Documenting Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires since 2007
Author: Robert
There’s not a more authentic Catalán name to be found in Recoleta Cemetery than Masllorens i Payerols. Substitute the “i” for a “y” for the Spanish version. Not much info is around as to why Pablo came from Catalunya to Buenos Aires, but the results of his labor are well known. Establishing the Emilio Ramírez publishing house, plaques come from former employees & managers, including one by artist Luis Perlotti:
What makes this tomb noteworthy is that the company founded by Masllorens compiled & sold the first edition of a major science fiction comic, “El Eternauta.” Originally published as a weekly series from 1957 to 1959, the whole strip was printed as a magazine by the Editorial Emilio Ramírez in 1961:
Here’s the plot… As an extraterrestrial invasion of Earth takes place, a few people in Buenos Aires figure out how to survive using specially made suits, protecting them from a deadly alien snowfall. A resistance army forms & battles are fought, but it becomes obvious that the true invaders aren’t around… they control everything from a distance. Juan Salvo, the protagonist, attempts to escape with his wife & daughter but accidentally triggers a time-travel device. The remainder of the series is about him trying to find them in the time continuum.
Sounds a bit normal now, but for the late 1950s the plot was very innovative. Various authors & artists have contributed to this successful story since then, & a single place in Buenos Aires pays tribute to El Eternauta… the subway station Uruguay on the B Line (north side, direction Alem). A tile mural depicts one of the comic panels. The first image is from Wikipedia & the rest are from Robert:
Although it’s well documented that the cemetery opened in 1822 & was later improved in 1881, there’s very little info in print about the official organization of family vaults. The following questions always get the best of me: How was it originally divided? What were the original limits of the cemetery? How did the current layout come about?
Fortunately, I found a book that provided some insight. During the last military dictatorship 30 years ago, a series of books & articles were printed by the city government under the collection name, Cuadernos de Buenos Aires. Elba Villafañe Bombal wrote #52 of the series in April 1974—published four years later in 1978—titled “Itinerario Histórico de Recoleta: Arte y Leyenda.” The volume is a valiant effort at cataloging the cemetery although there is a good bit of misinformation.
Obviously Bombal knew Recoleta Cemetery very well & was thorough in documenting its condition then, but perhaps she wasn’t the art & architecture historian she believed herself to be. Not to discredit her work, but several publications in later decades took Bombal’s text for granted without verifying sources. And to be fair, she credits a 1956 source by Jorge Kaudi called “Guía de Visitantes.” But that handbook is only a series of lists & cannot account for so many errors.
The one thing that intrigued me about Bombal’s book was the organizational map of the cemetery. I’ve reproduced it below using my own map as a guideline:
If sections were numbered as they needed to be used, then a sensible progression follows. I would make the assumption that sections 1 through 15 plus the named sections were the original limits of the cemetery. The anomaly of sections 18 & 21 were probably added later… which explains why that area is slightly higher than other parts of the cemetery.
Looking at the intersections while walking around also reveals some clues. Little signage is available to guide the visitor, but painted words & numbers at ground level guide the staff within the various sections:
More investigation to come…
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Don’t berate this vault by its unremarkable design. Many times simple means older… as proof, this is listed as a National Historic Monument. Clues to the identity of the most famous family member buried here are along the side:
Apart from serving as the head of government on behalf of Juan Martín de Pueyrredón as the last battles were being fought against Spain in 1816, the tombstone provides further information about his character:
Here lies Sir Francisco Antonio de Escalada, who served his nation in the most serious & honorific duties. He solemnly proclaimed its independence & deserved the love & respect of his fellow patriots for his righteousness, unselfishness & religious nature, passing away at 86 years of age on December 7, 1835. His son accompanies him, Coronel José María de Escalada, who died December 14, 1839 at 52 years of age.
The last name may sound familiar to some, but according to the fantastic resource Geneología Familiar Francisco Antonio was not directly related to the wife of José de San Martín. For anyone interested in the relations between all the early, upper-class families of Argentina, the above link will be fascinating.
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