I live on the corner of Beruti and Azcuenaga. If I walk down Azcuenega into the Recolta, I pass behind the Recoleta Cemetary. It is a very weird walk because there are all of these mirrored, glitzy buildings. Some of them are pubs, and I figured out yesterday that the others are love hotels - hotels where you pay hourly to take someone, I guess someone you met at the pub.
The Recoleta Cemetary is quite an impressive place. Huge stone mausoleums house some of Argentines most wealthy and famous, including, supposedly, Evita Peron. There are questions as to whether Eva's body is really there or not. At one point it was removed because there were threats to steal it. The well-heeled of BA were not happy when she was buried there, in the family mausoleum her father who was not married to her mother. Eva was an illigetimate child and through her ambition rose to be one of the most powerful women in Argentina, but she was restented by the 'ricos' and she did her best to screw them over as well. It's all a lovely soap opera and I find it fascinating.
Hernan told me if you have a family plot in the Recoleta Cemetary you are set forever, but in the case of his father, who was buried in Chacaritas, another very large cemetary, they only had a 20 year lease, which is why Hernan had to go retrieve the body and get it cremated. Even in death, money buys comfort in Argentina.
No comments:
Post a Comment