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The distinguishing feature of the San Fermín neighbourhood, in the Usera district, is the slope of the public swimming pool on San Mario street.
The users, as an official would call the Sunday people, share the shadows, forming a galaxy divided into towel systems.
Conversations are picked up from the center of the grassy slope.
The sound of life developing in the water arrives, the ASMR that evokes childhood.
The triad of the screech, the splash and the whistle.
The need to meet around the chlorine pools is an atavistic spasm that allows us to discover the other's physique and shake off the heat wave that has swept through Madrid until this Sunday
.
There is a brisilla typical of the last summer afternoons.
"I turned around and she ate my mouth," a woman tells her two friends.
They break down relationships through conversation.
They expose the behavior structure of the group of friends.
They drink cans of Estrella Galicia.
Two men play with a pool ball that has the world map screen printed on it.
Under a pine tree, a mother takes out a loaf of bread.
The baby climbs up her father's belly.
It is a newly released family that makes memories: if it goes well, the moment will flash forever;
if it goes wrong, they will use pool Sunday to find some clue to fatality.
There is a sign hanging on the door: "No tickets left for today."
"We gossip and watch"
"On weekends it is always full. The influx during the week is relative," explains Alejandro Mori, operational manager of the facility.
Tickets can be purchased online.
In fact, there is only 5% available at the box office.
"Since May, workers have become digital teachers.
The digital divide does not only affect the disabled or those over 65. There are many people who do not know how to get in"
.
Miriam, from Ecuador, and Sonia, from Bolivia, bought theirs on Friday.
They have come with their children.
The kids are about to run into the water.
No one is as intense as a mother covering a boy's little body with cream.
No one kisses like a mother the son she dries.
"They just finished one," says Miriam, who has been in Madrid for 24 years.
Sonia arrived eight later.
"Those who have the best time are the children.
We gossip while we watch them.
We come for them. These days we have had a terrible time. At least here it is cool and today it is not so hot."
The complex has, in addition to the large pool, a splash pool, changing rooms and a feeding area.
The reform, carried out this year, caused it to open later than May 14, the day that the swimming pool season began.
To access the sample of colors, skins, love handles, hair, moles, nipples and navels, you just have to pay 2.25 euros.
Two people from Madrid in the swimming pool of the Casa de CampoEdu ParraEuropa press
Marta, a 24-year-old Italian, and Mohammed, a 26-year-old Syrian, have just arrived.
They complete the process of finding the ideal place to spread out.
They have backpacks in hand.
They are a bit confused: who is the idiot who asks questions in a swimming pool?
"We have come here because it is the only pool where there are tickets left.
The truth is that we have had a terrible time with the heat wave
. "
Even if they wanted to eat on the lawn, they couldn't: from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. the pool is closed.
"That time is used to disinfect. It is something that has remained from the coronavirus and I don't know if they will change it.
Many of those who leave don't come back."
old conflicts
A few years ago, this pool was one of the controversial ones.
It was taken over by gang members.
"There were many problems. Luckily they are over.
Now you just have to call attention to those who throw bombs or put music on the speakers . Before,
Dominican Don't Play
were left to stick on the door
, "recalls Mori.
No song is heard.
The voice of a mother wins over the others: -Stay out of the deep end!
-orders-.
Javier has the shirt on.
He has seen his friend Adrián take a bath.
"We have come from Leganés by car. It is our first day here," he points out.
They are 25 and 20 years old respectively.
"I prefer the beach," says Adrián.
"In the absence of a beach, we come here to cool off"
.
They are the second generation, the children of immigrants: the whole
ejque
embedded in a Latin frame.
"We arrived among the first, at 10 in the morning."
Noelia and Alexandra, two twentysomethings, are already getting dressed.
Hangover?
"Nah. Otherwise, we wouldn't be here," Alexandra smiles.
"The best thing about the pool is the green one, which is very good. It was the only one with tickets available
. There weren't any in Embajadores. The rest of the pools, like the one in Moratalaz, are all cement. They are worse."
They have decided to leave because the pool lacks, well, a bar.
"We're going to see if we can find a bar where we can have a beer
," Noelia says goodbye.
There is no chair, the penicillin of summer: we were nobody until the Fleming of Sunday people decided to use a chair.
The dispute between those who maintain the classic towel and those who opt for the lawn tablecloth in which three or four people can sit is at odds.
The cloudy ones come and go taking away from the pool its practical character.
All Sunday people, passing the cloud, become Jean Paul Belmondo
.
The true meaning of life is revealed.
Crunch appetizer merchandise.
El Chivo looks up over the hedge that separates the pool from the pine forest.
He got out of the water using the ladder.
He has several tattoos.
Black hair, gray and peroxide.
"They call me El Chivo," he finds out with a Latin American accent.
"
In a circle of fathers and mothers, this pool is famous. We chose it because of the shade. It looks like an oasis
. You look at the others on the internet and they are in worse condition. In addition, there were no tickets left in Santa María de la Cabeza either."
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