The Three Men on the Cemetery Wall
Legend from San Miguel de Allende
In San Miguel, there is a story about Guadalupe Cemetery, the municipal cemetery and also the city’s most traditional one. There are others: one is a cemetery-museum that only opens on certain dates of the year, while another, more modern one, is located on the outskirts.
Guadalupe Cemetery was originally outside the town centre, in the San Antonio neighbourhood. It is still in use, although it is now almost full. As in all cemeteries, people say that strange things happen there. This particular story, however, has to do with a family tradition.
Every year, one person in the family would go to leave flowers on the graves of their loved ones for the Day of the Dead. They would also go on 1 November to leave offerings of sweets on the graves of some children in the family who had died when they were very young.
On 2 November, they would always go with other relatives and friends. They would take photographs together beside the graves, which were decorated for the occasion. They did the same thing year after year. It was a family tradition that, without them realising it, eventually became a kind of record.
Years later, the family got together on an ordinary day, and the subject of the photographs and memories of their visits to the cemetery for the Day of the Dead came up. Since this person kept everything neatly arranged in a photograph album, they brought it out, and there they all were, standing beside the decorated graves.
As they looked through the photographs, they commented on how fashions change over the years: clothes, hats and even the way people dressed for the occasion. Then someone looking at the photographs noticed something strange.
“Look, in every photo, every year, there are three men sitting on the wall at the back.”
“Yes, they are. How strange, isn’t it?” the others said.
But it was not just that. They realised that the three men on the wall were exactly the same in every photograph. Year after year, they wore the same clothes and did not seem to grow any older. And there was another, even stranger detail: none of them wore shoes. All three appeared barefoot in every photograph, year after year.
They eventually came to the conclusion that they must be spirits who, during the Days of the Dead, are given leave to return to this world and be with their loved ones. Perhaps these three no longer had anyone to visit them or leave offerings for them, and that was why they sat on the wall watching the festivities. Perhaps they did the same thing year after year, as if they too had their own tradition.
So, if you happen to go to San Miguel one of these years and visit the cemetery during the Day of the Dead—which, incidentally, is usually very crowded—take a look at the walls and see if you can spot three men sitting there, barefoot.
Another version of this story was published in the bilingual book Stories and Legends of San Miguel de Allende / Historias y leyendas de San Miguel de Allende, by Homero Adame. The book is Available on Amazon.



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