Old San Juan Cemetery

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San­ta María Mag­dale­na de Pazz­is is sim­ply known to Puer­to Ricans as “el cemente­rio del Viejo San Juan” (The Old San Juan Cemetery).

The con­struc­tion of San­ta María Mag­dale­na de Pazz­is start­ed in 1863 dur­ing the Span­ish colo­nial peri­od.  Before that the colo­nial ceme­tery was at the cor­ner of San Fran­cis­co and San José Streets, where the present Depart­ment of State is located.

Being buried at San­ta María Mag­dale­na de Pazz­is is a dis­tinc­tion in itself. Many famous Puer­to Ricans have made it there final rest­ing place, including:

  • Jose Cel­so Bar­bosa, founder of the Puer­to Rican state­hood movement
  • Anto­nio R. Barceló, lawyer, busi­ness­man and politician
  • Sal­vador Brau, jour­nal­ist, poet and historian
  • Pedro Albizu Cam­pos, nation­al­ist leader and politician
  • Tite Curet Alon­so, com­pos­er
  • José Julián Acos­ta, abo­li­tion­ist, journalist
  • Ricar­do Ale­gría, father of mod­ern Puer­to Rican archaeology
  • Nor­ma Can­dal, actress
  • José de Diego, poet, lawyer and lib­er­al politician
  • José Fer­rer, Acad­e­my Award-win­ning actor and director
  • Pedro Flo­res, com­pos­er
  • José Gau­ti­er Benítez, poet
  • Rafael Hernán­dez, com­pos­er and musician
  • Gilber­to Con­cep­ción de Gra­cia, politi­cian, founder of the Puer­to Rican Inde­pen­dence Party
  • Tony Croat­to, Ital­ian-Puer­to Rican folk singer, com­pos­er and tele­vi­sion presenter
  • Con­chi­ta Dape­na, first wife of Gov­er­nor Rober­to Sánchez Vilella
  • San­ti­a­go Igle­sias, for­mer Res­i­dent Com­mis­sion­er of Puer­to Rico
  • Tito Lara, com­pos­er and musician
  • Félix Bénitez Rex­ach, Engi­neer
  • Pedro Sali­nas, Span­ish poet
  • Miguel Ángel Suárez, actor
  • Rafael Tufiño, painter and graph­ic artist
  • Loli­ta Lebrón, nation­al­ist leader
  • Muna Lee, Amer­i­can writer and first wife of Luis Muñoz Marín
  • Gilber­to Mon­roig, singer
  • Samuel R. Quiñones, politi­cian, founder of the Puer­to Rican Nation­al­ist Party

How­ev­er, like many oth­er cap­i­tals around the world, Puer­to Rico has its share of crime.  On the oth­er hand, ceme­ter­ies —by there own nature— are typ­i­cal­ly lone­ly places. So be extra care­ful if you ven­ture to vis­it it on your own.

Orlando Mergal buys all his photo equipment at B&H

Dis­clo­sure of Mate­r­i­al Con­nec­tion: Some of the links in this post are “affil­i­ate links.” This means that if you click on a link and pur­chase an item, I will receive an affil­i­ate com­mis­sion. Regard­less, I only rec­om­mend prod­ucts or ser­vices that I use per­son­al­ly and believe will add val­ue to my read­ers. I am dis­clos­ing this in accor­dance with the Fed­er­al Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Con­cern­ing the Use of Endorse­ments and Tes­ti­mo­ni­als in Advertising.”

2 thoughts on “Old San Juan Cemetery”

  1. En ese cemente­rio está enter­ra­do Ramón Ortiz del Rivero cono­ci­do como Diplo.
    Un famoso come­di­ante puer­tor­riqueño para los años 50. Me extraña que no lo nom­bren en la lista de per­sonas famosas enter­radas ahí.

    Reply

    1. Hi Ivette. You just did! You know, there’s a lim­it to every­thing in life, includ­ing my mem­o­ry and the length of an arti­cle. If I would’ve list­ed all the famous peo­ple buried at the Old San Juan Ceme­tery, the arti­cle would’ve be a mile long. Thank­ful­ly, I have peo­ple like you, to point out my omis­sions and bring them to the fore­front. Thanks for your help! Hope you enjoy the blog.

      Reply

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