Bulletproof Burial Ground

My visit to the narco cemetery of Culiacan, Sinaloa -- and the grand tombs narcos build in which to spend the rest of time.

Several years ago now, I was on one of many visits to the Mexican city of Culiacan, which may be the most important largely unknown town to Americans.

Culiacan is the capital of Sinaloa, and an agricultural city, which is why I’ve thought it had some things in common with, say, Bakersfield or Stockton, in the Central Valley of California.

But as the capital of Sinaloa, it is thus the center of the country’s vast, sophisticated illegal drug trade. Everything costs more in Culiacan. Jesus Malverde, the narcosaint, has his chapel there. (More on him in later posts.)

On this trip I had time to visit the cemetery, Jardines del Humaya, which has become the leading repository of the bodies of dead drug traffickers.

As you’ll see in the video above, their families have gone to great lengths to ensure that their dead loved ones are memorialized and given proper, which is to say extravagant, resting places from which to enjoy eternity.

Remember that, appearances notwithstanding, none of what you see are actual houses. They are all tombs.

Many of the corpses encased in these monuments were headline makers in life. Now they repose forever near their once-mortal enemies.

(Coming tomorrow: My Goodwill Book Review of Hopper — a book of paintings by the great 20th Century American artist, Edward Hopper.)

Other cemeteries in Sinaloa I’ve been to have something of the keeping up with the dead Jones going on, but none has the sheer volume of elaborate, ornate tombs of the most notorious narcos.

I was also lucky to meet a Mexican who acted as my guide and commentator on the whole phenomenon, and for whose wisdom I was grateful.

It all reminded me that we in America are all just around the corner from Culiacan, Sinaloa.

This is the kind of thing I want my newsletter to be about.

Please, though, forgive the jittery camera. I was just embarking on video making and was amazed at what I was seeing and in a hurry (always a mistake) to get it all.

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More cool stuff from the Dreamland Newsletter:

The Last Velvet Painter in Tijuana

(A video of Argo, who was the last in TJ to paint Elvis on velvet.)

One Great Song — `Tres Veces te Engane’ - Paquita la del Barrio

(The story of the Wolf, her Chippendales and the party at the end of Mexico's ruling party)

Another Goodwill Book Review — The Iliad by Homer

(In which I argue that the classic war story isn’t bad, but it’s not the equal of Homer’s The Odyssey)

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