As if it were a museum piece, several people in Colima have visited a coffin identical to the one used last March during the funeral services for Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias El Mencho. The coffin has sparked the curiosity of the residents of Colima.
“Individuals and families have been coming. It’s been quite interesting to see this coffin we have,” reveals Alberto Alcántar, pre-need manager of the funeral home that imported the coffin from the United States.
It is an extremely exclusive piece; there are only seven coffins of this model in all of Mexico: one in Ciudad Obregón, Sonora; three in Culiacán, Sinaloa; and two used in El Mencho’s funeral in the city of Guadalajara, in the state of Jalisco.
While this coffin became popular after El Mencho’s death, the funeral home maintains that they don’t display it “to create morbid curiosity, but rather to show that we can provide the services the family wishes,” says Ericka Peñafiel, marketing manager.
The coffin is also one of the most secure: it only opens and closes hermetically with a key; without it, it’s virtually impossible to tamper with the lid. Furthermore, it has an embedded memory tube to identify the body in case of a disaster.
“In the United States, some rivers have overflowed, and even the sea in Louisiana, and coffins have surfaced, floated, and drifted. With the memory tube, it’s possible to know who was in the coffin if something similar were to happen.”
The coffin, similar to the one used in Nemesio Oseguera’s funeral, is on display at a funeral home in Colima, where its gold finish and metal structure stand out. Photo: Abraham Acosta Martínez, Excélsior
Although there has been much speculation about the material of the coffin, the funeral home has clarified that it is made of steel. “It’s 18-gauge steel, it’s metallic, it’s not gold nor is it gold-plated. It’s a gold-plated coffin,” explained Alberto Alcántar, the funeral home’s pre-need manager.
The funeral home has not yet set the prices for a service that includes this coffin. For now, it is only displaying the coffin that attracted attention after the death of El Mencho.
Source: excelsior
