Have you ever heard of The Paisano? Argentine polo player Manuel Andrada (January 9, 1890 – 1962) was one of Argentina’s most famous and colorful polo players.
A paisano is a gaucho who lives on the pampas and works with the horse.
At first, Paisano Andrada was not allowed to play polo; his job was to train horses for the owners of the Curulaman Estancia in Coronel Suarez.
Then one day, they needed a player, so the paisano was allowed on the field with no stick and told to ‘just take the man.’ The first time they gave him a mallet, he scored 12 goals.
In six years, Paisano Andrada went from 0 to 9 goals in Argentina, and 10 goals in the rest of the world.
In a glittering career, Manuel Andrada won the Argentine Open six times on five different teams.
Manuel Andrada was a key player on the gold-medal winning Argentine Polo team in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, the last time polo was played at an Olympic Games. Eduardo Andrada, son of Manuel, recalled that Adolf Hitler himself was the one who handed the gold medal to his father. “The American Jesse Owens won in athletics and since he was black, when they had to give him the medal, Hitler sat down and another officer gave the award to Owens. Then my dad came up and Hitler got up, gave him his hand and handed him the medal. There was an appalling discrimination against blacks,” he stressed.
Not only was Paisano Andrada a brilliant player, but he enjoyed playing the game well into his 70’s. At age 74, Andrada was still playing off 4 goals. He was known throughout the polo world as “El Paisano.”
While Andrada was honored with a 10 goal handicap in USA and almost every other country he played in, he was not given the ultimate accolade in his own country. Ironically, one suggestion is that it might have been because he did not speak any English. The AAP has made up for this by recognizing him with a bronze player in action, at Palermo, the Mecca of Polo.
El Paisano passed away in 1962, but did you know that one of his relatives is playing polo in Malaysia?
Agustin Andrada has played in Malaysia since 2015. Agustin is a 5-goal polo professional who plays for La Sarita. He is a great grandson of the famous El Paisano.
I spoke to Agustin about his Great Grandfather, and what it means to him to carry the Andrada name.
Agustin says, ‘This for me is great, to have the same surname of the man who was one of the best of that time! It makes me feel very proud. I think that he had a great effect in the sport of polo in Argentina. It is great to be recognized as the great grandson of EL PAISANO ANDRADA, but is more the personal feeling and how proud I am of having the surname…
I never knew my Great Grandfather because he passed away in 1962 before I was born, but yes, the family has many stories about him. Of course we heard about his magnificent exploits on the polo field. He was one the most successful players Argentina of his era. So there are a lot of newspaper and magazine articles about him. He was really famous in Argentina.
In my house in Rio Cuarto I have all the newspaper cuttings of my great grandfather from El Gráfico and LA NACION, when he triumphed in Berlin and from the chronicles of the six titles he achieved in Palermo” (He won two with Santa Paula, and one each with La Rinconada, Tortugas, Los Indios and El Trébol).
He was a very funny and relaxed guy, all the time doing jokes with his guests or people who were with him.
He loved all kinds of animals! One famous story we have is about his duck. At that time he had the pet duck, he had to travel to New York to play in a big match there, but he couldn’t leave the duck behind! So, he took the duck with him to New York, and the duck used to follow him everywhere, even walking in the main streets.
I think polo has improved a lot, has changed a lot from those times. I don’t feel like there is a legacy. It is more about how people recognize him as a common man who became one of the best players in the world, one of the best Argentine players. It is said that ‘El Paisano’ managed to break the elitism of the polo. This is what he gave to everyone – the hope that no matter who they are, they can be the best.
Last year he was recognized by the Argentine Polo Association. At Palermo they built an historic new place just outside the grandstand, where all the players meet after games. They called it the MANUEL ANDRADA PLAYERS SQUARE.
Here I am at the square, with my great grandfather depicted in action in bronze. With me in the photo are Shyam Mehta, the President of the Mumbai Polo Club, and Ali Jumabhoy of La Sarita.
There is a Manuel Andrada grandstand at Palermo. He is the only polo player who has a stand named after him at Palermo. It is at the field number 2 of Palermo.
Also, the OLYMPIC OAK TREE that was brought from Berlin when they won the Olympics in 1936, is there as a monument. The Olympic Oak is a tree that he and his three teammates of the conquest of Berlin, Luis Duggan, Roberto Cavannagh and Andrés Gazzotti, with Andrada, brought from the German Black Forest.
El Paisano Andrada is a man who is recognized as one of the best players the world has ever seen. It is an honor to carry his surname.
References:
http://www.paisanopolo.com/
http://www.argentinapolo.com/paisano1.html
https://www.telediariodigital.net/
With thanks to Agustin Andrada and Maria Marta Andrada for photos and cuttings from their family album.
