Necropolis

Abstract

Death and its public representation are inescapable in the Mexican context. The dead are always publicly marked by some form or another—be it a roadside shrine to the victim of a traffic accident or the elaborate necropolis with air-conditioned mausoleums of an erstwhile narco strongman. As in non-American civilizations, grave furnishings and tomb architecture in Meso-America can be said to be of clearly defined types: those intended for the deceased and those intended for the survivors. As Finley reminds us, ‘the two elements or purposes may be mixed, but essentially, we live in a world of retrospective funerary monuments, set above ground where they have a message, whatever it may be for the living’ (Finley M.I. in Aspects of Antiquity: Discoveries and Controversies, Harmondsworth, Pelican, p. 107, 1977). While this was the dominant motif in the past (as many ancient civilizations turned funerary architecture into an art form), by and large, most contemporary societies appear to have parted company with such undertakings. Interestingly, however, we witness a repetition of such elaborate funerary paraphernalia in the context of some narco burial practices. This chapter examines the peculiar representation of death in narco-violence through structures and monuments dedicated to the dead. The argument is set in the context of an inquiry into architectural monumentality and the nature of mortuary space in Mexican culture. In particular, it explores the philosophy and architectural aesthetics behind the elaborate monuments to the fallen narcos.