Yoices of !October • December, 1995 75 The Panteón Francés: a walk through Mexico's history

Lynn Wehnes*

ne ofthe best places to stroll through Mexican history is O also one of the least visited: the Panteón Francés. This cemetery serves as a guide to much ofthe city's tightly interwoven high society, particularly from the (the dictatorship of Presiden! Porfirio Díaz, 1876-1911). Tothosewhose interests lie in funerary architecture, the Panteón a1so offers an impressive collection of elaborate crypts designed to flaunt the wealth of their inhabitants. Yet every grave, simple or amate, hides a vast array of stories that reveal much about the country and its people. In the main avenue near the cemetery's entrance, for example, the remains of the Braniff family are housed. Tomás Braniff(l850-1905), bom in New York City, started his career as a bricklayer but ended it as a millionaire. He worked asan engineer on the Mexican railroad and managed the Mexican Gas and Electric Light Company, controlled by the English company that then ran the railroad. In 1882, as a representative of the Brush Electric Company, he asked the government's permission to produce and distribute clectric light, and in

• Historian.

Crypts along main path in the Panteón. 76 Voices ofMexico 'October • December 1995

August of l 883 he installed 20 lights Tomás' son Arturo (1879-1970) Limantour lived in a house that on the city's main streets (although dedicated himselfto financia! and faced the center of Mixcoac, where the residents were alarmed by the possible commercial enterprises and was one of Díaz family had a vacation home. The danger posed by poles and wires). He the first to buildfraccionamientos streetcar was then the most convenient founded the wool factory of San urbanos ( urban residential way to travel into Mexico City, and, lldefonso and was a contributor of developments) in Mexico City. Alberto according to Carlos Tello in his book capital to and principal stockholder in Braniff( 1884-1966) was a precursor of El exilio: Retrato de una familia, "On a number of significant enterprises, Mexican aviation. He attended neither it the Díaz family often ran into José including the Banco de Londres y primary or secondary school because his Limantour, the finance wizard, who México, S.A., which he also served as parents knew he would inherit a large greeted them from his seat without presiden! of its Consejo. fortune. However, bis parents hired the ever losing his composure ." The family lived in a "sumptuous best professors available to give him Limantour was also building a residence" on the Paseo de la prívate lessons in business and banking. mansion on the Paseo de Reforma, according to one Mexico He leamed to be a pilot in 1909 in but was never able to enjoy it thanks City memorist, with a living room France, where he acquired a Voisin to the . upholstered in yellow silk. Although airplane which he brought to Mexico. Limantour argued vigorously for he was proud ofhis bricklaying On January 8, 191 O, he was abie to get Díaz's resignation, believing only that beginnings, bis wife didn 't like him to the plane offthe ground on the planes of could preven! the country from mention them according to this source. Balbuena, on property owned by the exploding. When Francisco Madero Braniffs. He thus was the first became presiden! of Mexico, native speaker of Spanish in the Limantour briefly considered world to conduct a !light. continuing on as finance minister but When the Carrancistas then left for France, to which Díaz had took over during the Mexican already fled. revolution, they seized the In exile, Limantour lived in one of houses ofthe rich as booty, and ' most elegant areas and spent his split them among themselves. days driving his car around the Saint­ Tomás Braniffs house was Cloud forest and playing the piano. He taken over by General Buelna, kept up with developments in Mexico and the house of Alberto through the most recently published Braniffwas taken o ver by books on the revolution, sent to him General Alvaro Obregón. from Mexico. He eventually lost his Another crypt is devoted ability to move his muscles and to to the Limantours, although its function due to arteriosclerosis. "lt most famous member, José broke one' s heart to see a man so Yves, was buried in France. intelligent in that state," Tello José Yves, finance minister quotes Limantour's granddaughter, during the Porfiriato, was Sonia, as remembering. He died in largely responsible for the 1935, the last surviving member of country's spectacular economic Díaz's cabinet. development during that The Escandón family also played period. He was also responsible important roles in pre-revolutionary for a large number of Mexico. As John Womack explained in improvements in Zapata and the Mexican Revolution, Park and commissioned "Escandón had graced Maximilian's Guillermo Kahlo (father ofthe Imperial court, helped finance the artist Frida) to photograph Veracruz-Mexico City railroad, made buildings constructed during haciendas farnous, and recently, an Landa y Escandón Jamily crypt. the Porfiriato. Escandón having been appointed the Voices of Mexico /October • December, 1995 77

Federal District govemor, taken over metropolitan society. "Among Mexico's fanciest showplaces, veritable luxury-rate tourist attractions, they had shown off for so long that by 1900 they had almost lost their capacity for anything else. In the early years ofthe new century the name Escandón still appeared prominently in the newspapers -but in the society columns. Ofthis mighty, dying tree, Pablo was the last frail twig." Pablo was a member ofDíaz's staff until appointed govcmor of Morelos prior to the Mexican revolution. Other Escandóns of note included Manuel, one ofthe richest men in Mexico at the beginning ofthe Porfiriato; the successful Mexican capitalist Antonio, who donated to the city the monument of Christopher Columbus that was built in 1877; and Guillermo de Landa y Escandón, who was govemor of the Federal District during the Porfiriato. It was Guillermo Landa y Escandón who introduced Porfirio Díaz to high socicty, and because of that Díaz had a special appreciation for him. Landa y Escandón made a great deal of money through the Dos Estrellas mine. His daughter Sofia Braniff and other Ja1nily crypts along main. path. married Guillermo Limantour, son of finance minister José Yves. much of Mexican high society, and embassy, and traveling throughout The Quintanilla family has a grave was the daughter of Count Pierre del . Their patronage of the arts on the cemetery's Sixth Avenue. The Val (the family had changed its name included financia) support of and family members buried here reflected after moving to France following clase relationships with the poets much of the Porfirian spirit. Ana María Maximilian's demise). She spent most Amado Nervo and Rubén Daría. del Valle Lerdo de Tejada de of her life there until curiosity caused When the Quintanillas retumed to Quintanilla was bom the year Díaz her to joumey to Mexico to visit her Mexico after the revolution, their took power by overthrowing her uncle, mother's family. At the opera, she met home in Coyoacán served as a Presiden! Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada. A her future husband, Luis Quintanilla y meeting place for many ofMexico's descendant ofthe grand Chamberlain Fortuno, a descendant of an most prominent artists and of the Court of Emperor Maximilian aristocratic family with the oldest intellectuals, including Dr. Atl and one ofEmpress Carlota's ladies-in­ lineage in Mexico, the Rincón (Gerardo Murillo), Diego Rivera and waiting, she embodied the merging of Gallardos, whose crypt is on the David Alfara Siqueiros. Also buried one ofMexico's great conservative Panteón's Avenida Central. in this grave is the couple's son José with one of its great liberal families. Much oftheir married life was Quintanilla del Valle, who visited bis Ana María was bom in France, the spent living in Paris, where Luis parents in Coyoacán with his lover, country which served as a model for so served as a diplomat in the Mexican the photographer Tina Modotti. 1