From Jhet’s South American Series: A Personal Recollection at the La Recoleta

The La Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires, Argentina is perhaps one of the world’s most visited cemetery. A tour at the “City of Good Air” will never go without a visit to this 188-year old memorial park which boasts of majestically adorned tombs, magnificent architecture, and of course, the graves of famous world figures such as Eva Peron, Juan Peron, Domingo F. Sarmiento and Juan M. de Rosas.

A view of the La Recoleta Cemetery

On a personal note, walking along the narrow streets of the cemetery reminded me on how real death is. After being diagnosed with cancer two years ago I found myself reconnecting more and more to my mortality. None of us will live forever.

If there are four things that a cemetery can teach us, then these – on my own view – are the following:

• Death is real. No matter how we fight it, each day we wake up is also a day we start dying.
• Life is Short. On an average, human can live up to the age of 70 or 75. While we know this for sure, what we do not know is when our clocks will stop ticking.

Read the rest of this entry »

Continuing my South American Series, I am sharing with you my personal insight on the life of an archetype of passion, strong spirit and leadership – Eva Peron.

Evita on her balcony

Represented, first and foremost, the Argentine character, inherited by her vision of the gaucho or locals from the Argentinean Pampas – an indomitable and arrogant vision. She was never tied to formal conventions. She harmed the interests of the privileged and benefited the most humble. She had, as they say today, a preference for the poor. Evita’s entire management was destined to head in that direction.

On my trip to the La Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires, I had the privilege of seeing the famous tomb of María Eva Duarte de Perón, the woman we know as Evita. The secured crypt is adorned with fresh flowers even after half a century has past since her death.

Eva Peron was neither classist nor Christian Democrat or Marxist. She was just Peronist. She wasn’t a “light” woman but one of a tough and heavy kind who fought against her enemies and protected her “grasitas descamisados”, the working class – a class from which she proudly declares she came from – having been born to an unwed mother and worked at the age of 16.  It is worth recalling an anecdote: Evita, from a car that takes her to a gala reception, sees an elderly woman crying in front of a bank. She gets off, goes inside the bank with the lady and asks” “Who was the son of a bitch who told this lady to come again tomorrow?.

Read the rest of this entry »