Buenos Aires, March 23 (NA) -- Cristina Mariscotti, better known as 'Abuela lalala,' passed away at the age of 79 in early March, but the sad news was only made public in recent hours as her family had preferred not to disclose it at the time, a neighbor revealed. Cristina became a public figure during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar when she was filmed dancing wrapped in the Argentine flag, celebrating the national team's victories. Surrounded by a group of young people, they cheered her on with the chant, 'Abuela, lalalalalá!' according to a report from the Liniers neighborhood newspaper Cosas del barrio, accessed by the Argentine News Agency. The woman had become the most famous grandmother in Liniers, but she had no grandchildren. She was born in Almagro in 1946 and moved with her family to the Liniers neighborhood when she was just two years old. She was a Boca Juniors fan, a parishioner of San Enrique, and a radio enthusiast. According to her own accounts, she participated in neighborhood cultural workshops, one of which was the Radio Workshop at the Elías Castelnuovo cultural center, where she said that, as a superstition, she did not watch the games and that Lionel Messi was her favorite player. 'I sent her a thousand messages, I hope at least one reached her,' she said at the time. Meanwhile, in early July 2024, Cristina was back in the news, but this time for a much less pleasant reason, as she had been the victim of a violent robbery at her home in Liniers. In addition to taking her savings, the criminals savagely beat her. A neighbor, Graciela, recounted that she had been at the San Enrique parish on February 11 and said: 'She was quiet, something unusual for her, and we noticed she had deteriorated significantly.' A few days later, she was hospitalized at Santojanni Hospital due to heart failure, and shortly after, she passed away. Father Esteban, the parish priest of San Enrique, stated: 'A few days ago, we held a mass in her memory.'
