LA PLATA

One hundred kilometers or so from Buenos Aires is La Plata, the city where Hvar’s Ivan Vučetić (Hvar, 1858 – Dolores, Argentina, 1925) lived. He received his early education in his hometown, from Franciscan Bonagracije Marojević. He was a chaplain of Hvar's music and composer. He left for Argentina in 1884, where he became a police recruit in 1888. He advanced quickly in his job, and was made famous by solving the Rojas case, related to the murder of two children from 1892. He solved this case by identifying individuals through the use of fingerprints, which wasn't a practice at the time. This is why Vučetić is considered to have fathered dactiloscopy, as it was thanks to him that the method was accepted all over the world, and continues to be applied today, thanks to its reliability and simplicity.

Shortly before his death in the town of Dolores, in the Buenos Aires province, a Police Museum was founded, which contains Vučetić’s memorial room. In Rosario, in the Santa Fe province, a criminology course that bears his name was founded, and a city park was named after him in La Plata.[1] Aside from that, 17km from La Plata, in the town of San Juan in Pereyra Iraola Park, the Escuela de Policia Juan Vucetich policy academy was founded in 1941. The republic of Argentina published a post stamp with Ivan Vučetić’s likeness.

Ivan Vučetić (Hvar, 1858 – Dolores, 1925) and the post stamp issued in his honor

Juan Vucetich Park in La Plata

Juan Vucetich police academy in San Juan, in the vicinity of La Plata

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[1] Baranović, Pjero; Bezić Filipović, Branka. 2010. Hrvati na markama svijeta [DVD-ROM]. Croatian Heritage Foundation, Split branch.