[5] In 1882, a report presented by the secretary of the San Juan de Dios Hospital, which was in charge of the cemetery said that the hills were going to be used as a labyrinth surrounded by an outer street where the most exclusive tombs would be built.

[6] Hill #1 was chosen by friends and family of president Justo Rufino Barrios to build his majestic tomb, which was unveiled on 2 April 1892, the seventh anniversary of his death.

[7] On 30 June 1894, the remains of general Miguel García Granados – former president of Guatemala – were transferred to this cemetery from his humble tomb in the old one; his new resting place was inside a majestic monument in his honor.

[8] In 1896 La Ilustración Guatemalteca published an article about the General Cemetery on November 1, Día de los Muertos; they described several tombs of famous characters of the time.

[9] La Ilustración also talks about a curious tomb guard by an Augustine monk who read avidly a Holy book; they only mentioned that it belong to a Belgian immigrant that made a large fortune after arriving to Guatemala.

[12] But it was at the cemetery that the utter devastation was most evident: all was demolished on the night of the earthquake and it was said that something like eight thousand dead were literally shaken from their graves, threatening pestilence to the city and forcing the authorities to burn all of them in a gigantic bonfire.

Hill #2 was cleverly used in the beginning, but it was gradually destroyed later when stairs were added to improve access to it and the monument of the cadets shot in 1908 following the assassination attempt on then president Manuel Estrada Cabrera was placed on top of it.