Cementario

Salvador Allende's grave

Yesterday I went to Cementario General and I can honestly say I have never before seen a cemetery quite like it. I'm not sure that the word cemetery can accurately describe what it is, I think cemetery CITY would be better. It is big, and I mean HUGE. I got lost three times and it took me nearly an hour to find myself out. I'm not sure how big it actually is, but I can tell you that after nearly two hours of randomly walking around, I didn't see all of it. But really, it's like a city for dead people. You walk around, and just like walking around in a city, you notice the class differences, there are like different neighborhoods. Families with more money have entire mausoleums, distinct from one another. Some have large beautiful statues, others chose simpler or more modern designs. There are tons of individual graves as well, and like walking through a city, you seem some that are well manicured with fresh flowers and green grass, and then others that obviously haven't been visited in a while.

Then there's the section that I would call public housing. This is obviously where people who have less money bury their loved ones. These areas are huge walls filled with dirty looking gravestones, each given a very small area, that I'm not sure a casket could even fit in there. And these walls are huge. It really is very reminiscent of an old, run down public housing apartment complex.

This cemetery also houses the remnants of many of Chile's important people: past presidents, generals, priests, activists, artists, and so on. The military has a large, spotless, white building that has within it all the important military leaders. There is even a security guard that stands in front of it. Then there is another, slightly dirtier looking building with no security that houses lower ranked military members. There is also a section for police men. I didn't see all of the famous graves, mainly because it was hard to find them all, but I did see Salvador Allende's, which is strikingly simple and bare.

The other interesting this about this cemetery is that it is obviously a popular place to be. It was filled with people. Now I have always known that cemeteries in Chile are more commonly visited places than in the US but this one was different. It almost felt like a park. People gather with their family members to leave flowers at the grave sites. I saw a few elderly women sitting on folding chairs in front of graves, just watching, thinking. There were also a few funerals taking place at the same time, but the people in attendance seemed almost happy. The crowd was huge, people were wearing whatever they wanted, and I heard plenty of laughter.

I took a few pictures but not as many as I wanted to because it felt disrespectful somehow. Plus since there were so many people around I didn't want anyone to think I was taking a picture of them.

These graves are mostly not well kept, but this is not the area I was comparing to public housing. Those look worse and each grave is much smaller.

Tomorrow is another holiday, as it's November 1st. It's a little different than Mexico's Dia de los Muertos, though. It's called Dia de Todos los Santos, All Saints Day. It's got more of a Catholic feel to it. But it's clear to me that death is thought about differently in this culture.

Added Bonus! Here are some more pictures from the trip I took last weekend, just some that I like.