like that in RENIEC, busts in provincial squares, coliseums that neighbors build with their savings, a topic of conversation between grandparents and grandchildren, collectible t-shirts that cost thousands of soles and alternative shirts of another price”, comments Miguel Villegas, the journalist who knows the most about the cream idol.

THE ROUTE OF LOLO

Since 2015, every third Sunday in May, the cream fan dedicates his day to worshiping his greatest idol, in an act of love that has not been seen in another part of the world by a footballer: the pilgrimage to Hualcará, in Cañete , land of Lolo Fernández. The main promoter of this project is David Canales, a young fan of the U who had the idea of ​​creating a tourist circuit to learn about the origins of the cream striker, whom he baptized ‘La ruta de Lolo’. “The idea arose when I was in Ica working on the La Ruta del Pisco project. After seeing the great tourist potential in the towns in the area, I thought that a route of this type could be implemented in Hualcará”, says Canales.

The date to make the pilgrimage was chosen in honor of the birth of El Cañonero (May 20). The starting point is the Lolo Fernández stadium, in Breña. A kilometer before reaching Hualcará, the fans get off the buses and walk that route as if it were a procession. “The main objective of ‘La Ruta de Lolo’ is to be recognized as a tourist attraction, and to be able to rescue and preserve the Casa Hacienda Hualcará, which has suffered serious damage as a result of the passage of time.”

Thanks to this initiative, the town where Lolo Fernández was born was put on the map and today it is visited by hundreds of cream fans every day of the year. In 2020, the official newspaper El Peruano published in its Legal Regulations the official recognition of ‘La Ruta de Lolo’ as a “regional holiday”. And this year, within the framework of the celebrations for the 99th anniversary of Universitario de Deportes, negotiations are being made with the Mincetur to establish the project as part of the tourist packages offered to visitors.

Lolo Fernández is the ‘U’. And his story is more alive than ever.//