-And when they ask you... And where has it touched you? You have to decide...
-In the Antojitos tombola!, chants a crowd that brings together angelic children's voices with squawks for the fighter. The crowd ranges from families with children eager for a stuffed animal to kids, calimocho in hand, who would give the other arm for the minimoto or the electric scooter. Those present nervously trample a floor covered by hundreds of broken tickets, ephemeral passports to the dream of fortune. The lucky ones climb a ladder to climb the counter of the stall and spin a roulette wheel with disparate awards: from the Satisfyer to computer devices or toys. The jackpots are reserved for special raffles in this traditional barracks that TikTok has conquered when the ritual of Juan Manuel Ortega, owner of the shed, with the buyers of the ballots went viral. Since then, a non-stop. "Kids come from other cities just to take a picture or a video with us," celebrates the veteran fairgrounder, 67.
The lights and shelves full of items of all kinds serve as an attraction for viewers of all profiles. The area of the Valladolid fair where this September the stalls have been installed has become a stage for Ortega, with 53 of his 67 years in the guild. The physical devotion to his singing is negligible next to the virtual frenzy on the social network TikTok: a video precisely in Pucela two years ago got 25 million views and the label "Antojitos" exceeds 300 million views since that ball. The protagonist of the matter, born in Logroño but knowledgeable about all of Spain in his years of caravan, feels like Chiquito de la Calzada: "We have both achieved success when we were older when we had been doing the same thing all our lives." Even the smart speaker Alexa, when asked humming "And where has you touchedooo?", responds, even animated, wanting to fair: "In the tombola Antojitos... The wheel is already turning... and beating hearts. I love it!"
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The digital irruption has allowed to alleviate several "difficult years" due to the pandemic, fatal for the fairgrounds. The fault lies with those kids between 13 and 16 years old, even able to move from city to go to the one where the Logroño family has settled, eager to buy ballots, try their luck and, win or not, get on the ladder to spin the roulette wheel and sing the soniquete. Of course, to hang it on their profiles and show off with their followers. "It's an audience that we didn't have before, they bring their parents," celebrates the owner. Some trapdoor makes from time to time, he admits, when a child climbs to this particular throne and touches some little sweet prize for a minor: "Then I make some change and I give him a stuffed animal, the parents realize and appreciate it because they see the happy face of their children, so then they end up returning. " Fairs such as those of the Virgin of San Lorenzo in Valladolid, where they are installed for about three weeks, translate into preparing some 300,000 tickets that will then be sold to two for one euro or different promotions.
Ballots of the tombola Antojitos fill the floor of the fair of Valladolid.Emilio Fraile
Times also change in the sector and now the star craving is "the roll of the Satisfyer, people cheer it and applaud when it comes out. Whoever is embarrassed is a little embarrassed but people end up delighted." This triumph does not even reach when, several generations ago, the "chochona doll" prevailed, an indispensable trophy then and now forgotten by the fate of the times: "It was brutal, an unrepeatable social phenomenon, everyone wanted it. Recently we tried to put it back in fashion but it has failed, we have to renew ourselves because tastes change". Technology reigns today with speakers, smart watches or wireless headphones as a quoted piece always behind minibikes or Play Station, much more advanced than the raffles a few years ago. The stuffed animals, admits the owner, fall a little short in popular aspirations except for the little ones.
Ortega's recognizable voice, audible from many meters away from his habitat, requires certain care that age has been incorporating. Some, says its owner admiringly, has instinctively added his body, because "he sings with his stomach" to protect the throat. Your doctor only asks you to monitor your blood pressure and glucose, bad business in cotton candy paradise. The seasonality of the trade allows him to stop from the fairs of El Pilar in Zaragoza, last of the campaign, to return to the ring in Carnival. His son has inherited the timbre and the taste for the tombola and allows him to rest between days of eight and 10 hours. The ghosts of the house of terror come to his barracks when he thinks of retiring after half a century in a hard profession, taking care of buying products, moving trucks, goods or housing: "It's a lot of stress."
The figure of this fairground is added to the various items exhibited between seductive lights to attract those wanting to bet some money. A group already in their thirties looks out and acquires long-awaited tickets in the form of tickets, but inside there is no fortune and the numbers do not fit with the winners.
"What a way to throw away a euro!" protests one of them, blinded by defeat.
The friends had two goals: either an air fryer, which you have to take care of, or a hair curler for another colleague. He's bald.
A woman plays roulette at the Antojitos tombola under the gaze of Juan Manuel Ortega, owner of the business. Emilio Fraile
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