Feb 25, 2023
Our friends Brenda and Craig arrIived from New Orleans on Saturday morning. We decided that it would be a good day to explore the neighborhood of Recoleta where our hotel is located. We headed over to the famous Recoleta Cemetery where the rich and powerful of Buenos Aires are buried. The cemetery and the neighborhood were named for an order of monks and a convent that were first established in this location in the early 1700’s. The cemetery is built on what was the garden of the convent and first opened in 1822. There are close to 5000 vaults, all containing multiple coffins, many on multiple levels. The monuments are very ornate with marble statues and decor that came from Europe during the city’s heyday. Argentine presidents, war heros, the rich and powerful and the famous first lady, Eva Peron are all buried here. We were lucky to find an English speaking tour with Victoria of Buenos Aires Urban Walks just as we walked in the gates. She made a huge difference in our enjoyment of the cemetery, because she shared so many stories about individuals that are buried here and their impact on the history of the nation and city of Buenos Aires.
After our most excellent 2 hour tour of the cemetery, we had lunch at a historic cafe called La Biela. There has been some type of eating establishment at this corner for 150 years. The name means “connecting rod” and refers to an automobile part. Apparently an association of motor sport lovers adopted this venue as their unofficial headquarters in the 1950’s and gave it the name it still carries. Because of its proximity to the park and tourist sights, the place was packed at lunchtime inside and out. Nevertheless our server was wonderful and patient with our tourist spanish as we enjoyed a little break to refuel.
For dinner we chose an elegant Italian restaurant just around the corner from our hotel. Sottovoce was an excellent choice and a nice alternative to meat focused dinners.
I will try and recount some of the more interesting cemetery stories she shared here.
This huge mausoleum was constructed to memorialize the lives of Salvador María del Carril and his wife Tiburcia Domínguez. She designed the tomb since he preceded her in depth. The two busts have their backs to each other. Apparently the husband finally was done with his wife’s outrageous spending and he published a letter in the newspapers announcing he would no longer honor her debts. She vowed to never speak to him again. They were married another 20 years before he died and she kept that promise. She designed this massive tomb where he is under cover seated in a chair and she is facing the elements looking away from her husband of 50 years. That is a grudge taken to the grave!
Rufina Cambaceres, a 19-year-old socialite died suddenly in 1902 on her nineteenth birthday while preparing to see a show at the Colon Theatre. She was taken to the cemetery and left in the chapel to be interred later. When they returned the next day, the casket had been moved and the lid displaced. Suspecting a grave robbing, the family had the lid opened. Rufina’s jewellery was in place but the coffin and her face were scratched. She had in fact suffered cataplexy – a condition where a person stays awake but cannot move. She died in the casket from a heart attack due to panic and lack of air. Rufina is represented as a life-size art nouveau statue of a young woman with her hand on the door of her own mausoleum, and her face scratched.
Liliana in her wedding dress with her beloved pet dog whose nose is shiny from rubbing. Liliana died at 26 on her honeymoon in Austria in a ski avalanche. Her parents reconstructed her bedroom within her tomb.
The most visited tomb in Recoleta is that of Argentina’s beloved former first lady, Eva Peron. She died at 33 from ovarian cancer. She was a controversial figure in Argentine history. She did champion the poor and established right for women to vote in 1951 but not everyone loved her. She was the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy rancher , Juan Duarte. When he died, his family cut her off and she was raised by her mother. After her death, anti-Peronist military dug up her corpse and hid it for 14 years, including a trip to Milan where she was buried under a false name, to banish her from history. Her body was eventually returned to Argentina in 1971 as part of a ransom payment, twenty four years after her death. Her half-sisters had her buried in the Duarte family crypt five metres underground under protective cement and steel. Her mausoleum is very simple and the lines are long to pay respects.