It is impossible for me to think of my native Argentina today when Argentina is playing Spain without considering those two colours, white and blue of our flag.

More that in the Mexico that I lived for so many years or in the US when I went to school in Austin, I never felt that obsession that we Argentines have for our flag. The flag was designed by Manuel Belgrano who was a patriot during the war of independence who was a dreamer and not a very good general. He picked the the blue so often seen in our open sky pampas.

In school it was hammered on us that the blue was celeste and not azul. Coloured pencil sets in Argentina always had the light blue.

While the concept is now fading, at one time the flag with that sun in the middle was the pabellón or battle flag. It was raised in military establishments and ships of the Argentine Navy. I have my father’s very large wool flag and it has not sun. He would unfurl it twice on our palm tree on  9 July and 25 May the two anniversaries of Argentine independence.

Because of my Argentine obsession for our flag I was always excited when I would see my friend Patrick Reid walking on 41^st in Kerrisdale. I would go up to talk to him knowing he was singly responsible for not only hiring George Stanley who designed the Maple Leaf but also on impulse Reid added an extra point to the leaf when the flag was on his kitchen floor.

My mother always refused to watch football games between Argentina and Mexico saying that if she did the Argentines would surely lose. I sort of think like that. Win or lose I will suffer. Argentines always say they suffer and that may be one of the reasons why Argentina had the highest per-capita psychologists and psychiatrists working there.

After all, tango lyrics almost always are about that woman who left the man.

The rumpled banner here was the banner of the Dirección General del Material Naval which were I was placed as a conscript in the Argentine Navy between 1965 and 1967.