Children pavilions in the Municipal Cemetery “Sara Braun” of Punta Arenas, Chile: who are those children and how they got here?

Abstract

At the “Sara Braun” Municipal Cemetery of Punta Arenas there are two pavilions with graves of children, dating from the end of the nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth century. In these sections there are 588 tombs, and an estimated 800 children were buried there. Still readable data of tombstones are matched with information obtained from cemetery records, and findings are complemented with these documents. An approach to their causes of death is tabulated and attempted, comparing them with the historical health context. Finally, we reflect on the reasons for burial of children distant from family tombs.