Saturated, overwhelmed by the urban sprawl, with some 6,000 graves, the general cemetery of Progreso celebrates 99 years of service this November 1.
The cemetery opened on November 1, 1925, after the first cemetery that operated for over 50 years on 31st and 98th streets in the Juan Montalvo neighborhood closed. Today, the Guadalupe Chapel and the Juárez sports court are located in that part of the city.
The general cemetery is located on 110th and 33rd streets in the Vicente Guerrero neighborhood and is where the city limits reached on the west side a century ago.
Nowadays, the urban sprawl has surpassed it, and it is in the middle of a populous area populated by fishing families and ice factories.
The general cemetery is also the limit of the parishes of “Purísima Concepción” and San José” and of “Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal” and “San Telmo”. Every November 2, the parish priests celebrate mass at the main entrance of the cemetery.
Of the 6,000 tombs, few are kept in good condition and receive maintenance, but only one receives a daily visit from a relative of the deceased who rests in crypts in a mausoleum whose interior looks like a completely clean apartment, decorated with images and items they used in life.
This is the mausoleum of the Remes Heredia family, which stands out and is distinguished from all the tombs that occupy more than one hectare of the cemetery.
“It is my parents’ house, my brother; Here rests Captain Horacio Remes who was a port pilot in Cozumel, my brother Horacio ‘Campeón’, my mother, and other relatives,” says Ileana Remes Heredia, who visits the mausoleum every day, which has a striking façade, a door that only she opens.
Inside everything is clean, with photographs, the captain’s cap, and other objects used by the port pilot Horacio Remes.
In contrast, the sailors’ mausoleum that was inaugurated on June 1, 1990, within the framework of National Navy Day, is seen in abandonment.
It was built at the initiative of Admiral Antonio Pérez Encalada, then commander of the Ninth Naval Zone, with the purpose of honoring the sailors who died at sea and every June 1, within the framework of Navy Day, they lay a wreath, but the mausoleum was forgotten by Marinos and civil authorities.
The City Council, through the Directorate of Cemeteries, urges the relatives of the deceased who occupy graves to keep them clean, and in good condition, and to be up to date on the payment of the rights for the concessions.
On the occasion of a tomb contest held this weekend, several people went to the cemetery, arranged them, and painted them in various colors.
Gravediggers at the cemetery point out that it is already saturated, there is no room for it to expand.
Of the 6,000 graves, it is estimated that 40 percent are abandoned and in poor condition by the owners who only come once a year to visit the cemetery. It is for these dates and at the mass on November 2 that is celebrated at the doors of the cemetery, which this year will be Saturday, November 2 at 7 a.m.
TYT Newsroom
