Cemetery Musings

Cemetery Musings

Twelve years ago on a trip to Argentina, I learned of the Argentine fascination with death. A visit to the Recoleta Cemetery near my hotel made that preoccupation clear. Recoleta has so many mausoleums, monuments and sculptures that walking through it is something like walking through a museum. When I started to travel to Cuba, I learned this interest in one's ancestors isn't limited to Argentina; it's a Latin American thing.

Havana's huge Cristóbal Colón Cemetery far surpasses Recoleta in size, beauty, history, etc. Its elaborate monuments may be unsurpassed in the world. This is a tale of two gravesites in the Colón Cemetery with a little of what they can teach us.

La Milagrosa

On a hot day in August in the first years of the 20th century, a young Cuban wife, Amelia Goyri, died in childbirth. Her little baby girl did not survive the birth either. Her distraught husband, José Adot buried them with the baby placed between her mother's legs, as was the Spanish custom at the time.

José began visiting the gravesite every day, a routine that lasted 40 years until his death. That's remarkable in itself, but it was hardly the most remarkable facet of this story of love and devotion.

A few years after the loss of Amelia and her baby, José's father died, and the grave was opened to accept his remains. A shocking surprise awaited those who attended the father's burial. They stood in stunned disbelief as they saw the baby was nestled in her mother's arms. To the devout Cuban Catholics, this was a true miracle! Today a beautiful monument of a mother holding her baby in one arm and a large cross in the other stands over the grave, and every day at all hours, young people kneel, pray, and light candles, petitioning God to make their babies healthy.

Jeannette Ryder

Jeannette Ryder was a contemporary of Amelia and José. In 1906 in Havana she founded the Banda de Piedad (the group of compassion) and dedicated herself to helping animals for the rest of her life. Devoting all of her time and treasure to helping animals, Jeannette militated against cruelty to animals and bullfights. (Even then bullfighting was illegal in Cuba.) She has appeared in these blogs before (see posting of 7/30/10).

When Jeanette died in 1931, she was buried in Havana's grand Colón Cemetery. Her faithful dog, Rinty, refused to leave her gravesite, and even returned when forcefully removed from the cemetery. He refused food from the cemetery staff and gradually wasted away and died at his mistress' grave. Today a gorgeous bronze covers the grave replicating Jeannette lying in repose. Curled at her feet is Rinty, whose dedication has caused the site to be called La Tumba de la Lealidad (the tomb of loyalty).

The Parallels

José and Rinty remained faithful to their loves for the rest of their lives. Each came to see his loved one honored with an artistic monument. Both graves, only a few blocks apart in the cemetery, have inspired well-known stories now part of the Cuban culture.

While Amelia's gravesite is known as La Milagrosa (The Miracle) and has become a well-known story to Havana's religious people, it is an icon of familial love. Rinti, inspired by his all-consuming love for Jeannette, did something we rather more expect of dogs than people. He refused to leave even to sustain his own life. Consumate loyalty.

Isn't it odd how we sometimes get more love from our animals than we do even from those closest to us?

Les Inglis