It was in the courtyard of the Catholic Church that Las Tunas had its first cemetery, back in 1790. Right in that place, in the current area that today occupies part of the Vicente García Park and the Casa Azul store, under our feet, the remains of many people have rested since then.

In 1847, the Necropolis was moved to the site where it is currently located with the sonorous name of Colon Cemetery. It was not until the 20th century that it was renamed, as we know it today: Major General Vicente García González Municipal Cemetery.

Old texts state that, when it was built, it had 45 yards deep and 44 yards in front, a masonry façade, and the rest of it was made of jiquí boards. They also state that in 1945 it underwent reconstruction utilizing a public collection, after a collection of 1,177 pesos.
Undoubtedly, the constructive state improved, although many tombs of the front part were lost forever.

The oldest niche it treasures is that of the Frenchwoman Victoria Martinell, who died in 1860 (the mother, by the way, of that courageous woman who was Iria Mayo, companion in the life of the extraordinary soldier Charles Peiso).

The cemetery from Las Tunas, with a marked eclectic style, is endowed with a valuable level of funerary art; with sculptures mostly from the ingenuity of the Spaniard Nicasio Menza, who lived here for several years, and almost all the vaulted pantheons came from the imagination of the local marble worker José Domínguez.

Touring it helps to understand the weeping and burning of this town. A step that is far from being pleasant, but it encloses what we have been and it stokes what will come; because that is what cemeteries are, reflections of a place and its children.

WHERE DO THE GAZES THAT ONCE DEPARTED GO?

The local cemetery is not collapsed. Raúl Ernesto Martínez Rodríguez, sub-director of Hygiene and Necrology in the Provincial Direction of Communal, is categorical when he affirms this to 26.

He is referring to the many rumors about the subject that are going around the city after the most bloody years of the covid-19 pandemic and the evident increase in the number of deaths then, both due to the disease and its many after-effects.

Despite that, the director affirms that there is a project that should materialize and will provide this region with a new cemetery, in a less populated place and close to what will be the incinerator of the province. And no, he does not give a date as to when it will happen.

"All the work is gradual and the most important thing is that the people know that work is being done and that Las Tunas has other cemeteries in its urban areas and they are not only for the communities where they are located, but it is also for the entire population of the municipality."

From him we learned that not all the people come at the time they are scheduled to exhume the body of their deceased relatives and which delays the emptying of the vaults; and that other indisciplines occur, some, by the way, are not exclusive of here, in a good part of the country they are burdened with similar dilemmas.

Also, 26 had things to tell him. And we spoke to him about the people consulted for these lines that gave an account of the thefts of flower boxes, books, and other elements of the tombs; and of the many voices that told us, some do not want to see their name published somewhere, that "the same ones that steal, later they put a sad face on you and sell you the same resource again with a coat of paint", in what is an act of enormous human baseness.

Raúl showed no great surprise at our finding. "This issue of theft and vandalism in the cemetery has been followed quite a lot. The place has not been illuminated in the right way, nor is the number of security and protection agents at the site complete; among other things, because many people have made it clear that they are not willing to work in this place. Something that is given because we have a very ingrained idiosyncrasy concerning these issues and then, due to cultural issues and others, it is difficult to cover the workforce."

We know that the growth of the city has also brought other problems to the facility. For example, the surrounding community is very close to its walls, several houses are attached to it and which affects the indiscipline of the neighborhood.

Some neighbors told us that yes, the soil in their backyards is much more fertile and even the children play in their places, half-hidden, impregnating their cracks with life. However, when we asked them about thefts and damages, they said they did not know anything, nothing at all; and they hurried their pace, sullen.

Raúl Ernesto Martinez, more explicitly, made a final reflection, as a request. "It is good that people, please, go to the cemetery always to honor their relatives, not to destroy the place. In addition, those who have an interest in building there, for having family pantheons and so on, do the process as established, to avoid the paralyzation of the works for lack of documents or that it remains dirty and messy.

"It is important to remember that, even if you are the owner of any facility, it is located within a land that is state-owned and carries a process, so you should approach the cemetery administrators so that they can guide you regarding these activities and help take care of the facility."

WHAT IS THE PATH THAT LEADS TO THE COMMON, EVERYDAY THINGS?

The cemetery culture of the people from Las Tunas and, I dare to say, of the Cubans in general, is very scarce. That is why this media heard, with pleasure, of projects that try to recover the archives and data of the place; and even of some that speak of the dream of computerizing its services.

Beyond that, this is a sacred space; the place to which we will all arrive one day, from which no one returns and which is not worth taking anything with them. For some, the end of the road; for others, the beginning of a journey of souls that marks spiritual turns in the web of existence.