SAN LUIS POTOSÍ, Mexico.- The primary function of the funeral homes The aim should be to organise burials and provide the necessary items for them, such as coffins and hearses, but in Cuba the reality is different; ironically, instead of offering a place where relatives can say goodbye in peace to their loved ones, funeral homes are dying and burying themselves, unable to escape the decay in which they remain.
The one in Camagüey shows the deplorable state in which people must mourn their loved ones. In the midst of the grief that comes with seeing a family member die, Cubans must also face the lack of conditions to do so.
The verbal and graphic testimony of the correspondent of CubaNet In Camagüey, José Luis Tan Estrada, demonstrates the terrible state of the mortuary from your city.
The first odyssey
The cumbersome process to begin the funeral process begins with the visit to the clinic when the person dies.
Regardless of the distance between the institution and the home where the death occurred, you must go find the doctor who can certify the death. death.
Without a car at your disposal provision At the clinic, it is the responsibility of the family member to collect and return the patient to the doctor in question.
Without specialized services and transportation, doctors must transfer the opinion to the Forensic Medicine in order to send a hearse to pick up the body. corpse of the deceased and take him to the funeral home.
In the particular case of Camagüey, there are currently only two cars on guard for the entire municipality.
Of them, one is almost on the ground, destroyed, although the other is a little more modern, but also in poor condition.
The next odyssey: the funeral home
Upon entering the premises, visitors are struck by the lack of hygiene and the bad smell that greets them. The stench emanating from the clogged and waterless toilets is unbearable.
The sanitary cups are broken and there is no way to relieve the discomfort. dirt that accumulates and spends up to two days there. The sinks are in similar conditions.
He panorama It gets worse with the lack of light, as the bathrooms are dark, with the electricity useless.
Sometimes, this space is used as a bathroom for people who come in with a small bucket of water, leaving the remains of their hygiene stagnant on the floor.
The walls and ceiling complete a postcard of decay: they are marked with excrement from bats and other birds that have created nests inside the place.
A decaying structure
The infrastructure of the site is in danger. The main roof is collapsing, as is the false roof of the chapels.
Against this backdrop, funeral-goers are immersed in an environment where breathing becomes almost impossible.
The chapel cubicles are closed and very hot, and only one chapel has a fan, which is rickety and hardly pushes air.
In this simulation of hell where Cubans cry and say goodbye to their relatives, there are no floral decorations to honor the deceased.
They do not sell wreaths; if the wake takes place at night, there is no possibility of ordering one to be placed on the coffin. Everyone is forced to buy a small bunch of lilies or roses for 600 pesos, which often have wilted flowers.
The cafeteria is also not immune to the decline. In poor condition and with no hygiene in preparing the products, they offer very poor quality food.
Many relatives also complain about the lack of drinking water; there used to be a machine where they could drink cold water, but now it is dirty and tastes bad.
The final odyssey
With only six panes of glass to cover the coffins, no more than six corpses can be held in the funeral home. If there are 10 people holding a wake, four panes of glass remain to show the face of the deceased and seal the coffin.
However, it is forbidden to have a body in the room without this protection, which prevents the stench of the corpse and the strong smell of formaldehyde from escaping. In order not to wait for a crystal to be released, relatives are forced to look for this object themselves.
Suffering is increased if they want to resort to cremation. Camagüeyans must first make sure that there is electricity. If there is a power outage, they will have to wait until the service is restored to do so.
The wait can be prolonged due to other situations. The queues to cremate the corpses are long and the number of requests doubles due to the growing number of people from Ciego de Ávila who go to Camagüey for the same purpose.
Citizens must wait up to five or six hours for their turn to burn their relatives to ashes in an intricate part of Camagüey, where the only crematorium that almost always works is located.
The structural crisis that is affecting the island also affects the obituary services. Recurrent complaints from Cubans who have to deal with delays and shortages at such a delicate time, expose the tiring process that takes mourning to another level.
