Grave matters
Conway is the dateline and the new Mexican consulate in Little Rock figures prominently in a NY Times article about the rise of a cottage industry -- repatriation of the bodies of Mexicans and other immigrants who die in the U.S. It centers on a worker killed in a car wreck.
Brown Christian Funeral Service in Little Rock is mentioned for its "Hispanic package."
Typically, the cheapest “Hispanic Package” at Brown Christian Funeral Services in Little Rock, which includes pickup, embalming, dressing, a $660 coffin, the shipping container and airfare, costs $3,444. The funeral home offers a discounted package for those who are subsidized by the consulate. But during holidays, when the airlines are full, it costs an additional $688 for airfare.



Comments
Excellent story. And one that could have easily been done here. So do you think there are any "Why we not have?" emails circulating at the DOG this morning? Or is Fellone just planning his next expose of illegal left-turners?
ARK. BLOG: El Latino, our Spanish-language weekly, did a story on the "Hispanic package" a couple of months ago.
Posted by: Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
|
June 11, 2007 09:51 AM
I thought it was a very moving article and demonstrates a true culture of family unlike the reactionary conservatives who want to keep people like this from becoming part of the "great immigrant nation" which we have always been.
Posted by: Janus
|
June 11, 2007 10:37 AM
A very interesting and enlightening read. And a big thumbs-up to Brown's Christian Funeral Services and the Little Rock consulate.
The Mrs. and I spent most of January, 2005, in San Miguel de Allende and came away with enormous respect for the Mexican people, their culture, and their work ethic.
How sorrowful that the politics and economic plight of their homeland forces good Mexicans by the millions to make illegal border crossings, tearing them apart from loved ones until the Grim Reaper appears.
Posted by: durangokid
|
June 11, 2007 11:45 AM
YOU bleeding heart sob's don't give a damn about your country! All the hell you talk about is all those poor mexs and how we should let them come and take over our nation.
To hell with that. They are invading our country and should be forced to leave.
They have culture! Keep it down there and not up here where it is out of place.
I think I am beginning to see why the white race is imploding.
The damn government is passing laws by the tons every year making it a big load on the backs of all Americans. I mean taxes and rules,,, etc. Taxes takes away our liberty and freedoms.
Posted by: chasv
|
June 11, 2007 12:18 PM
Hey chasV,
If the damn government is making a big load on the backs of all Americans then maybe we need to get some more taxpaying Americans to share the burden.
Maybe if we allowed more WORKERS in and expand the number of Americans, it would easy chuckie the fifth's burden.
Do you have any idea where we might find some more workers?
Posted by: Citizen home
|
June 11, 2007 12:49 PM
Chasv, come let me take you to Okla, by the Ark River, and introduce you to a lawsuit that's about 160 years old.
Seems the original settlers want their land, the property that was stolen by U.S. military then the property owners were herded into villages and put on the "welfare dole" save for the ones who got to keep their Okla lands and oil was found there.
Let's go ask the Dakotas, Cherokkes, Choctaws about immigration and how it can really fuck up a nation.
Posted by: Knoc Knock
|
June 11, 2007 01:26 PM
Well, c h, the bigger picture demands us to be less narrow minded so we can see all that's wrong with us.
The bigger blame must lie on the education system... Educating kids so they won't have to work is one of the problem in America..
Posted by: chasv
|
June 11, 2007 01:35 PM
AT Blog:
How's about an inquiring call to Tyson's Foods, George's Poultry, Lindsey Development all who benefit from the large number of Hispanic workers to discover if they chip in to repatriation expenses? Oh yes, since 'illegalies' put millions into the coffers of WalMart may be a good idea to check with them.
To keep things fair and balanced ask the 10-11 Hispanic money, wire transfer companies in NWA if they contribute.
Posted by: Knoc Knock
|
June 11, 2007 01:41 PM
Knoc, I have some of that blood in me but I don't see where that fits in this blog. I do not condone anyone stealing from our native Americans for any reason.
Mexicans are from a completely different race of people. Get them out!
Posted by: chasv
|
June 11, 2007 01:43 PM
chasv, you stupid son of a bitch.
Hispanics are Caucasians just like you, you ignorant ferret.
Posted by: Claude Bahls
|
June 11, 2007 01:53 PM
ignorant ferret."
ROLMAO!
Posted by: Knoc Knock
|
June 11, 2007 02:33 PM
"YOU bleeding heart sob's don't give a damn about your country! All the hell you talk about is all those poor mexs and how we should let them come and take over our nation.
To hell with that. They are invading our country and should be forced to leave.
They have culture! Keep it down there and not up here where it is out of place.
I think I am beginning to see why the white race is imploding.
The damn government is passing laws by the tons every year making it a big load on the backs of all Americans. I mean taxes and rules,,, etc. Taxes takes away our liberty and freedoms. "
Oh, chasv. How did you go from asserting that we don't love our country to anti-immigration to "taxes takes [sic] away our liberty and freedoms?"
