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In 1909, the Mexico City Department of Public Works installed two crematory ovens in the capital's municipal cemetery, the Panteon de Dolores, in culmination of a late nineteenth-century campaign by officials that advocated cremation as a modern and hygienic form of burial for all Mexicans. In practice, all classes rejected cremation and only the very poor were cremated. This essay examines the arguments for and against cremation and the implementation and daily practice surrounding cremation in Mexico City from the 1870s-1920. The establishment of cremation was part of the Porfirian project to modernize and sanitize Mexico that targeted the poor as an obstacle to progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]