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Buenos Aires is as eclectic as any other big city in the world. Over here, the wealthiest people in town may live not far from those who do not have almost any education or shelter - those who live totally outside the system.
This is a city of mixtures. Where the European influence lives together with the gaucho’s cultural background of the pampas, while the modern popular Latin culture spread by football and music genres like “cumbia” and “reggaeton” colors the urban scenario producing a unique palette. Culturally speaking, this city is a puzzle that cannot be explained just by putting together the parts that intervene in its makeup. There is more in the equation to take into consideration.
Recoleta’s cemetery is one of the late bastions of the Argentinean aristocracy, where the rich and powerful bury their own. This labyrinth of marble-design by the French engineer, Prosper Catelin, gathers military men, politicians (Eva Perón is the most-internationally-known person buried in Recoleta), scientists and landowners among other powerful figures. Some of the most decadent and the most brilliant Argentineans rest within its boundaries - some of the most proactive and destructive countrymen are there, too. Its architecture is exquisite, unequivocally religious, solemn but sinister, as it offers that dark side of Catholic imaginary, with an emphasis on sorrow that reminds us of our finite existence, punishment beyond the grave, and the certainty of pain.
But the nightlife and the world of fun and ecstasy that rises all around this necropolis is what really puts Recoleta’s cementery in context, for nowadays it is surrounded by pubs, restaurants and even brothels. This parenthesis of fun enclosing the cemetery may be thought as an expression of popular nihilism towards those religious icons that, contrarily, should by tradition inspire silence and respect. On the contrary, this spot gathers thousands who weekly enjoy themselves just a few meters away from the domains of death, challenging the realm of death and shoving into its face the satisfaction that result from food, sex, flesh and vice. "To celebrate life where those who died rest," may be the motto beneath all this social activity. To add a weird detail that better illustrates the Recoleta state of mind, a few years ago it was found that the fun surrounding the cemetery was also getting into its boundaries, as very brave prostitutes were offering their services in some of the abandoned mausoleums, looking for a very peculiar type of clients, who get sexually aroused by the dark gothic and phantasmagoric atmosphere that reigns in the whole place. Creepy, but true.
The cemetery is a mute witness of the city’s development, which lives frozen in a Disney-like form, in a previous period of time, more conservative and traditionalist. But Buenos Aires is not a land of saints. Since its beginnings, it grew due to smuggling and commerce: the motive beneath the expansion of this town seem to be more related to “informal” trade than to any other feature, especially not to religious norms. In America (the whole continent), religions like Catholicism are nothing more than import commodities from Spain and other European nations. For example, the alien nature of Catholicism can be clearly seen in the northern part of Argentina. While touring that area, I was constantly amazed when encountering the Catholic churches built by the natives. They look very peculiar, unique, since they were built with local materials and all the ornaments show a deep influence of pagan images and artistic motives, showing the particular interpretation that those tribes gave to the teachings offered by the Jesuits. The realities of Catholicism were, of course, sieved by the natives but not taken as they were taught or imposed. Maybe the Recoleta’s cemetery and what happens outside of its perimeter are not more than that, a local interpretation of religion, a subversive representation of what should be untouchable by nature. A pagan way of living Catholicism, more related to what happens in the rest of the city, than to the cold marble-made cherubs and virgins decorating it. It may be a response to what religion forbids.
It may be a way to show that passions and sanctity can live together - at least in the Recoleta state of mind.
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