As you should already know if you've been reading this blog for a while, Valparaiso was built by a mix of local Chileans and foreigners attracted to the port city by dreams of riches or simply sent here as part of their job as seamen. The Cemeteries in Valparaiso are testament to this mélange of immigrants. Along with the British and Germans, the following nationalities are commonly found in the graveyards (I'm sure there are more but these are the ones I came across).
Above is a tomb to a Basque family, the Bastias.
Below is the tomb of a Serbian family, the Bradanovichs
French
Portuguese
The Van Buren family were from the US, originally by way of a town in Holland. The son of the two mentioned, Carlos Van Buren was a tireless worker for social rights and gives his name to a major hospital here in Valparaiso.
Italian (only the Italian tombs have photos of the deceased)
Catalan
Chinese-despite there being a pretty decent sized Chinese community here in Chile, Chinese food is far and away the worst I've had the misfortune to eat anywhere in the world. Chop Suey is the height of Chilean-Chinese food sophistication. Shameful.
1 comment:
Well that was bound to happen with all of the exogamy that happened in the 20th century.
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