On November 8, Mikhail Hallak, an acclaimed Belgian pianist, will take to the stage of the Conjunto Santander for a recital featuring works by Bach, Mozart, Debussy and Chopin.
This benefit recital, commemorating the World War I Armistice, is organized by the French Consulate to help fund the restoration of the French-Mexican soldiers’ monument in the French section of Guadalajara’s Mezquitán Pantheon.
Many foreign visitors and expats are probably unaware that the Mezquitán cemetery has sections dedicated to deceased persons of U.S., German and French origin.
Although much has been written about the history of Mezquitán, the background to these foreign sections is often overlooked. A fascinating academic paper penned in 2007 by Isabel Eugenia Méndez Fausto of the University of Guadalajara uses the case of the cemetery’s French graves to illustrate the shift towards secularization and tolerance at the end of the 19th century, when civil authorities began taking control of the nation’s cemeteries from the Catholic Church.
Please login or subscribe to view the complete article.