Cemeteries Attractions: Evita Peron of Argentine & Selknam Indian of Puerto Arenas, Chile

My first experience in touring a cemetery was almost 30 years ago in 1991 when we were taken to visit the Chinese Cemetery in Manila. Some of the graveyards have been converted to weekend homes or hideouts where the deceased families gather for meals or Mahjong sessions. South American countries are catching up fast in this unique or some called it a bizarre experience! Not everyone is keen to step into a cemetery, some preferred to stay put in the bus hoping this excursion is done with as soon as possible.

In Puerto Arenas of Chile, we were taken to the Sara Braun Municipal Cemetery and in Buenos Aires, we were brought to see the Recaleta Cemetery. Both are nominated as among the 20 Most Beautiful Cemeteries in the World (Read here)!

Some say a tour of the cemetery is one way of learning the history of the place. Within the four walls of these cemeteries, it's like small "cosmopolitan cities" where you find people of many ethnicity and nationality. Initial Spanish immigrants followed by German, Norwegian, Scottish, Welsh settlers..... Instead of structures designed for the living, there are rows and rows of crypts, vaults, gravestones, burial chambers and mausoleums of magnificent sculpture and craftsmanship. Some of the older graves are enormous structures decorated with marble, bronze statutes and stained glass windows.

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In Buenos Aires, the selling point of Recaleta Cemetery is Evita Peron, the former First Lady of Argentina. But the fact is that her simple family graveyard in comparison is no match to some of the graveyards of the rich families in Buenos Aires. 

Clearly, Evita is a national icon. Her portrait is a common sight in many buildings. In La Boca, she has to compete with two other icons namely Maradona, the footballer and Carlos Gardel, the man credited to have invented Tango. To us non-Argentinians, it is the musical "Evita" (Click here) which immortalized this lady who rose from poverty to become almost the de facto leader of Argentine. She did have ambition to improve the lives of the the poor and the disadvantaged. Sadly, that dream was not fulfilled because of her early death at the young age 33 because of cancer. Shortly before her death, she was conferred by the Argentinian Congress the title "Spiritual Leader of the Nation".

Portrait of Evita on Building and family graveyard of Evita

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In the Cementerio Municipal Sara Braun (Municipal Cemetery) in Arenas, Chile, it is interspersed with rows of well maintained cypress trees and well trimmed turf. Visitors touring this ground may occasionally have the feeling of being in a arboretum or garden rather than in a resting place of the dead.

I am accustomed to seeing columbarium with rows of niches for permanent storage of funeral urns. But to see the remains of the deceased boxed in coffins and stacked up in layers of niches did raise a few questions. The guide was quick to point out: "Here, the coffin is lined with impermeable container and the remains are placed in the container and immersed in chemical. There is no chance of leakage and foul smell!"  

The guide led us to one corner of the cemetery to see the nameless tomb of the last Selknam Indian of Tierra del Fuego. Story has it that a dead body of an Indian was found at the beach of the island of  Diego de Almagro in 1930. He was buried in the island. Later on, a tomb was erected in the Cemetery. By 1960, this tomb has become a site of pilgrimage with visitors leaving coins and candles, hoping to benefit from the rumored miraculous power!