Glenn Dobbs

Jan 143 min read

Ghosts

January 13, 2024

“Don't cry for me, Argentina

The truth is, I never left you

All through my wild days, my mad existence

I kept my promise

Don't keep your distance

Have I said too much?

There's nothing more I can think of to say to you

But all you have to do is look at me to know

That every word is true”

-Tim Rice & Andrew Lloyd Webber

“My greatest enemy is time"

-Eva Peron

In the Fall of 1902 19 year old Rufina Cambaceres was getting ready to attend the theatre. Her mood was sour. She recently learned her fiancé was unfaithful. Rich, the daughter of a cattle baron, she was something of a socialite here in Buenos Aires.

Sometime, while she was dressing, she suddenly collapsed to the floor. Three physicians were called and all pronounced her dead of a heart attack.

Over the following 2-3 days her body was taken to the family mausoleum for later internment. A funeral was held.

Several days later a graveyard worker came by and noticed something was amiss. The coffin was moved slightly and the lid was askew. Fearing grave robbers, a crime that still occurs today here, the police was summoned.

The lid was opened. The body was still there.

But it had moved.

The underside of the wooden lid showed multiple scratches. Her face and hands were bruised from trying to break out of her tomb. She had been buried alive.

This is her tomb today. The angelic sculpture at the opening is her likeness.

This is just one of the many stories here at the Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires. It is a fantastical necropolis of over 6,000 unique statues and monuments. 4,619 souls are buried here. It is the most expensive real estate in the city.

We walked among the myriad of elaborate monuments, some very old, others relatively new.

We were looking for its most famous resident. We found her. Oddly enough her tomb was relatively modest and in a side alley.

Eva “Evita” Peron is buried here.

It is hard to over state the significance of Evita here in Argentina. She was an actress who became the wife of Juan Peron, a military officer who became a populist dictator after World War II. Even today here he is a deeply polarizing figure. As a populist their are those that even today look upon his legacy fondly. Others view him as a Trumpian version of Pol Pot.

Eva was his secret weapon. Young, pretty, charismatic, and smart, she had the glamour of a Princess Diana in this country. And she knew how to use her power.

In her early 30’s, however, at the height of her power, she began to show signs of illness. Doctors examined her and found she had advanced cervical cancer.

Today, cervical cancer is not very common. This is due to the advent of the common screening test, the Pap Smear which is able to detect signs of the disease earlier and offer treatment. However, the pap smear did not start to become in widespread use until 1960.

Her diagnosis was kept secret from the general population. An American surgeon from the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas was flown in for treatment. A radical hysterectomy was performed. Even today this procedure is a massive removal of pelvic organs.

She was so weak here that Peron had to hold her up

It did not work. The tumor had already metastasized. Her weight fell to less than 90 pounds and her behavior became unstable. Juan Peron, thinking that her outward displays might be a political liability secretly ordered a frontal lobotomy be performed. She never spoke again after the horrific procedure.

Two months later she died on July 26, 1952 at the age of 33.

When the country was finally informed there was a tsunami of grief. Some 3 million people filled the square in front of the Presidential Mansion. Peron had her embalmed with the idea, political of course, to build an enormous monument to the “Common man” with her body at the base for public viewing.

But the wheels of justice turned and Peron was removed from office before the gargantuan monument was even started. Her body was moved frequently until at last she was brought here to the family crypt. Even today there is such a concern about grave looting that her actual coffin is well below this edifice through a series of “Indiana Jones” style trap doors.

Every day people still leave flowers here.

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It was hot, it is summer here, and we headed back to the hotel to rest. Along the way we visited another Atlas Obscura recommendation, El Ateneo Grand Splendid. This is a old elegant theatre that has been converted into a book store.