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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | June 2005 
Mexican Funeral Insurance Handles Final Journey
 Will Weissert - Chicago Sun-Times
| | Mexican soldiers, left, in green argue with a group of U.S. Marines, two of whom were carrying non-working ceremonial rifles during the funeral of 22-year-old Juan Lopez in his hometown of San Luis de la Paz in central Mexico. |
Mexico City - They live and die in the United States, but for the families of many Latin Americans, burial must be in their home country. It is a journey that can be delayed for months by the expensive and confusing process of negotiating international borders.
Now a Mexican insurance company is selling low-cost policies, promising to pay to embalm a body, get it to even the remotest of hometowns and pay funeral costs.
With offices in Mexico City and Lynwood, Calif., Grupo Servicios Especiales Profesionales offers three-year policies for $30. Since first offering policies more than three months ago, Grupo SEP says, it has attracted 30,000 clients.
"We will take them to the cemetery where their grandparents or parents and all their loved ones are, and the cost is zero," said Gabriel Monterrubio, vice president.
All Latin American migrants are eligible for coverage, even if they enter the United States illegally. Still, the company sells the funeral insurance only in the United States, an effort to avoid covering those crossing illegally, who are at a higher risk of death.
None of the company's clients have had to use their policies yet.
While higher-paying jobs draw millions of Mexicans north, a love of their homeland rarely fades.
Compelling examples can be found from the war in Iraq. Mexican-born U.S. soldiers have been flown to their native land for burial instead of being laid to rest in the nation they gave their lives fighting for. |
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