Stories of Football, Love and Covid

In March 2020, the first case of Covid-19 was confirmed in Chile, and fear increased throughout the country. Emergency protocols against this global pandemic were immediately activated, and the extreme “no contact” measures between people began to generate social psychosis and fear, also affecting the railway town of Estación Baquedano. These measures disrupted the lives of Marcos (14) and Manolo (13), two of the few preteens remaining in this forgotten town. To pass the time and have fun during the hot, dusty afternoons of Baquedano, they had built their own stadium in the oldest part of town, complete with large goalposts and corner flags. Everything is interrupted by the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic, leading the alarmed mothers of Marcos and Manolo to shut them inside their homes without allowing them to go out—leaving their cherished “soccer stadium” unprotected.