Struggling to live in a city of the dead

Edcel Zuniga smiles as a white hearse, followed by a crowd of wailing mourners, makes its way slowly through Carreta Cemetery in Cebu City, the second-largest metropolis in the Philippines. This is her seventh funeral of the day, her seventh opportunity to make a little bit of money to provide for her three children.

She is one of the thousands of Filipinos who live, work, play and eventually grow old among the mausoleums and crypts of Philippine cemeteries. They make a living on the economy of the dead, turning wax scraped from graves into candles, selling candles to mourners and helping seal the graves of new arrivals with concrete. On a good day, this will make them a little more than a dollar.

They are known derisively as “skeletons,” “zombies” and “the cemetery people.”

But for Zuniga, her husband and three daughters, Carreta Cemetery is the only place that they can afford to live. While the walls may be made of tombstones and the entire family sleeps on the graves of the dead, at least it’s a place they can call home.

“It’s really difficult to live here, but I don’t mind,” she said. “What’s important to me is that at least my family is here with me.”

In all, 10 members of her family — including her mother, her father, her siblings and their children — have lived in a small corner of the cemetery.

“It’s easy to find work here because you don’t need any educational degree,” she said. “It allows me to make enough money to feed my children.”

America Tonight went inside Carreta Cemetery, where people are struggling against overwhelming odds to provide for their children, escape a cycle of poverty and simply find a place to call home.