TEXAS STATE UNIVERSITY
San Pedro Cemetery, established in 1909, is a historic cemetery in San Marcos. Today, it is a significant Mexican American historical site and a cherished sanctuary for people whose family members are buried there, some of whom trace their ancestry to the founders of the cemetery. These multi-generational families affirm the enduring presence and contributions of ethnic Mexicans in the San Marcos area.
A cultural anthropology class of eight students from Texas State University, under the direction of Professor Villarreal, PhD, will assist Ana Juarez, PhD, retired professor of anthropology at Texas State, and the San Pedro Cemetery community to continue documenting the site’s history using ethnographic and archeological methods. The students will interview board members, volunteers and descendants to record the biographies of individuals interned there and offer recommendations for updating the city of San Marcos’ Master Plan. Community members also want to know if there are unmarked graves in the cemetery and if there are open spaces for additional burial plots. Arche- ologists, Heather Smith, PhD, and Nick Herman, PhD, part of the Texas State research team, are using ground penetrating radar and drone mapping technologies to help gather this information. This collaborative research will assist with ongoing preservation efforts.
Juarez, is an anthropologist specializing in Mexican and Mexican American culture, focusing on ritual and funeral practices. Juarez has been working with the descendants of individuals who established a mutual aid society in the early 1900s to ensure a dignified death for their community members. The founders were Mexican American farm laborers. At the time the group was formed, cemeteries were segregated, and the community had no place to bury their loved ones. Therefore, they established a mutualista, or mutual aid society, to pool their resources and collectively buy a plot of land to build a cemetery.
The mutualista is still active. Most of the Board Members and constituents are elders with personal connections to the site who care deeply about its preservation. They also have rich knowledge of the cemetery’s history and the genealogies of the families.
After the data collected this semester is complete. The students will summarize the findings and present them at the Anthropology Student Research conference on April 11. They also plan to give a special presentation for the San Pedro Cemetery community and those interested in knowing more about the project (place and date forthcoming).
