‘Exotic Wakes’ Are Rewriting the Rules and Rituals of Death
A new book traces how lifelike funerals — from standing corpses to bodies posed on motorcycles — turn grief, class and identity into public performance.
Illustration: Haley Jiang for Bloomberg
Ángel Luis Pantoja was 24 when he was found dead under a bridge in San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico. His last wish: to be standing at his funeral.
Wearing a Yankees cap and sunglasses, Pantoja was propped upright in his mother’s living room, where relatives gathered to mourn him. It was a nontraditional wake spearheaded by Marin Funeral Home, whose proprietors Pantoja knew and had told of his wishes. The reception garnered significant media attention in Puerto Rico, which later extended to English and Spanish-speaking countries, from the US — where similar practices followed — to Latin America. Due to the peculiarity of Pantoja’s pose, he was often referred to as the El Muerto Para’o, or dead man standing.