Jesús Ruiz, 53 years old, He has lost count of the days he has been waiting in line at the Teatro Realin Madrid.
“I’ve been here, I don’t even know if it’s been nine or ten days, I don’t even remember,” he says.
There are 12 days of waiting and this Friday, when the doors open, you will be the first to enter the room where the the christmas lottery draw.
Like every December 22, the eyes and ears of all Spaniards are focused on the Teatro Real and on the voices of the children from the San Ildefonso School, who will sing the award-winning numbers, and the long-awaited El Gordo, worth four million euros …
“Just being here waiting and then entering the room to listen to the children of San Ildefonso is already a pride for me and it makes me very happy”explains Jesús excitedly.
For 16 years he has been traveling from his town Novales, in Cantabria, to watch the draw live in Madrid. This is the fifth year that he has managed to be first in line.
“This is already a challenge for me. It is no longer about entering and watching the draw live, but about arriving first,” he says.
It is a tradition that Jesús created to honor his family, his parents and his uncle, who always dreamed of seeing the drawing live, but never achieved it: “When Christmas came we saw the drawing on television, in black and white and always They said that one day we had to come… they couldn’t, I’m coming.”
With a hat, scarf and well dressed to face the cold temperatures that are already felt in Madrid, Jesús spends his days outside the Teatro Real, where everyone already knows and greets him. He arrives between 5:00 and 6:00 and remains there until around midnight, when he goes to rest. The place is signposted and those who arrive later respect the order.
“When the second one arrives, I take the opportunity to go to the hotel, take a shower, rest and stretch my legs a little. Anyway, what we do is control by numbers and there are never problems. We spent the last two nights here all together, because it’s coming a lot of people,” he explains. So much so that many remain at the theater door, unable to enter.
Inside the ritual is known and although everything is repeated there is always room for surprises. Like last year, when someone in the audience had the winning number.
“The Jackpot went to a girl here in the room. Of course it has to come out somewhere, but it should come out in the room… I’ve been here for years and it’s never happened to me.”
What also never happened was that he was one of the winners.
“No,” he says, laughing, “I have many friends who have been helped, but nothing has happened to me.” Even so, Jesus remains faithful to the same tenth, a combination of five zeros that has not yet brought him luck, but that, every year, keeps hope alive.
Source: TSF
