He who does not know his history is condemned to repeat it.
Did you know that ... the Tototlán cemetery began its construction in the year 1850, because there was no room for the dead in the atrial cemetery.
The land that was assigned to it, in the far west of the town, was initially provisional since in it, only the victims of one of the largest pandemics in history were buried, the vibrio cholerae, also known as Cholera Morbus.
For those who do not know, here I share a little of his story. Cholera morbus was a bacterial disease that spread to Europe, and later to America, due to the intensification of commercial exchanges of the time, beginning its long journey from Calcutta in 1817.
He arrived in our country in early 1833 through the ports of Tampico and Veracruz. Only in Mexico City, on August 6 of that year, the death of a woman from this virus was recorded. The following week the festivities of Santa María La Redonda took place, which became the main source of infection. Two days later, more than 1,200 bodies were buried in a single day.
At the same time that this was happening in Mexico City, Guadalajara was already registering the first deaths under the influence of that pandemic.
In Tototlán there were two major outbreaks of this virus. The first in 1833, which left many deaths in its wake, so many that the atrium cemetery was insufficient. For the second, that is, that of 1850, the Archdiocese of Guadalajara had already authorized the construction of the cemetery that to date is in operation.
Some time later the perimeter fences were built. It was not until 1987 when this cemetery had its roads; and in 2004 when it was extended to the limits with the highway.
It is estimated that the morbus cholera pandemic left more than 500 thousand people dead in the country, and hundreds of new cemeteries.
As Martín García rightly mentions in his publication, "It is worth remembering that from this pandemic the veneration of El Señor de la Salud also arises."
Today, the municipal cemetery of Tototlán still has some spaces available, which will be insufficient, if Totolenses do not take seriously the sanitary measures that seek to face the new coronavirus pandemic.
That is why share this note and above all #StayAtHome, if you do not want to end up in a common grave, without a wake, without mass and without any family member firing you.
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