Documenting Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires since 2007
Category: Vistas
Naturally, most plaques on the Duarte family mausoleum pay homage to its most famous member: Eva Perón. Varied organizations, such as the large CGT workers’ union & residents of her home town, make expected appearances. However, the most surprising of the bunch would be the Sindicato de Peones de Taxis… the taxi drivers’ union. I wonder what connections they had in order to obtain family permission to post a plaque:
Other family members also share the limited space. Eva’s brother, Juan Duarte, supposedly committed suicide, but several historians have proposed that he fell out of favor with Perón after Eva died… perhaps with Perón even ordering Juan’s murder. We will likely never know the truth:
Finally, three plaques are for Major Alfredo Arrieta, husband of Eva’s sister, Elisa. He retired from the military in 1938 then served as senator for the Province of Buenos Aires from 1946 until his death in 1950:
Who else learned Spanish by watching the tv series “Destinos” besides me? There must be a few people who remember the scene filmed inside Recoleta Cemetery.
Produced in 1992, 52 30-minute episodes of “Destinos” taught viewers Spanish grammar & conversation in the format of a telenovela/soap opera. Lawyer Raquel Rodríguez is hired by Don Fernando to uncover a family mystery. As Raquel seeks clues in Spain, Argentina, Puerto Rico & México, the series does a good job of exposing learners not only to fantastic scenery but also region-specific variants of the language.
In Episode 12, Raquel travels to Buenos Aires to meet with Arturo. At 16:50, he takes Raquel to Recoleta Cemetery & reveals more about his family’s past. Dedication plaques shown in the episode are only props,& the exact location of filming was easy to find since there are only four diagonal walkways in the cemetery… looks pretty much the same today, except for the new sidewalk tiles placed in 2003:
