The Ángela Peralta Cemetery summarizes Mazatlán's history
The Ángela Peralta cemetery is currently the most overcrowded cemetery in Mazatlán, as it has been in operation since 1869, but it is where the remains of people who have made the port's history are kept.
It was not the first cemetery in Mazatlan, but the Angela Peralta Cemetery, or cemetery number 2, is currently the oldest in the port. Its history is a record that is complemented by many stories that have transcended generations. It is a living past, a historical present, and a future that preserves the memory.
The land is occupied from what is now Miguel Hidalgo High School, the Mazatlan Fire Station, to the limits of the Nautical School, where the Kiko Hotel is currently located. From the entrance to the cemetery, there is history. There is a trail of cenotaphs of illustrious characters. The cemetery began operating in 1869 because the previous cemetery could not accommodate more deceased.
The previous cemetery was already saturated, as a result of the deaths caused by previous epidemics, particularly cholera. The Ángela Peralta cemetery has the number 2 because there was another one before that, which would be number 1, which was located where the elementary school and the Ángel Flores square are, behind the Pacífico Brewery.
The cemetery reached to where the Nautical School is, that is, the hotel, the school, even the back street were part of that cemetery, only that all that land corresponded to the common graves, and at the end of the 1950s, the municipal administration of that time decided that the cemetery had to be reduced, eliminating all the area of common graves and then the land was divided to be sold, it was auctioned.
Enrique Mora, composer of the waltz "Alejandra"; Germán Evers, founding partner of the Cervecería del Pacífico and promoter of numerous works in the city; Professor Agustina Monterde Lafarga, precursor of education in Sinaloa; Hilario Rodríguez Malpica, Captain of the cannon boat "Tampico", of the troops of General Ramón F. Iturbe; and Issac J. Coppel, renovator of the fishing industry, are some of the names on the cenotaphs that can be seen at the entrance of the cemetery.
The Mexican opera singer Ángela Peralta, who died in Mazatlán at the end of the 19th century from the yellow fever epidemic that struck the port, was also buried there, but her remains were exhumed and taken to the capital of Mexico at the initiative of journalist Rafael Martínez. Ángela Peralta was buried here from 1883 to 1937, from where her remains were taken to Mexico City, and are now in the Rotonda de las Personas Ilustres. But the tomb is still there, as a memorial.
Also buried there are the former Governor-General Domingo Rubí, members of the Toledo Corro family, members of the Chinese community who lived in the port, as well as one of the founders of the Atayde Hermanos Circus, Don Manuel Atayde, which is possibly one of the oldest tombs since the epitaph reads that his death was recorded in 1888, the year the circus was founded.
Nowadays the visits to this cemetery are scarce, as well as few burials. "There are still (graves) of recent dates, although there are no longer any available for recent burials, I understand that if there are some owners who have graves in perpetuity and unused graves, burial services can be provided, but it is very rare", says the chronicler Enrique Vega Ayala to the newspaper Noroeste.
