November 2, 2022, 8:26 AM
November 2, 2022, 8:26 AM
“Curiosity killed the cat”, says Cristian Durán Payare about the supernatural stories that are woven around cemeteries.
The bricklayer confesses that he has had some ‘strange’ experiences, but he is not much interested in digging. He had enough when he started working in the cemeteries, in the middle of the pandemic; nightmares did not let him sleep, seeing so much pain and death. “Knowing that they are souls that do not find rest, with that one stays still and calm”, he accepts.
Last Saturday he turned 49 years old, he learned the job of bricklayer in homes at 20, and he practiced it until 2006, when he preferred the sale of fast food in the market. “It gave more money, besides, masonry work was very tiring, it requires a lot of effort,” he says, and confesses that with construction he earned 50% less than with food.
When the coronavirus burst onto the scene, Cristian could no longer sell his fried chicken, he was out of work for a month, then he tried his luck as a cart driver in markets, but finally he returned to work as a bricklayer, only in a different facet. This time he had to bury the dead and build the mausoleums.
He never got sick with coronavirus, neither did those at home. She believes that the training they were given at that time had an influence.
He says that he has had to bury some 200 bodies, “or more”, and that at first it affected him a lot. “I dreamed of the deceased”, he shudders.
Graveyards no longer affect him as much emotionally, however he uses a strategy for that. “I don’t get close when the family arrives with their deceased, only when he has to cover the niche. I don’t like to get close because it’s sad, it affects me to see them crying, ”she shares.
His only son accompanies him to work, he already knows the ins and outs of the trade, and at least he already has help for this task in rain and shine.
Every November 2nd is when Cristian ‘does his Christmas bonus’ -he confesses that he earns twice as much as normal-, but due to the strike he has not been able to travel to the distant cemeteries. Additionally, he lives far away, by Satellite North.
They have called him to do some work, he is already known in the La Cuchilla, Los Cusis, Montecristo and Santa Carla cemeteries, but he had to turn down the opportunities. He says that these days with lockdowns he is taking out 10% of what he usually gets.
Among the things that most distress the masonry master are the deceased from the mass graves. He regrets that they do not have a prayer, neither on November 2 nor the rest of the year.
Cristian thinks that these are especially the souls that star in the supernatural stories of cemeteries.
In Los Cusis, when he hit a niche, next to him he heard the same knock. “You had been a bricklayer too, stop bothering me”, he began a dialogue with what he believes was one of the many NN souls.
He also tells that the guard of Los Cusis, who slept in the office, saw a “bearded guy, but they had him blessed and he didn’t bother anymore” through the window.
They told him that in another graveyard, those who go to carpir in the covid-19 sector, they always pull their clothes. “Even the most incredulous,” she ironizes.
He says that sometimes several NN are buried at the same time, ten or twelve. “They are homeless, or people whose relatives do not appear. They don’t even bring them a candle, they must be the ones who bother because they bury them without a prayer, ”he sighs.
Cristian says that “there is nothing beautiful in cemeteries, in burying people, but God decided to do it. It is for an economic matter”, he confesses.
