In the days before visits to the General Cemetery for the commemoration of the faithful departed the contrast between them is obviousus architectural jewels and the deterioration of a good part of the pantheon.
Miniature replicas of European churches—such as one of Notre Dame de Paris—, emblematic sculptures such as The Sad Lady and even an Egyptian-inspired building coexists with demolished tombs and mausoleums, looted and forgotten by the families of those who rest in this place.
Reina Gutiérrez Dulaone of the seven guides who have been leading the nightly guided tours of the General Cemetery, He considers that the most painful thing is that this abandonment reflects the loss of funeral customs and local traditions.
“A lot of knowledge is lost about what work in cemeteries means and about our history,” he lamented.
During the night toursvisitors will be able to learn not only about these gems, but also little-known historical data.
The cemetery was built on the land of the old cattle and corn farm X-Coholté (“place of owls”) and the cemetery began to operate. January 6, 1821. The first body buried was that of Lieutenant Felipe Trejo, whose tombstone was lost over time.
“This place is like a city of silence, where – as in any community – there are rules, customs and even unwritten regulations,” explains the guide.
An example of this is the angel at the beginning of Second Avenue (the one that faces 70th Street), who raises his right arm pointing to heaven while with his left hand he asks for silence: it represents the transit of a soul towards heaven.
The tour shows the changes in funeral customs since the 19th century until today. In the beginning, families kept vigil for their deceased at home and the processions left in trucks pulled by mules from 70th Street, while the mourners dressed strictly in black.
Today fewer and fewer people attend funerals, a tradition displaced by the practice of cremation.
Reina Gutiérrez explains that the funerary architecture of the General Cemetery is divided into three stages: The first corresponds to the Porfiriato (from the late 19th century to 1910), marked by French influence: European marble mausoleums, forged ironwork and Corinthian or Roman columns with ornate capitals.
After the Revolution the style changed. A mixture of currents known as Novo Art emerged, which sought to reflect a national identity, although still retaining some European features. It was then that religious sculptures appeared—virgins, angels, archangels and cherubs—and even small Mayan houses on the tombs, a symbol of the “new home” of the deceased.
The cemeteries, the guide comments, reflect the life of the community to which they belong. “Even the distribution of the cemetery shows social differences: on the second avenue, on the right side (from the roundabout to the exit), the tombs of wealthy families are located, and on the left side, those of the popular classes.”
Tour of the General Cemetery in Mérida
The tour begins at first avenue (66th Street entrance), where union and association spaces are located. The mausoleum of the colonia Chinafrom the 1940s, with an inscription in Chinese that reads: “In memory of him who is buried here.”
On that same road is the only mausoleum expropriated to date, belonging to the Torre family. Despite the warnings, the descendants never attended to its deterioration and, due to its artistic value, it was rescued by the authorities.
There are also the spaces of the henequeneros and the mausoleum of the Freemasons, which since 1920 has kept the remains of their leaders, although not those of Felipe Carrillo Puertoits most famous member.
Precisely at the end of that avenue is the wall where Carrillo Puerto, his brothers and collaborators were shot, the last vestige of the original wall of the X-Coholté farm. Behind it is the old ground intended for the burial of children, represented in the central gazebo by an archangel carrying an infant to heaven.
socialists
Moving along the second avenue you will find the Rotunda of Illustrious Men, created by him Governor Guillermo Palomino. Paradoxically, his remains do not rest there, since the site became the Mausoleum of the Illustrious Socialists after the murder of Carrillo Puerto. In front of the grave of the socialist leader is the tombstone of Alma Reedthe American journalist with whom the Yucatecan governor fell in love.
Palomino’s remains rest further ahead, in a mausoleum surrounded by wrought ironwork, with a plaque that remembers him as “To the illustrious grateful ruler of Yucatán.”
The most emblematic mausoleums are concentrated on this same avenue, although—according to the guide’s estimates—more than 70% of the properties are abandoned. Among the jewels that are still preserved are the replica of Notre Dame de Paris, property of the Medina Ayora family, and a unique Egyptian building owned by the Escalante family.
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