14ymedio, Havana, 15 February 2024 — From makeup to clothes, the family of the deceased in Sancti Spíritus must provide all the necessary supplies for the preparation of the corpse. Interviewed by the official press, Alberto Gómez, the employee of Communal Services who is in charge of this profession, unveiled the litany of precariousness of his work, which he describes as “necessary and chilling,” in the funeral home of the provincial capital.
In his testimony, Gómez does not mince words: there is a lack of makeup, “that used to exist”; there is a lack of shaving cream and many “other resources” that he must request from family members. They “help with some of these products, and we appreciate it, because that way we cover the needs that may exist.” However, he adds, “it’s hard.”
Escambray asks Gómez about the “secrets of the hard job of preparing corpses,” and he perches, a little hunched, on his work table. He shows the few instruments he has: a clamp, a brush, a washbasin and a kind of lock pick. The man doesn’t show his face, which he covers with a mask.
The lack of makeup is a serious obstacle, he clarifies, because it prevents “disguising a hematoma” and filling “the cavities of the face, ears and nostrils
In vain, the newspaper tries to downplay the conditions of its work. To each idyllic phrase, such as the one that portrays him as an “artisan of the image,” Gómez opposes strong descriptions of his daily routine, which – in the “good” days – consists of trying to return to the deceased “the shape of the face, the faded colors, the physical presence and even the arrangement of the hair.”
The lack of makeup is a serious obstacle, h
