Funerals in Socialist Cuba 277
After the performance of the Catholic blessing (or in the absence
of religious rituals, straight after entering the cemetery), the body is
taken to the burial spot in a funerary car. The family and friends
attending the burial slowly walk behind the car. I attended a funeral
for a musician at which the grandson—who had been raised by the
deceased after his parents had migrated to the US—held his hand on
the coffin during the entire walk to the grave. The extreme silence of
the procession forms a marked contrast with the everyday loudness,
chatter and vivacity: not a word is said, no music or singing per-
formed. The procession is quiet, sad and heavy.
At the arrival to the burial site, the employees of the cemetery open
the vault and, aided by the chauffer of the hearse, lift the coffin from
the car and lower it to the grave.^12 After this, the cemetery employees
close the grave. Men form a chain from the hearse to the grave along
which flowers are passed hand-to-hand before being scattered atop
the plot. The attendees watch this ceremony silently, but when the
grave is closed, everybody departs.
However, in the funeral of the musician, his work colleagues were
the ones to lift the coffin to the grave, and instead of lowering it
straight down, it was left on top of the grave. Before being lowered
down into the ground, the coffin was opened so that the grandson of
the deceased could fulfill his last wish. The grandson went to stand
right next to the grave and started to pour a bottle of rum into the
coffin. He cried all the time and said: “This is the last drink that you
and I will take together.” He then took a drink from the bottle and
poured the rest of the rum into the coffin. After that he placed the
bottle and a small bucket of white flowers inside the coffin, after
which the deceased’s work colleagues lowered the coffin to the grave.
It is not usual to place objects into the coffin in Cuba. None of my
informants had heard of a bottle of rum being placed into the coffin
in any other funeral, and they interpreted this as a specific request on- In Cuba, graves are vaults, not dug. The family members of the deceased have to go
and collect the remains of the deceased, usually three years after death.