Step away from the computer, read some background information on one of these three arguments (whichever you choose), and come back
and form a coherent, fact-based argument (again, on whichever topic you choose). Thanks a bunch.
Posted by: JD
|
June 11, 2007 02:45 PM
"chasv, you stupid son of a bitch."
Amazing...just what I was thinking. I love it when that happens.
Posted by: zelda
|
June 11, 2007 02:55 PM
Chasv,
Better than the stepping away suggestion above for you to do some reading - let me recommend a brain transplant from the ferret you've been emulating. It would improve your IQ considerably. Maybe even give you a heart.
Posted by: Janus
|
June 11, 2007 03:22 PM
Chasv,
Where are your ancestors from? Mine were from Ireland and were treated even worse than Mexicans are now. They were maids and unskilled laborers as well. Now we're doctors, lawyers, and businessmen. The same will be true of the Hispanics. In California, Texas, and South Florida it already is true of 2nd and 3rd generation immigrants.
Posted by: Aporkalypse
|
June 11, 2007 05:06 PM
Chasv provided us with this pearl:
"Educating kids so they won't have to work is one of the problem in America.."
Wow... I don't even know where to begin with this one...
A mind is a terrible thing to waste.
Posted by: DrRingDing
|
June 11, 2007 07:13 PM
Thanks for beating me to it, DrRD.
Posted by: hugh mann
|
June 11, 2007 08:15 PM
Hold it right there. Time out.
A $660 coffin? Thirty years ago when we were making funeral arrangements for my sister-in-law, the cheapest coffin we were shown was a plain wooden mummy-shaped box for $800. Of course, no one that we know ever picked that monstrosity, preferring the more conventional (and more costly) coffins.
Hmmm. Pine boards are cheaper now than they were in the 1970s?
Posted by: Doigotta
|
June 11, 2007 08:40 PM
Oh, and chasv . . . how about you and some of your young relatives heading out to the fields to pick fruits and vegetables? You missed the strawberry season. That would have been perfect to start the year off, but tomato season is here, and if you survive that, you can move up to blackberries, squash, cucumbers and okra, all of which fight to keep their fruit. Assuming you make through those "stinging" plants, well that ole summer sun shines for all of us, doesn't it?
I second Claude and Zelda. You are a stupid SOB.
Posted by: Doigotta
|
June 11, 2007 08:56 PM
HEY ZELDA it takes one to know one, you bastard.
It is obvious the problems our nation is facing is in people like many of you.
Posted by: chasv
|
June 11, 2007 11:01 PM
HEY ZELDA it takes one to know one.
The last time I saw a mexicans they were brown people not white, you dumb ass. Get them out of here and you can go with 'em.
The bible says that people are forever learning but never able to come to the truth and in the last days people would rather believe lies than the truth.
That's you!
Posted by: chasv
|
June 11, 2007 11:09 PM
chasv reminds me a whole lot of that KKK guy who lived in NLR. Oh yes, Mr. Quimby.......is that who you really are chasv?
We should keep the Mexicans and deport the chasv's of America. Let him start a new race of superior white people deep in the heart of Mexico.
I think the name Brown Christian Funeral Services, is rather ironic when connected to this story about shipping home dead Mexicans. Isn't truth indeed stranger than fiction?
I'd think some enterprising person could find a way to ship dead bodies back to Mexico a whole lot cheaper. Lordy...I got a Ford truck and I could make some side-rails and get those folks back home for half that amount.
A friend of mine was killed in Mexico in 1995 and got the Mexican funeral and transporting back home, the opposite of this story. Poor Tony...struck by lightening while standing on a metal balcony because his wife wouldn't let him smoke in the house. sigh.....
He was about 6 foot 2 inches tall. They stuffed him in a little white wooden casket with a window over his face that was slightly less than 6 feet long. He had brown makeup caked on his face an inch thick......it was horrible.
We laughed while we cried...I wanted to jump in the grave with him. But Tony was a crazy man....he would have loved the whole thing.
Posted by: Deathbyinches
|
June 12, 2007 12:15 AM
Aren't the Mexicans a mixture of Spanish (white) and Native Americans that were living in North, Central, and South America?
Some people just don't make sense.
BTW, I have some of that hated Scotch-Irish blood in me, and yes, they were hated at one time when they were immigrants, especially when the King emptied his prisons to supply the upper class English slave owners with people to supervise over the black slaves. Solved the problems the King was having with overcrowding in his prisons, and the problem the upper class were having with running their huge plantations.
Of course, it wasn't very good for the poor slaves, who were abused by all the psychopathic sadistic criminals that were running their daily lives. Some of those overseers were my ancestors, I'm not proud to say. Quite a few of my relatives still have that mentality, unfortunately.
Posted by: rablib
|
June 12, 2007 02:06 AM