One of the fascinating sites on the road to Cachimuel is a
hillside cemetery with multiple tears of graves and above ground tombs. On Monday, there were people sitting and
standing in groups throughout the entire cemetery. We thought it must be a special day of
honoring the dead. On Wednesday morning,
we observed a funeral procession heading to the cemetery and many people were
still scattered throughout when we went by again three hours later.
Victor says this is an indigenous cemetery and their custom
is to spend the day of a funeral in the cemetery, visiting graves of ancestors
and friends and even taking lunch. He
went on to say that mestizo people or more evangelical indigenous people
typically do not follow this tradition.
A cultural map of the Otavalo region clearly indicates separate indigenous
cemeteries.
Audre Bratcher
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