This past week I attended the graveside funeral service of the mother of a friend of mine. I have been to several burials in Mexico. However, upon entering this cemetery, I was completely speechless. I drove through the entrance and began looking for the burial site, but I got lost. The place was enormous! I have never seen so many graves. I drove and I drove and the graves just keep going and going. After searching for a while without any luck, I had to call someone on their cell phone so that they could lead me to the designated site.We were there for more than 3 hours, mostly because we were waiting for the workers from the cemetery to actually do the burial (many other people were being buried at the same time). Again, I was speechless as I sat their looking out at all the graves in every direction. It was more than moving. Because the cemetery is on the side of a hill, I could see in the distance, the most populated area of the city - where 25% of the Federal District's population lives. I was reminded, in a powerful way, why I am in Mexico City. It was an experience that will be hard to forget.
After reading a few articles online, I learned that over 100,000 people visit this cemetery during the Day of the Dead (November 2). I also found out that this cemetery is the second largest cemetery in Latin America: Panteon Civil "San Nicolas Tolentino" on the side of Cerro de la Estrella in Iztapalapa. I have not been able to find any numbers about how many people are buried there, but I can tell you that almost every little grave plot is stacked an entire family, one on top of the other. Another interesting note: according to Catholic tradition San Nicolas Tolentino (whom the cemetery is named after) is the patron "saint" of the souls in Purgatory.
