"Un simple tributo de amorosa fe": la celebración de la 'Fiesta de los Difuntos' en Santiago de Chile, 1821-1930

Resumen

This article studies the principal forms of "social contact" created in the cementeries of Santiago in the remembrance of the dead on November lst., All Saints' Day. A review of the press and contemporary descriptions show the secular and religious attitudes of the inhabitants of Santiago in the General and Catholic Cementeries since 1821, when the former was inaugurated, and 1930 when the cementeries lose their consecrated character. It is possible to distinguish two kinds of celebrations: the first one, of a popular nature, took place outside the General Cementery and had a festive character with singing and dancing as a way to evade the grief at the loss of a beloved one, the other involved a collective visit to the cementery to pay posthumous homage to the deceased person or express continued love. Both forms of celebrating All Saints' Day provide an unexplored line of research to understand the behaviour of the living towards the city of the dead.