The Presence of Latin in the Santa Casa de Caridade Cemetery (Bagé, RS)

Abstract

Cemeteries keep part of our Cultural Heritage, being a place of remembrance in an attempt to immortalize the dead. Several tombs at the Santa Casa de Caridade Cemetery (Bagé, RS, Brazil) translate a universe of sociocultural representations, with their architectures, allegories, languages, and sculptures. Among these languages is Latin. The motivation for this research is due to the lack of works of this kind and the relevance of observing the presence of Latin today. The present work aims to observe the cemetery sections where Latin is present, the deceased’s nationality and socioeconomic condition, the funerary art, and the religious elements present in the tombs. This work was concluded through qualitative, literary, and field research. Through field visits to the cemetery, photographs were collected.
Of the 27 tombs with Latin scriptures, 23 are in the oldest section, which contains luxurious and academic buildings. Most are of low elevation, built in art déco style with academic architecture, and belong to Christian Portuguese and Spanish families. Therefore Latin is predominantly used on the tombs of families of European descent, Christians, and of higher socioeconomic standing. This use of Latin on the tombstones is probably due to the greater access to information and the arts, the appreciation for European erudite styles, the tradition of Latin’s use in the Catholic Church to reaffirm the Christian faith of the family, and as a desire of perpetuating the families’ socioeconomic status with sumptuous tombs, distinguishing them by demonstrating a supposed knowledge of Latin.