Recoleta Cemetery

Yesterday I went to Recoleta Cemetery and took way too many pictures of tombs because Recoleta is not a grass-covered lawn dotted with headstones rather a city within a city of mausoleums that resemble small houses. Recoleta is such a fascinating place. It’s like any other cemetery in that there are always new burials, but it’s so fascinating to see a shiny, new, black mausoleum that was recently constructed next to a crumbling old one that has vines growing out of the cracks. As I said, I took a lot of pictures because I’m hoping to use a story or two from María Rosa Lojo’s short story collection, Historias ocultas en la Recoleta, for my Latin American Women Writers class this fall and I want to be able to show my students what Recoleta looks like.

Of course, I went to Domingo F. Sarmiento’s tomb (President of Argentina 1868-1874, but really so much more). Again, it’s fascinating because in Recoleta, on the sides of many tombs, there are plaques that are placed in homage to the person who died from various people or organizations. Even though Sarmiento died in 1888, there are recently placed plaques on his tomb, from the last decade. Then, I went to Eva Perón’s tomb. It’s funny because there are signs on how to get to Sarmiento’s tomb and I arrived and spent considerable time contemplating the plaques on his tomb and no one passed by or disturbed me. On the other hand, there are no signs to get to Evita’s tomb (it’s near-ish Sarmiento’s), but there are always people there—and flowers. I just wandered around a bit and looked for a small crowd of people. Bingo! I found Evita’s tomb. She’s not necessarily the most famous person buried in the cemetery, but she’s probably the most controversial.

Then, I wandered through the market outside Recoleta in search of the vendor who Maya and I ran into so many times in 2010. I couldn’t find him, but perhaps he’ll be at the Feria de San Telmo today. It’s not that my tastes have changed in the last decade since I’ve been coming to Argentina, but I know that I’ll probably be back so I don’t feel the same urgency that I’ve felt in the past to buy every cool thing that catches my eye. In fact, I saw a lot of things that I’ve seen before.

Oh, and on my way to Recoleta yesterday I stopped at El Ateneo bookstore on Santa Fe. This is the most beautiful bookstore in Buenos Aires—hands down. It’s located in an old theater so you can go up to the different levels and find books, but also comfy chairs to sit in and look down on the stage while you read. The stage is now a café. I wrote down a number of titles that I’ll need to go back for. After leaving El Ateneo I walked through more of the Recoleta neighborhood to get to the cemetery. I felt a bit underdressed walking among the women wearing fur coats!

I also went to the movie Elefante Blanco starring Ricardo Darín (a well-known actor here in Argentina), Jérémie Renier and Martina Gusmán. The movie was about life in the villas miserias (slums) on the edge of Buenos Aires. The movie really pulls you in at the beginning when Padre Julián (played by Darín) is showing another priest, who has just arrived, around the villa. Padre Julián explains that everyone is content and says that many people like it in the villa because their families and friends are there. It’s a city within a city—no infrastructure or electricity though. (In fact, after a rainstorm, the streets turn into small creeks and everyone is sweeping water out of their homes.) This representation of the villa makes it seem as if they’re not so bad and that, of course, the people who live there are not to blame for their circumstances—they are not evil because they are poor. Of course, very quickly, everything spirals out of control and violence ensues and quickly the viewer is reminded that all the stereotypes of the villas—drugs, violence, guns—are not just stereotypes but a daily reality of living there. The priests (there is a group of four) and a social worker try to resolve problems within the villa, including the construction of a communal kitchen that will feed hundreds, but are always running into problems with the church hierarchy, the government and the police—all of whom are on the outside and perhaps theoretically approve of the work that the priests are doing, but can only go so far in their support. It always seems like one step forward and two steps back. Padre Julián is killed at the end of the movie and the movie is dedicated to the memory of Padre Carlos Mugica who was killed in 1974 after celebrating mass in one of the villas where he lived and worked. Padre Mugica was also a priest dedicated to the poor and to the improvement of life in the villas. His murder has never been solved.