San Jose Cemetery

San Jose Cemetery, also referred to as Cemeterio San José and Montopolis Cemetery, is a historic Mexican and Mexican American cemetery in the Montopolis neighborhood of Southeast Austin, Texas.[1]

San Jose Cemetery
Entrance to San Jose I
Details
Established1919-1922
Location
705 Montopolis Drive &
8101 Posten Lane
Austin, Texas U.S.
CountryUnited States
Coordinates30°14′14″N 97°41′48″W
Owned byCity of Austin

San Jose Cemetery was established between 1919 and 1922 by the Union Fraternal Mexicana.[2] At the time of its establishment, the Montopolis area not included in the Austin city limits as it is today, and would not be until the 1950s.[3] The area was largely rural, without essential services, and suffered from high crime rates.[4] Moreover, segregation era politics prevented integrated cemeteries for people of color, specifically Latinx/Hispanic individuals in the case of San Jose Cemetery. As time went on, the cemetery has suffered from considerable neglect and illegal dumping activity.[5]

In 2020, a research team based out of The University of Texas at Austin conducted research on the site investigating the linkage of the cemetery to pandemic-related deaths of the twentieth century.[6]

The cemetery is composed of two sections: the first and original section, San Jose I, is located at 705 Montopolis Drive, and the second later addition, San Jose II, is located at 8101 Posten Lane off of Hoeke Lane.[7]

Notes
  1. https://library.austintexas.gov/blog-entry/san-jose-cemetery-407480
  2. https://croneandcasket.com/2018/05/06/san-jose-cemetery-austin-tx/
  3. https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/ab9ed16cf38d41609f79bf20f2791eb7
  4. http://jchampion.weebly.com/history.html
  5. https://www.myplainview.com/news/article/Many-Texas-cemeteries-getting-no-regular-upkeep-9085150.php
  6. https://soa.utexas.edu/headlines/necropolis-politic-symposium-explores-mourning-reclamation-and-preservation-bipoc-sacred
  7. http://www.austintxgensoc.org/cemeteries/san-jose-ii-cemetery/
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.