In almost three decades of work, the oldest gravediggers in Sao Paulo’s largest cemetery remember that they did less than 10 night burials. But since the second pandemic wave in Brazil has worsened, this exception has become the rule.
The dizzying rise in cases and deaths in Sao Paulo in recent months has forced the mayor of the richest and most populous city in the country to adapt his funeral plan to avoid a collapse: In addition to hiring more staff and vehicles to meet the demand, night shifts have been authorized in four of the 22 municipal cemeteries, where 600 graves are open every day.
One of them is Vila Formosa, the largest in Brazil and Latin America and one of the postcards of the lethal cost of the pandemic in Brazil, where over 360,000 people have already died due to covid-19.
At 18:00 the guard changes and the two huge lamps powered by generators light up the graves and impregnate the place with the smell of diesel. It is the beginning of autumn and in this cemetery bordered by trees on the outskirts of Sao Paulo the temperature is around 16 degrees.
Eight potholes dressed in white overalls, masks and gloves arrive in two vans. It descends and forms in a circle around the pits, the hands behind the body, upside down; As a sign of respect, they remain silent for a minute. Then I go for the shovels and load the first deceased of the night.
“Aren’t there any relatives?” Ask one. “No, you can bury,” replies another with the documents of the deceased in hand.
In May 2020, during the first wave of the pandemic, the cemetery incorporated three excavators to open 60 pits a day. Now, there are six machines digging 200 graves a day, say the gravediggers, who are expanding their activity until 22:00.
They also hired about 50 trucks to load the bodies, as the funeral cars were not enough. City Hall denies that school transport vehicles are part of this fleet, a version that has been widely circulated in the local media.
– Over 300 funerals a day –
Shortly afterwards, a van arrives with another drawer. A large group of relatives surround the grave where the 57-year-old man will be buried, whose file says he died of covid-19.
The sons of the deceased ask to put on the coffin a “green-yellow” shirt from the Brazilian team. “It’s the only thing we can do,” says the gravedigger, who enthusiastically holds the funeral documents.
Four men begin to lay reddish sand on the coffin, which is covered in seconds. The screams of pain mingled with the sound of shovels and the hum of electric generators.
Already accustomed to the presence of journalists and photographers, the pits talk, but ask not to be identified. Almost all vaccinated, they say, the pandemic hit the administrative staff of the funeral homes more than those who worked like them in open spaces.
“We wanted this to end quickly, because it’s very sad. We try not to get excited about our work, but it’s sad, it’s a lot of people, a lot of time,” says one of the pits as he takes off a pair of gloves. green at the end of the clock.
Villa Formosa houses over 1.5 million corpses in its 750,000 square meters. In March, it reached a maximum of 105 burials in a single day, three times the pre-pandemic average.
On March 30, the city of Sao Paulo set a record by burying 426 people in one day. The experience has not been repeated since then; the current average is 391 deaths and 325 funerals a day.
The mayor’s office warns that if the daily average exceeds 400 funerals, it will take new measures, although it excludes the fact that Vila Formosa starts operating 24 hours a day.
The city council is considering the construction of a vertical cemetery in the eastern area, while the Vila Formosa blocks are filling up quickly.
The gravediggers estimate that in 12 months they have already used 26 lots, an area that in the pre-pandemic period would produce more than two years of burials.
“We need to continue here,” says one of the men. “Now, at this rate, I don’t know how long it will be.”