The peculiarity of the old mining town of Copala is the existence of 4 cemeteries, of which one was demolished and only a couple of tombs remain, while another is in disuse.
The pantheon no. 1 houses the remains of members of the Trewartha family, the oldest headstone in this family grave dates from 1876.
The origin of the last name Trewartha is British and came to Mexico through an immigrant in the early nineteenth century. This pantheon is also known as “The pantheon of the rich”, inside there is a tomb that contains a plaque that only shows the epitaph “López Portillo Family”.
Watch video
It is presumed that the people buried there were direct relatives of former President José López Portillo, descendants of Don Alonso López del Portillo, Copala trustee, being named as such by Captain Francisco Cortés de San Buenaventura.
To get to this small cemetery, it is inevitable to climb a stairway known as “The road to glory.”
Not far from the entrance to the town there is a stone tombstone next to another grave, within land that belonged to cemetery no. 2. The tombstone has an epitaph in Latin, which cannot be clearly read but the date 1872 can be seen.
In the other semi-cylindrical grave, a woman named Ernestina Cázares was supposedly buried. There where these tombs are found, it is said that it was the pantheon no. 2, whose space was bought by wealthy people who demolished most of the tombs, leaving only 3. One of them (stone tombstone) is possibly the oldest in the entire municipality, and another of these is very mysterious for having remained at the shore of the main street.
This tomb does not have a date, but the surname Gray is observed on the white marble plate. The inhabitants of Copala do not know the story behind it, coupled with the possible absence of relatives and little interest in discovering their background.
The demetery no. 3 as well as no. 1, is characterized by housing tombs that are not surprising for their architecture, they are not as majestic as those found in the Pantheons of Charcas and Pánuco.
This is curious because Copala was an important mining center with considerable relevance that is reflected in its old church. However, the same cannot be said for its tombs and pantheons, which lack that distinctive touch.
The cemetery no. 4 known as “El Guamúchil” is located on a hill located near the entrance of the dirt road from Copala to Pánuco. There are few graves that exist in this place, it does not have old or recent tombs, it is deduced that it was used between 1960 and 1990.
In Copala the cemeteries live to tell us a story of bonanza and oblivion.
The Aguacaliente de Gárate cemetery in Concordia
The old tombs are distributed throughout this cemetery, when entering and walking a few meters it is immediately possible to identify the old buildings whose stylistic topic encompasses the nineteenth-century funerary architecture.
Almost all the tombs adopted a characteristic style in their design; a column-type cipo pilaster as a pedestal, many are seen topped with a foliated wrought iron cross, a very typical decorative funerary element used to adorn the monument dedicated to the memory of a person.
Watch video
But like the other cemeteries in the municipality of Concordia, this one offers us a few tombs with a unique structure, which cannot be found in another nearby cemetery.
One of those tombs presents a series of very elegant ornaments that transmits the message that someone important during the past rests there, however, time does not forgive and the deterioration is visible in each of the parts that make up the monument.
A very clear message that tells us that it is useless how important you have been, it all ends there.
Another rather strange tomb dating from 1908, is a pilaster as mentioned above in which the figure of a face appears in the highest part. This is something very unprecedented since it is not at all common to appreciate a human face sculpted in a tomb, perhaps an angel or Christ is the most frequent but this type of sculpture is not.
On the face, there is a spherical pedestal that perhaps represents the earthly world and the face signifies its detachment, a work of which only the author knows the true meaning.
There is one tomb in particular that stands out in the entire pantheon for its great height, which notably exceeds 3 meters. It is a raised construction with 5 holes at the front with a certain depth so that a funeral box can be inserted without problem in each of them.
The mystery begins when a plaque showing data on the tomb is not observed, in addition to the fact that the holes are completely open but empty, it was probably desecrated some time ago and it is difficult for someone from the town to solve this doubt, because the tomb is quite old and interest in it was lost a long time ago.
Source: tusbuenasnoticias.com
