'Flores Y Ofrenda' will bring people to honor San Pedro Cemetery, cherished family

The San Pedro Cemetery, an historic place in San Marcos, will be the site today of a special event, Flores Y Ofrendas, to commemorate “our muertos,” according to event organizers.

The event is scheduled from 5 to 8 p.m.

The cemetery is located at the corner of Posey and Old Bastrop roads. Those coming to the cemetery will have an opportunity to share reminiscences of family accompanied by live music from Kiko Villamizar and hear poetry from nationally known Juan Palomo. Participants will also have the opportunity to share in a collaborative altar-making.

For many in this community, Nov. 2 is honored as Día de los Muertos or Day of the Dead, a time meant to recall and celebrate the memories of family members who have passed.

According to Juania Sueños, “Each Nov. 2, folks of Mexican descent create ornate ofrendas–also known as altares: colorful shrines full of food, artifacts and flowers. Altares piece together an image of the ones who have left us by combining multiple art forms. Building altares is a beautiful way to connect with our ancestors; it is a collaborative, intricate endeavor.”

She said that this year’s event is made possible thanks to the assistance of the city of San Marcos Art Commission, a local publishing house, Infrarrealista Review, and the Cementerio San Pedro’s Volunteer and Events Committee.

“Cementerio San Pedro is a breath-taking burial ground dating back to the very beginning of the 20th century. When you step foot there, there is an undeniable and powerful sense of welcoming–the way one feels when visiting a relative’s home. This warmth is not imagined but rather a deep-rooted Mexican-American tradition of mutualismo,” she said, adding that San Pedro was founded as part of the mutualista movement that provided Mexican-American people with a proper place to bury their dead.

She said that the cemetery was established in 1909, when Mexicans, in the words of a community member, were “not even allowed to be buried in the same dirt as Anglos.”

“Working primarily as migrant farm workers, they had neither the money nor the land needed for a proper burial. Thus, the community came together and established San Pedro on a few acres near Center Point, at the corner of El Camino Real [Highway 21] and Posey Road. The mutual aid society guaranteed that anyone who contributed un granito de arena, ‘just one grain of sand,’ had the right to bury their family there. Because so many in the Mexican-American community were migrant farmworkers who followed the crops without their families, the San Pedro sociedad updated the bylaws in 1915 to clarify that people without family could also be buried, even if they had not contributed a grain of sand.”

Cemetery board members include Ana Juarez, university liaison, brothers T.L. and Reno Torres, co-chairs, Joe Torres, treasurer and Helen Carrillo, secretary.

She said that the board worked with Hays County to have San Pedro designated as a “Historic Texas Cemetery,” in 2007. As a historic cemetery, Hays County may now contribute to some of the maintenance. Hays County Commissioner Debbie Ingalsbe-Gonzalez helped obtain county funding to repair El Madero, the large mosaic tile cross, in 2013.