The popular phrase "
no one is a prophet in his land
" is often used for figures who achieve high public interest and are generally not recognized in their birthplace.
However, this phrase does not apply to
Alejandro "Bocha" Sokol.
On Monday, January 30, the day the musician who died in 2009 would have turned 63, a statue was placed on Remedios de Escalada and Arturo Jauretche.
It is around the corner from the
Hurlingham
station of the San Martín train.
The artist who, along with Luca Prodan and
Germán Daffunchio, founded
Sumo
in 1981
is a native of that municipality in the western suburbs of Buenos Aires .
The monument is the work of the Cordovan artist Adrián Bachi Delorto.
The idea of this recognition for Bocha gained a lot of strength in a pandemic from a neighbor who affirms that behind the musical myth "
there is a very dear person
".
The neighbor, Marcelo Jorge Fiori Quercetti, is a lawyer who, at 38 years old, was able to give himself the pleasure of giving this sculpture to the Municipality and to all the neighbors to honor the musician who was the protagonist of many anecdotes with his family, a guy who in the midst of the fame that having played in
Luca Prodan
's band had given him
and then with
Las Pelotas
he would go shopping at the Fiori Quercetti family kiosk.
The way to celebrate this anniversary was with a large-scale statue of Sokol that is
two meters tall
and weighs about one
and a half tons
.
The moment when the statue of Alexander was discovered.
Sokol is wearing a microphone and his iconic guitar together with an allusive plate, an artisan work carried out by the artist Adrián Bachi Delorto, a native of Villa del Rosario, Córdoba.
Contrary to what usually happens with established musicians, Marcelo remembers those moments of his first contacts with Sokol: "
It happened the other way around, I met him as a neighbor. He lived around the house
. I went to primary school and for me It
was '
Alejandro who has a band
', from what my mom told me. He was a great guy, he would go by and say hello to everyone."
And he adds: "Later I was able to access his artist work, something that did not happen to me with others in the environment. Bocha has those little stories here in the neighborhood that make him unforgettable. My old man had a car radio workshop and when he returned he would say ,
'the boys from Las Pelotas came to change a stereo, they're going on tour to Córdoba
', and if it wasn't him, my grandfather would tell me the stories."
The Bocha Sokol family, present at the tribute.
The sculpture holds a special feeling in the family of the lawyer from Parque Quirno, Bocha's hometown.
In addition, the young precursor of this idea feels that he "owes" to this place what he achieved today in his formation: he is the first university generation of a family with many years in Hurlingham.
There are thousands of anecdotes, but one that marked the emotion of this act for the day of the summons had Marcelo's grandfather as the protagonist.
"My grandfather had an anecdote that he always told every time he saw Sokol on TV, he said
'look, there's Alejandro. To think that I gave him things so he could shave before getting married
.' It was like that, Bocha a One day he went to the kiosk and asked him for the razor, the brush, the foam and he said '
Don Pepe, today I'm getting married
', and my grandfather then gave him all of that," says Marcelo.
Marcelo -who came up with the idea- with his wife at the location of the statue.
"What happened on Monday -he concludes-, was an act of closing that stage so beautiful that I had to live. My grandfather passed away a couple of years ago and this removes me, I think those emotions are on the surface of my skin".
From Sweden to Hurlingham
In 2020, just before the pandemic, Fiori Quercetti traveled to Sweden to visit her brother who lives there.
While in the port of Gothenburg, he took a photo with his nephew that would serve - later and without expecting it - as inspiration for this monument that was placed in the west of the Province of Buenos Aires.
In the port, seeing a monument to the Swedish artist Evert Taube that is located there, the boy told him "
musicians become a statue
", a phrase that remained in the unconscious of the Hurlingham neighbor.
When he returned, already in the context of confinement and isolation and the distance he has with his nephews, he remembered that and thought with his partner Patricia: "It is necessary to do something with Sokol, we must honor him."
The inspiration: Marcelo and his nephew in Sweden and in Hurlingham.
"It was one yes after another. The idea of the sculpture arose from one moment to the next and the factors came together to move forward: my wife gave me the yes, the sculptor took it and I moved forward with this design."
The Hurlingham Town Council agreed with this Hurlingham resident that "
they wanted to honor the anniversary of the birth
and not the death."
For this reason, once it was finished, it was stipulated that January 30, 2023 would be the first day that Bocha made a statue will receive residents and visitors in his hometown.
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