“Welcome to Jardines De Humaya” in Culiac’an, Sinaloa, a cemetery that illustrates the grim contrast between dying a drug lord, and dying anybody else, in Mexico.
This Mexican cemetery has mausoleums that are several stories high; there’s a mausoleum with a telephone line, and another one with stereo system. Ivory statues, Persian rugs, furniture. The tomb of a drug pilot, is actually adorned with crystal planes!
When alive, Ignacio Coronel “El Nacho” and Arturo Beltr’an Leyva, were mortal enemies, but now they are neighbors, both resting in enormous stained glass covered mausoleums that receive special maintenance weekly.
Paradoxically, the cemetery is located not far from some of the poorest areas of Culiac’an, where cemetery workers live. Most of these workers have built larger tombs than the houses they live in.
Documentary Film Maker Natalia Almada’s El Velador (trailer here)Ö captured a sense of the everyday mayhem surrounding Mexico through the eyes of Martin, the cemetery night watchman. Watch pictures from the cemetery and clips from Almada’s film, “(An) hypnotically detailed feature documentary depiction of life and death,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
