Thread: It can take a village to send Hispanics to final home

CITYWIDE
It can take a village to send Hispanics to final home
By Lara Farrar, Globe Correspondent | August 19, 2007

It is a Friday evening in mid-July, and Jerry Rodgers is driving Francisca Lopez to Logan International Airport.

Rodgers never met Lopez while she was alive, but he will be the one to bid her a final farewell before she leaves the United States forever. The 97-year-old grandmother of at least 22 grandchildren -- the family says there are so many they have lost track -- died earlier in the week at a nursing home in Jamaica Plain.

Rodgers, the owner of Mann & Rodgers Funeral Home in Jamaica Plain, is taking Lopez's remains, which are in a rose-colored casket in the back of his black Cadillac hearse, to the American Airlines cargo terminal.

The next morning, the body will be loaded onto a passenger plane to Puerto Rico, where, after a 24-hour wake, Lopez will be buried in a family plot next to her husband.

Despite the rapid growth of the Latino population in Greater Boston, there are believed to be only two Hispanic-owned funeral homes in the state, in Lawrence and Springfield. So the road to Logan's cargo terminal has become a well-traveled route for Rodgers and other funeral directors who have had to become familiar with a culture that values burying loved ones' remains in their native soil.

"You have to realize that we are very much attached to our countries," said Carlos Avila Sandoval, Guatemala's consul general in Providence. "Leaving someone behind means that person is not going to receive flowers on Easter or on Nov. 1, when we celebrate the Day of the Dead."

Sending remains back home was not practical during the waves of immigration in the 19th and early 20th centuries. But funeral home owners in this area say it is a growing phenomenon among Hispanics in recent years, thanks to today's transportation options and the number of first-generation immigrants from Latin America.

"None of us went back to where we came from like [Hispanics] do," said funeral home owner Louis Vazza, whose ancestors emigrated from Italy. "The year 2007 makes a big difference."

While statistics are hard to come by, American Airlines says it ships about 3,000 bodies a year from the United States to Latin America.

In Massachusetts, the state Department of Public Health reported that 1,230 Hispanics died in 2005. Using Vazza's estimate that 80 percent of his Hispanic clients want to ship the body back home, there would have been about 1,000 such shipments from Massachusetts that year.

Transporting human remains across national borders is no easy process. Documents must be notarized, consulates must be visited, hermetically sealed caskets must be prepared and placed in a special container, and airline reservations must be made.

The cost of shipping ranges from $4,000 to $6,000, depending on airfare, type of casket, consulate fees, and the funeral home's charges. That does not include the cost of a wake, which Hispanic families will usually have before the body departs.

The Vazza Funeral Homes in East Boston and Revere serve from 25 to 75 Hispanic families a year, Vazza said. His website includes a section in Spanish and Portuguese, and Vazza said he opened his branch in Revere to serve the growing Latino population there.

If the process goes smoothly, it should take three to seven days to send a body home. But there can be complications.

Rodgers said trade embargoes between the United States and Latin American countries sometimes prevent the shipment of remains. Airlines will also bar such shipments during peak travel times to certain destinations; too much luggage from tourists means no room for 300-pound caskets, he said.

Even bigger problems can arise if the deceased was living in this country illegally.

Usually if the person died in the United States without a passport or a visa, he or she will be in violation of immigration laws, even after death. If the family wishes to return the remains of an illegal immigrant, someone first has to go back to their native country and obtain an original copy of a birth certificate or some other documentation that verifies the deceased's identity, Rodgers said.

"The country they are going back to still has the right to refuse them, because why did they leave?" said Rodgers, who added that he has had to deal with that situation once. "It is not an easy process if they were here illegally."

Another concern involves finances. "They are concerned about how they are going to pay for it," Rodgers said of the relatives.

Sometimes it literally takes a village to have a funeral. Friends, neighbors, businesses, and churches will chip in to help pay for the services.

In East Boston, for example, Hispanic businesses and restaurants recently put out small cardboard collection boxes to raise money for the funeral of a Guatemalan woman who was killed in a car accident in July. The Guatemalan Consulate in Providence sometimes offers financial support for Guatemalans in New England who cannot afford the cost of sending their loved ones home.

In addition to the bureaucratic obstacles, there are cultural issues.

"As this population grows in our cities and towns, it is critical for us to be able to respond to their needs," said Bob Biggins, a spokesman for the National Funeral Directors Association and owner of Magoun-Biggins Funeral Home in Rockland.

Last year, the association, which represents 18,000 funeral directors, began offering an online course titled "Serving Hispanic Families," designed to acquaint undertakers with the funeral needs and customs of Latinos.

The course includes topics like the "Growing Power of the Hispanic Market" and "Hispanic Culture, Values, and Traditions."

To bridge his cultural and linguistic divide, Rodgers did not take classes, but instead hired Emilio Mata. The two men try to make the funeral experience for Hispanic families as authentic as possible. They have even taken remains to a family's house for a 24-hour wake, a common tradition across Latin America.

"Hispanic people are funny," said Mata, who is Cuban. "They feel comfortable knowing that there is someone else there who is Hispanic."

However, few Hispanics have broken into what has traditionally been a family business that is passed down from generation to generation.

"It is very tough to get into this business, and it is very expensive to get into this business," said Jorge Colón, owner of Puerta del Cielo Funeral Home in Springfield. Colón, who is from Puerto Rico, said he became the first Hispanic funeral home owner in the state in 1998.

As the Hispanic market matures, Rodgers said, he has noticed some new trends.

Recently, for example, more Latin Americans are making prearrangements, a tradition that is not common down south.

"It is a superstitious thing," said Mata. "They [Hispanics] think they are calling death, and they are afraid."

In East Boston, Vazza said he has seen a growing number of Hispanics opting to bury in this area. That change is noticeable among Hispanics who have established families in Greater Boston and have few, if any, relatives in Latin America.

Since shipping Lopez's remains to Puerto Rico, Rodgers has driven to Logan Airport at least three more times. He said he doesn't mind the drive because he knows he is helping "people on both ends."

"I'd love to have my name on top of every consulate in Massachusetts," Rodgers said. "The Hispanic community is growing, and I want to very much be a part of that."



© Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

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To be a Puerto Rican is a dual
identity and one of them is that they are American.

They're citizens of the US, not immigrants.

Originally Posted by Richard

To be a Puerto Rican is a dual
identity and one of them is that they are American.