Nathaniel Puente 
Edinburg- On an average day, the Hidalgo Public Cemetery is lonely, quiet, and eroded. Every Friday, however, an anthropology class takes place with a goal of cleaning and preserving the cemetery.
Dr. Sarah Rowe guides the class as they label unmarked graves, map the area, and set up an online database for the public to see.
“This is actually the third semester of the class,” Dr. Rowe told us. “We’ve inventoried over a thousand graves. We’ve identified close to 50 unmarked graves,” she continued.
The Hidalgo Public Cemetery operated from 1913 to the mid-1990s. The cemetery’s eroded state is a result of years of abandonment. Across the 1000 graves are stories just waiting to be told.
“Every single person here has a story that connects them to the community,” Dr. Rowe commented. “If we forget about the people that are buried there we lose those connections,” she finalized.
Although many of the graves are tattered and dismantled, their stories are nonetheless important. Dr. Rowe’s anthropology course hopes to give every grave its proper care.
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