Los Ángeles and La Cruz Graveyards

Although the area may seem like one graveyard to new visitors, La Cruz and Los Ángeles cemeteries are actually two cemeteries barely divided by an old fence. 

Both cemeteries feature a striking variety of artistic styles, including paintings, ironworks, and sculptures made from marble as well as pink and yellow quarry stone. Inside, it is easy to get lost in the corridors to find the most unique tombs to which small metal plates have been placed revealing the stories of the buried characters.

Panteón de Los Ángeles opened in the 1870s. Among its memorials is the burial site of Colonel Juan Silva, who was shot, on the orders of Pancho Villa, in the same cemetery where his tomb is located.

Panteón de la Cruz opened in 1903. Perhaps its best-known and most visited inhabitant is Chavita, a boy whose mausoleum is painted with requests and thanks from people who think it is miraculous. According to legend, his grandmother spread the rumor that Chavita spoke to God and performed miracles for people.

Another famous resident of La Cruz is Refugio Reyes Rivas, a leading architect in Aguascalientes. At the end of the graveyard, a commemorative plaque mentions that this extended section of the cemetery was ordered by Governor Manuel Carpio in May 1929. Curiously, just a few months later, Carpio died in an airplane accident and became the first guest of that new area.