Cementerio General de San Salvador: Relación con la ciudad y la sociedad.

Abstract

Latin American cemeteries accurately describe the societies that build them and the cities in which they are contained.  Investigations on the topic of mortuary spaces pertaining to various disciplines discuss this premise. This article will refer to it and examine how it applies to the case of San Salvador’s General Cemetery. Parting from an analysis on its physical and symbolic configuration, directly related and bearing the likeness of its home city and society, an explanation is put forth on the role that authority figures, civil organizations, and social, political and economic groups had in its formation, as well as the variables that influenced its gradual monumentalization and patrimonialization. The first of these characterizations is to be understood as the start of the cult of the Nation, and the establishment of monuments and commemorative places in the cemetery. The second one is to be thought of as a massification process of the mortuary space that houses both monumental and popular expressions, creating a contrast which benefits the heritage discourse and consumption values. This condition also allows to readily observe physical decline, as well as the presence of new human groups and conditions which re-vitalize and re-signify the site. Evidence is presented of a clear desire for institutionalization of the locale on the government’s part, and the view of it held by various groups, that can be described as collaborative, intentional, romanticized and centered on a past that becomes more ideal the further it moves away from reference points in the text. With regards to the present, the work will center on how memory, certain value judgments, consumption-driven initiatives and political/civil attitudes are responsible for the current looting and deterioration of the location. Emphasis is put on the anonymous role of citizens play in the conservation of this privileged space for the future and notions are advanced as to what this cemetery signifies and can aspire to in the Salvadoran context, by following a number of presented guidelines to enhance its meaning.