No. 2: A Vacation That Becomes an Obsession.
My wife Linda and I flew from LA to Buenos Aires on December 27, 1999. Our friends had rented a small apartment in Recoleta, a handsome and conveniently located barrio. We booked a room at the Hotel L’etoile. Nothing fancy but it offered tostunning views of the exquisite French-Style gardens of Recoleta.
I had no idea of the grace, elegance and majesty of Buenos Aires. To me it’s one of the most underrated cosmopolitan cities in the world. Close to our hotel was La Recoleta Cemetery, Among the many famous people interred there is Eva Perón. (Actually, the many places her body was shipped to prior to ending up there is a novel in itself. But I won’t go into that now.)
As I mentioned in Blog #1, I had become fascinated by a story in the Wall Street Journal about former President Juan Perón’s hands being dismembered and stolen. The case was never solved and the hands never recovered. I felt there was possibly a book there and I was anxious to learn more about the circumstances.
Once we got settled, our first step was to visit Perón’s tomb in La Chacarita cemetery six miles out of town. It’s not as well-known as the one in Recoleta, but in my mind it’s equally as beautiful. As I describe in my book, the cemetery is a miniature city of the dead.
Juan Peron Crypt
Among the things I learned that aren’t in the book are:
One source stated that a poem written by Isabel, his last wife, was stollen along with his hands, army cap and sword. Reports differed as to whether the hands had been removed by a surgical instrument or an electric saw. I chose to go with a surgical instrument.
Another fact that really didn’t have a place in the book is that Perón’s casket was removed from the family crypt in 2006. It now rests in a mausoleum at his former summer residence in the BA suburb of San Vicente. Why? According to the Washington Post: “Reason No. 1: Peron remains an enormously stirring political symbol, and celebrating the populist strongman's legacy is a powerful ritual in a country where the party he founded still dominates national politics. Reason No. 2: Argentina has a long history of honoring - obsessively so, some would say - its dead. Reason No. 3: Surviving members of Peron's family believe he would have wanted it this way, and that moving his remains will bring him one step closer to a reunion with Eva, who is buried in a different cemetery in Buenos Aires.
A final purported fact I didn’t include is that when his wife Eva was dying of cancer in 19052, he authorized a lobotomy to be performed on her in hope it would diminish her pain.
Humm…
Next: Perón’s “Ratlines” for Nazis