Gaitan's Home: A Dream at Risk

A vacant space in the Gaitan home/museum.

Some photos of the home of leftist presidential candidate and martyr Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, now a museum dedicated to his life, but in great part sadly abandoned. 

An ongoing exhibition of photographs from
the tragic month of November, 1985.

The museum is administered by the nearby National Museum, altho Gaitan's daughter Gloria has disputed with the university over the property's control. Today, in addition to the museum, which contains Gaitan's possessions, the building is also used for occasional art exhibits and, recently, to provide environmental training for the neighborhood's homeless. 

But this property, which covers a whole city block, could be much more productive. Some have proposed turning into a law school - an appropriate use, since Gaitan practiced law. 

The front of Gaitan's house. Beside it is parked one of the old tranvias, or streetcars. The streetcar system was destroyed by rioters following Gaitan's assassination in April 1948.

'Unfinished.' A statement laments the property's condition. 

A visitor reads the text of a famous Gaitan speech. 

'A dream at risk.' 

Gaitan is buried on the property, standing up and facing toward the city of Santa Marta, where Simon Bolivar died.

Inside Gaitan's home: (Photos from the National University)

Gaitan's calendar, which contains a planned meeting with the youthful Fidel Castro, who was in town when Gaitan was assassinated. 

The entranceway to the building, since demolished, which contained Gaitan's law office on Seventh Ave. 

The Smith and Wesson revolver apparently used to kill Gaitan. Questions remain about the motives behind his assassination. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours