[KR: Adrian Felix presented on this recently at the USC meeting of PRIEC. Brings up some interesting questions about political memberships and belonging based on death (as opposed to the standard notions of birth rights)]
June 11, 2007
In Journey Home to Mexico Grave, an Industry Rises
By EDUARDO PORTER
CONWAY, Ark. — Héctor Acevedo was 22, in this country illegally and far from his mother when he died last month in a car accident outside of town just across the Arkansas River.
But mother and son were soon reunited. The tight-knit immigrant network rallied to repatriate the body, adding Mr. Acevedo to a procession of thousands of dead Mexicans making their way home each year. A survivor of the accident approached a relative of another victim, who worked in a restaurant owned by one of Mr. Acevedo’s relatives.
An uncle identified the body, contacted the Mexican consulate in nearby Little Rock and arranged the paperwork. For $2,300, and a $500 contribution from the consulate, they bought the “Hispanic Package†at Brown’s Christian Funeral Services, which specializes in repatriation of remains to Mexico. Six days after the accident, Mr. Acevedo was buried next to his grandfather in the family plot in González, Tamaulipas, in northeastern Mexico.