Guatemalan Romeo and Juliet
Trip Start
Unknown
1
23
44
Trip End
Ongoing
Where I stayed
Quetzaltenango Cemetary
Quetzaltenango, Guatemala
Friday, April 16, 2010
Not too much here either, but there is one thing I want to share.
There is a kind of folk story here that changes with the teller, but the patchwork story I have is this:
Around 1915 or 1916 there was a gypsy family that moved to Guatemala and set up shop in Xela. Shortly after arriving, the son of a Spanish ambassador fell in love with the eldest gypsy daughter, Vanushka Cardena Barajas. Apparently the ambassador didn’t want his son messing about with a lowly gypsy and had his son returned to Spain to study. Here is where the story changes depending on the teller. Older Guatemalans will tell you that she died of a broken heart because of the distance, the youth of Guatemala will tell you that it was because their parents kept them apart, and not the distance, is what killed her.Either way everyone agrees that she died with a broken heart. Shortly after the news of her death the details of her demise spread and one day a young woman was found crying at the tomb of Vanushka. This woman was recently separated from her love and she was sympathizing with Vanushka, saying that she understood her pain and that she herself felt close to death because of it. Shortly after this, the young woman was reunited with her lost love. The rumors spread fast and pretty soon Vanushka’s tomb was found more and more often covered with flowers and small gifts with notes and inscriptions all telling the same story: Unrequited love. Even today her tomb rests with hundreds of flowers in various stages of decomposition, and covered with romantic graffiti of love wanted or lost. “Please Vanushka make my marriage a happy one.” “Please Vanushka deliver me Rebecca, I love her so much.” “Please Vanushka, Help my boyfriend see his way back to me.”
On the day we visited the cemetery, we never saw anyone laying flowers, or breaking out the sharpie to write their message out in the open. But there were flashes of ponytail, ducking in and out between the other tombs, clandestinely leaving a mark here and there. I think if we had inspected further afterwards we would have found fresh ink and a new request for Vanushka.
The rest of the cemetery was interesting in its age and various styles of architecture and how it has changed throughout the year. It was massive in size, and it was easy to see which portions of the cemetery were reserved for the rich, and which were reserved for the poor.
Comments
Very cool.