“He rarely leaves his house,” says one of the verses of this famous “Birthday Song” which Joaquín Caro Romero dedicated to the Macarena It was so many years ago that Arquillo was still a decade away from stepping into the picture for the first time. Spell … little from his house, but this time he went out and spent more time than anyone would be willing to bear. The Virgin of Hope, who He was absent for four days in June.spent months away from the daily affection that Sevilla gives him every day. After fearing losing her or never seeing her again like before, three words are enough to realize the magnitude of what is happening this Monday: Hope returns. And he does it at dawn on the day of the Immaculate Conception, which is nothing other than a sign that this reunion will remain forever engraved in the memory of the Sevillians.
The Macarena will be displayed with reverence the first three days of the week: the 8th, from 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., while on Tuesday and Wednesday, December 9 and 10, it will be from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Very long hours, which total a total of 45 hoursso that all the brothers and faithful can enjoy the proximity of the Virgin and find the look that we all remember, as if it had remained intact all this time.
Far, far away, it’s now the morning of June 21when the world of brotherhoods was shaken by a tidal wave of dimensions which in the following hours, days and weeks would become biblical: the return to the cult of the Macarena after an a priori “conservative and maintenance” intervention of four days by Francisco Arquillo’s team. The supposedly “superficial” work rendered one of the most dedicated and extensive sculptures in Andalusia and Spain with a very different look, starting with the eyelashes, but going much deeper.
Three interventions in 24 hours
Council officials present on the night of Friday June 20 decided to restore the cult of the image. The alarming photographs of the Virgin flooded the Internet and caused panic as soon as the basilica opened, which had to close earlier than planned so that the Arquillos could emergency eyelash removal. The church reopened at six o’clock with a new apparition of the Virgin, which did not succeed in calming the tense spirits of the Macarenos and the Sevillians, who motivated a third intervention during the night from Saturday to Sunday not communicated by the corporation to its brothers. This time it was not Arquillo, but the restorer Esteban Sánchez Rosado, under the direction of Carlos Peñuela, curator of the movable assets of the brotherhood, who took charge of a new touch-up that would reverse as much as possible the performance of Arquillo’s team. Already in the morning, the brotherhood exposed in veneration of the Macarena at the presbytery of the temple for three days to reassure the people. But the Virgin was still different. The uncertainty and mistrust, fueled by the total silence of the board of directors, affected the brothers, who, months later, still have not recovered.
The doors of the basilica open at six in the morning, marking the start of three intense days of veneration of the Virgin.
The following days were chaotic, with a demonstration in front of the basilica demanding explanations and resignations virtually coinciding with the meeting of board officials to decide how to handle the crisis. Fuensanta de la Paz and Pedro Manzano They visited the basilica to see the pain, concluding that it needed to be restored. There were apologies – late – from the board of directors, resignations from the mayor and the priest of La Esperanza which were not accepted by the ecclesiastical authority, and a IAPH Assessmentwho was responsible for reporting on the condition of the sculpture, as well as the two restorers mentioned. As a result of this, the intervention proposal was made that Manzano, chosen for the job, presented to the brothers during the large extraordinary public assembly convened on July 29. Before that, the Macarena was transferred to the National Accelerator Center (CNA) for an exhaustive analysis of its dimensions.
A decisive piece of advice
In this extraordinary general councilwho had brothers even at the main altar given the high influx of participants, IAPH exposed the issues that caused the image to drag both from Arquillo’s intervention and the non-stop passage of time. In addition, Pedro Manzano presented the intervention work lines proposal, which would last approximately three months: the removal of Arquillo’s polychromy fixation, general cleaning and recovery of stains with the aim of restoring the chromatic tone of the image, with the exception of the hands, which would regain their color over time, as well as disinfestation, replacement of the hand fixation system, closing of a crack, revision of metal elements and replacement of eyelashes and tears. The restoration was approved, although the town hall lasted until the early hours with a very tense atmosphere and a feeling of broken brotherhood.
Brothers queue to participate in the July 29 town hall
A few days later, on August 5, the date of the electoral councilwhich would take place on November 30, marking the start of a long and intense electoral campaign of the different candidates who formalized their lists: José Luis Notario, Fernando Fernández Cabezuelo and Pedro García. Throughout this period, the brotherhood had the Lord of Sentence on the high altar of the temple, because the Virgin of Hope was withdrawn from worship at the closing of the basilica, on Tuesday August 12, to begin the treatment of anoxia prior to the restoration and, once completed, the intervention process itself, for which Pedro Manzano was responsible until a few days ago. Four months of absence began, which had become eternal.
A few days earlier, on August 10, Francisco Arquillo breaks his silence exclusively for ABCwho denied having exceeded his limits in his actions, ensuring at all times that what his team had done to the Virgin was consensual with the brotherhood and showing the two people who intervened on it during the night of the 21st to the 22nd as being responsible for the morphological and appearance changes that the image presented. He also assured that the state of conservation of the Macarena was “optimal” and that “it did not require any type of restoration”, statements that contradicted the IAPH report, taken into account for the action proposal carried out by Pedro Manzano.
One month of anoxia and three of restoration
He treatment of anoxia in Esperanza Macarena, carried out under the direction of Pedro Manzano by the specialist company Samitech, was completed on September 8, on schedule. The sculpture remained in the treatment bubble for 24 days with an oxygen concentration of 0.00%, achieving a satisfactory result with the elimination of xylophages detected in previous analyses. The definitive beginning restoration by Pedro Manzanowhich lasted the expected three months and developed exactly as the restorer had planned at the start of the work, eliminating the additions of wood pulp to the image and repainting it and returning its polychromy to the Virgin of Hope. During this period there was another visit to Cartuja to undergo a scan.
The neighborhood awaits the return of the Virgin
Just as the complex and delicate process of the image was being completed, the public meeting took place. electionswho broke the brotherhood’s participation record with 5,592 votes. With nearly 2,300 supporters, the brothers elected Fernando Fernández Cabezuelo, who will take office a few days before the kiss hands picturewhich will take place in San Gil in commemoration of its centenary. Both the outgoing older brother and his board of directors and the elected official were able to check Virgo status before his reintegration into the sect, leaving them largely satisfied. As Pedro Manzano said a few days ago, “I hope that Macarena returns, and that she does so with the dignity, authenticity and grandeur that her story deserves.”
The look of Hope has also returned, the one that his entire brotherhood and his neighborhood are impatiently awaiting. a few nervous hours before but full of faith, joy and trust which reminds us, neither more nor less, of the day before the presentation of the Rose d’Or, just one year ago. Balconies to adorn the facades, posters plastered everywhere announcing the return of the Virgin and large canvases bearing her image announcing that The surroundings of the Arc, like all of Seville, are celebrating. Disappointments, bad decisions and internal battles are left behind. Everything will be in the background when, after spending the vigil of the Immaculate Conception, the city will receive the gift that it has been waiting for the longest and most ardently. The queues will not only circulate around the basilica, but throughout Spain. Today, the echoes of Marta Serrano’s saeta resound throughout Resolana. Macarena, you were gone for four days… and it took you over a hundred to come back. This Monday, the Macarena finally returns so that Sevilla can regain its hope.
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