After Tragedy, Residents of Chapecó Wear Team Jersey and Put Out Symbols of Mourning

12/01/2016 - 11h46

The day following the plane crash which killed nearly the entire Chapecoense team and journalists, leaving 71 dead in Colombia, residents of Chapecó (Santa Catarina) were wearing the team's jersey and putting out symbols of mourning at their homes and businesses.

Detail seen on a firefighter truck: black bands on the rear-view mirrors. At a local hotel, customer service staff fabricated small black and green brooches to pin on their lapels.

Mannequins are no longer visible in store windows as they are covered by large swaths of mourning. Anybody who doesn't have a team shirt or jersey finds something green to wear.

"My four-year-old son asked me: 'Mom, did Chape die?'. I hadn't said anything to him but can see everything that is going on", laments 37-year-old professor Cristiane Moreira, wearing a team jersey and carrying Leonardo who is also wearing his.

If one part of the city is in silence, another, in the region surrounding the Condá Arena, the Chapecoense home stadium, is full of noise.

Under the blazing sun, an unusual amount of traffic has appeared where fans are getting together, without knowing quite what to do.

They have hung signs of homage on the fences and spend hours simply gazing on the grass and weeping.

Media professionals from all over the world have also descended on the area. In the locker room, family members of players who died in the accident receive medical attention from health workers.

"They were our beloved sons. All of a sudden, due to them, Chapecó showed up on the map. The team gave notoriety to the city. Chapecó really started to exist because of soccer, which is the heart of all Brazilians", said Maria Helena Franco, Professor at PUC-PR and coordinator of the University's mourning laboratory.

"People are confused, they're suffering from the experience. And the children are living through perhaps their first major loss - it's essential to validate this suffering, to recognize it."

"This one here doesn't even want to watch TV", says 64-year-old retiree Jodelcir Pereira pointing to his 11-year-old granddaughter Larissa. She hears her grandfather and responds: "It's that Chapecoense was always fighting [for victory] and nowthis".

She cites her favorite players: Bruno Rangel and Danilo. Next to her, her one-and-one-half year-old sister Mirella plays with the candles on top of a box of sand, an improvised homage paid to the players in the stadium.

Acting Chapecoense President, Ivan Tozzo, says that he can't stop thinking about the children that lost their parents in the accident.

"It's really very difficult", he laments. "Soccer players are young and all of them have kids who are 3, 4, 5 years-oldand kids get to us."

Chapecó is the largest city in the west of Santa Catarina and the 5th most populous in the state with approximately 210 thousand inhabitants.

Translated by LLOYD HARDER

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	Luis Acosta/AFP
	People participate in a tribute to the players of Brazilian team Chapecoense killed in a plane crash in the Colombian mountains