There are three interesting aspects to consider about the mummies: how they came about, Ray Bradbury’s short story and why they’re still there.
Evidently, the combination of local conditions of high heat, low humidity and special soil composition quickly turned the bodies in the crypts into mummies. These, 119 in number, are the well preserved bodies of the dead of Guanjuato, whose loved ones probably couldn’t afford the upkeep fees at the local cemetery. When a family failed to pay three years in a row, between 1896 and 1958, the bodies were exhumed and deposited in the local museum. People believe that some were accidentally buried alive during a cholera outbreak in 1833.
Ray Bradbury visited Guanajuato in 1947[?] and then wrote “The Next in Line” which is a gothic, psychological thriller about a woman’s descent into madness after visiting the museum. It’s no bedtime story. The protagonist is haunted by what she calls the silent screaming of the mummies. “Marie’s eyes slammed the furthest wall…swinging from horror to horror…starring with hypnotic fascination at paralyzed, loveless, fleshless loins, at men made into women by evaporation, at women made into dugged swine. The fearful ricochet of vision…ended finally...when vision crashed against the corridor ending with one last scream.”
Bradbury said “I made the mistake of going to the city of Guanajuato … witnessing the mummies wound up and wired to the walls, a long line of them, about a hundred mummies….which terrified me. I wanted to get the hell out of Guanajuato as soon as possible. …I had to write the nightmare down.”
The pictures of the mummies, which you can see by clicking here, are gruesome and shocking. Yet this is a very popular tourist attraction, and a selection of the mummies has even gone on the road as a traveling exhibit. Some have questioned whether it is ethical to keep to them on display, but the town has come to depend quite heavily on the money that comes from the museum. I know I’m not going anywhere near them. In fact I may not be able to sleep tonight just from reading the story and seeing the pictures. But if you’re a fan of the genre, it may be just your thing.
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Bradbury, R. (1955). The October country. New York, NY: Balantine. The next in line, p.18
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