{"id":7039,"date":"2023-04-05T10:44:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-05T08:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/recoletacemetery.com\/?p=7039"},"modified":"2025-11-30T14:58:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T13:58:20","slug":"598-enrique-prack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/recoletacemetery.com\/?p=7039","title":{"rendered":"598. enrique prack"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Recoleta<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

A rare family document appeared on Facebook, & the owner kindly gave us permission to share it here as well. This boleto de sepultura<\/em> —roughly translated as a “burial certificate”— has many interesting bits of information, but first a translation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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No. 69

The Municipality of the city of Buenos Aires has sold in perpetuity<\/strong>, under the conditions outlined below, the sixth<\/span> gravesite, No. 32<\/span> of Section 2<\/span> in the Northern<\/strong> Cemetery to Mr. Enrique Prack<\/span> who has paid the Tax Office the sum of seven thousand<\/strong> pesos; this document should be registered by the Administrator of the above-mentioned cemetery.

#1 \u00b7 No other sale or transfer of this property will be recognized except those with the right of succession.
#2 \u00b7 Aforementioned transfers may only be granted by the Municipality, via official request and with corresponding information.

[handwritten note] At 15:00, to the right of the second street.

Buenos Aires, 11 January<\/span> 1884<\/span>

[followed by illegible signatures… there’s a Belgrano & a Mariano Obarrio.]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately the exact size of the plot is not recorded, but the price of 7,000 pesos in 1884 was a small fortune! Of course, determining an equivalent amount in terms of today’s purchasing power is tricky. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Banco Central<\/a>, the peso had almost the same value as the English sovereign at the time. So the Prack family invested 7,000 pounds for their plot; a considerable sum given that one of the extremely wealthy members of the Anchorena family died in 1884 with a fortune of 7 million pesos<\/a>. If that’s the top tier of wealth in Argentina at that moment, this purchase represents a sizeable sum of money.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Recoleta<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Also of interest is a legal clause stating the plot belongs to the family forever. Well, almost.<\/em> Given that Catholic cemeteries are considered sacred places, contracts like the above should be considered leases. Even so, the city government made a large profit from the proceeds of plot sales. Remember that a major renovation of the cemetery took place in 1881, & the city likely needed income to cover construction costs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enrique Prack (son, I believe) was a lawyer & wrote his thesis on crime & ideas behind penal codes. The mausoleum continues to be maintained by family descendants.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Recoleta<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Note: <\/strong>Document image used with kind permission of the Prack family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A rare family document appeared on Facebook, & the owner kindly gave us permission to share it here as well. This boleto de sepultura —roughly…<\/p>\n

Continue reading598. enrique prack<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-operation","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/recoletacemetery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/recoletacemetery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/recoletacemetery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/recoletacemetery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/recoletacemetery.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7039"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/recoletacemetery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7379,"href":"https:\/\/recoletacemetery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7039\/revisions\/7379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/recoletacemetery.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/recoletacemetery.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/recoletacemetery.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}