Do Not Die in Güines

By David Josué

Havana, August 2004 - (www.cubanet.org) - No, it is not the title of a movie or a mistery novel. It is purely a plain and simple historical fact. The information herein was provided by several relatives of the deceased and from a cursory story published in the official daily Juventud Rebelde (Rebel Youth).

The wake of a 78 years woman in Güines Municipal Mortuary was attended by her loving relatives and by close friends and acquaintances living in the area. When the time came to transport the body to the local cemetery, something unexpected happened: there was no gasoline for the only means of transportation available for these painful endeavors.

Talking to the funeral parlor’s Administrator, one of her close relatives found out that there were also mechanical problems with the vehicle which, after more than 30 years of service, was in a deplorable mechanical condition. The functionary, trying to find a solution to this unusual problem, sent a son of the deceased to the Municipal Education Section, telling him: “They usually give us a hand.”

The Director told him that he would do everything possible to loan them a School Transport's bus from one of the nearby high schools.

The burial was scheduled for eight o’clock in the morning but as of 11:30 a.m. the makeshift funeral transportation had not yet arrived.

People who witnessed the unheard of spectacle stated that when the bus arrived, well after 12 noon, only a few relatives, almost all of them women, remained in the funeral parlor.

Due to ethical and human solidarity principles, I will only describe here part of what transpired. Six young and strong men, located at random in the street by relatives of the deceased, started to move the coffin through the narrow bus door. The struggle lasted for more than 20 minutes, peppered with insults, profanities and other inappropriate remarks, but, to no avail, it did not reach its objective in the end. During the episode, one young men was heard saying: “F…, take the old lady out and then let’s put her back into the coffin,”—a hurtful phrase that was firmly opposed by a daughter of the deceased.

After a final consensus, it was determined to take the bus back to the shop and remove the door in order to have more room for the coffin.

At two in the afternoon the bus arrived again at the funeral parlor, at which time a lot of people were already gathered in front, anxious to watch the Dantesque spectacle. Finally, after a supreme and colossal push, the coffin was placed in the aisle of the same.

I will not describe here how the burial went at the cemetery. I will leave that to the reader’s imagination. I will only say in summary that at a farewell funeral speech one of the bereaved stated in a halting voice: “My aunt was not a saint, but f… she did not deserve this.”

A friend of the family, half serious and half in jest yelled at the top of his voice: “Gentlemen, from now on, before you die, state under oath not to be buried in Güines.”