Recoleta Cemetery is the resting place for Argentina's great and good, and presidents, though I'd never heard of them. You know the sort of thing: Presidente General Doctor Jose Ignacio Rodriguez Lopez Rodriguez Rodriguez, founder of something in 1844 etc.
What's interesting about Recoleta for the gringo is not who's buried but what they're buried in. This is no line-up of headstones: it's a whole village of deads, each in their kiosk-sized mini-mausolea, terraced like a village, complete with streets and little squares: a genuine Ghost Town.
Actually, there is one person buried here famous even to the clueless such as me: Eva Peron. Apparently there was some opposition to her being interred here - not because of the appalling songs she sang in the Lloyd Webber musical, but something to do with her family, the Duartes, being of low birth.
This is her tomb, anyway. It's not signed and rather tricky to find. Luckily I tagged along with Xavier, a Spanish guy who did the asking. After a half-hour unintentional tour and conflicting instructions from guides, tourists, cleaners and chaps digging up the pavements, we found it: the Familia Duarte.
No comments:
Post a Comment