Submitted by Aubrey Inkster on the 2017 winter session program in Argentina sponsored by the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures…
This past Wednesday, the group of us took a field trip to the giant Recoleta Cemetery and Church in Buenos Aires. Plenty of cities have urban cemeteries scattered throughout them, however, in all my years I’ve never been to an urban patch of hallowed ground quite like this.
The Recoleta Cemetery makes up a few blocks worth of space in the Recoleta district of the city and is surrounded by a brick wall on all sides that is around ten to twenty feet high depending on the side. The only entrance is on the eastern side of the cemetery, which in itself is grandiose compared to the rest of its exterior. While the walls surrounding the cemetery are made primarily of brick, the gateway to the cemetery is made up of a group of tall, white, marble columns, almost like something you might see at an ancient Greek or Roman temple.
The inside of the cemetery is what really makes it unique. Although, I keep referring to it as a cemetery, there are no simple tombstones to be found here. Instead, the whole place consists of rows of family crypts ranging from ones made of simple stones to magnificent buildings of different colored marbles, with intricate patterns carved in them and or with statues of angels or former people sitting atop them among other things. The arrangements of the crypts resembles their own small city blocks.
The strangest thing about the whole area, in my opinion though, was that there was a giant mall located right outside the southern walls of the cemetery. Of course, each district of the city seems to have its own mall,but even so, I found it odd that someone could be visiting dead relatives within thirty feet of someone spending lots of money on clothing, perfumes, toys or something else that one might find at a shopping center. Plus, every Sunday, street vendors flock to the cobblestone streets and sidewalks located directly outside the cemetery entrance to sell their tacky yerba mate cups and clothes to tourists. To make matters even more twisted, there is a Starbucks and a Hard Rock Café practically attached to the northern wall of the cemetery. The location of the city’s most famous quiet resting place is located in the middle of the hustle and bustle of an urban center. I guess that’s just a part of urbanization in the modern world though.
