In El Salvador, man replaces epitaphs with QR codes

GRAVE SCAN A man uses a mobile phone to scan a quick-response (QR) code on a relative’s grave at the General Cemetery in San Salvador. —AFP

SAN SALVADOR — In El Salvador’s capital city, one resident has found a modern way to honor those who are no longer with us — putting quick-response (QR) codes on tombstones instead of inscriptions.

Cemetery visitors can use their phones to scan the QR code, which links them to a website with a biography of the deceased and photos from their life.

“The idea is to remember our dead as they were in life, so that they are not forgotten, to keep their memory alive,” Frederick Meza, who created the Memorial QR site, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Meza installed the first QR code plaque in San Salvador’s General Cemetery on the grave of his aunt Ana Lilian Chacon, a librarian who died in 2016.

She “was like my second mother, she brought me closer to the world of literature to imagine stories,” said Meza, 37, a photojournalist and historian. “That’s why I am paying her this tribute.”

On the western side of the cemetery, Meza put a second QR plaque on the grave of Ana Lilian’s grandmother, Simona Chacon.

“It’s like a more eternal tribute to loved ones, which transcends borders because anyone who has the code can see the story,” Meza said.

He charges a minimum of $50 to make a QR code and matching website and plans to use the Day of the Dead celebrations on Nov. 1 to draw attention to his work.

“I hope that people will adapt to this new way of paying tribute because the QR code is … everywhere,” he said. “It is already part of our daily life.”