As folks began flocking to local cemeteries to spruce up family burial plots for next week’s Day of the Dead observances, they have been surprised to find numbered government-issue stickers plastered across gravesite crosses and tomb stones, with no explanation of their purpose.
It turns out that nearly all of the municipality’s public panteones (graveyards) are running short on free spaces. According to Francisco Barajas, the director of the cemeteries department, the government applied the labels as a first step in carrying out a census to determine the number and location of graves in use, identify the persons holding legitimate property rights, and update records on the payment of annual maintenance fees.
Barajas estimates that the census will take about 12 months to complete. He indicates that City Hall has no immediate intentions of digging up remains buried in abandoned graves to make space for new occupants.