Start Year:
1985
Sector:
Club Taragüi
Position:
Teachers
Julio Sosa Díaz y “Lula” Bernatenes
A lifetime dedicated to children and sports, Lula and Julio arrived from Posadas to Las Marías in 1985. They began working at the Victoria school and the Virasoro school, respectively, and in a couple of years became leaders of the Taragüi Club.
From the first day they felt at home in Las Marías, “that's how all the generations of children we have taught to swim have done, not only from the family but from all of Virasoro.” “We started giving swimming classes and Julio had also joined the Municipality, the Sports Department, so we started with activities in the neighborhoods as well. Children's marathons, biathlons, triathlons. We got to know Virasoro and, of course, Las Marías where we practically lived, the Victoria school and the Taragüi Club.”
“The values that we most encourage in children are team spirit, solidarity and camaraderie”
“Everything we did in Virasoro, everything we have done in our lives, was always a challenge because we did it in places where it didn’t exist.” This is the case of canoeing, rugby, hockey, pool swimming, open water swimming with training in the lagoon. “In Virasoro, that didn’t exist. It was crazy back then to talk about open water swimming,” they tell us proudly.
When mentioning the activities in the pool, Julio and Lula open a separate chapter. “Fortunately, we have had our pool for two summers, where not only do the more than 120 children from the summer camp swim, but we also give swimming courses for children and adults.” There are many achievements in this area, and this is how its protagonists tell it: “what we have done with the kids in pool and open water swimming was truly majestic. People asked us ‘but where do you train? ’ Since Virasoro does not have a river and the competitions were held in the river in Posadas, Chaco, Formosa and Corrientes, “We even had provincial open water champions,” they say.
In turn, canoeing was born from open water swimming, since they needed to have canoes and their own rowers to accompany the young swimmers in the river.
In the beginning, the activities of the Taragüi Club were for children of collaborators, but due to the demand in Virasoro, derived from the sports activities that Julio and Lula were carrying out, people not related to the Las Marías employees were also incorporated, as it currently operates. “Today the club is available to everyone and only the children or people who are from Virasoro and who want to access the club activities pay a minimum fee.” At first there were few activities: hockey, rugby, canoeing, swimming and the summer camp. “Now handball, basketball, and children’s soccer are being added, all on the Las Marías grounds, for an average of 600 to 700 children per year.”
One of Julio and Lula’s challenges was to make the children aware of the importance of physical activity for their development. This is how they presented a project to Human Resources in which they raised the need for the staff to have organized physical activity. “Since then, twice a week, the staff of any sector of the Las Marías Group can access physical activity such as gymnastics, sports, swimming or walking,” they proudly share with us.