Traditional stone carvers chisel on despite loss of quarries in village swallowed by Mexico City

The sound of hammers and chisels striking stone rings out on most Sundays in the cemetery of ancient Xochiaca, a village swallowed up decades ago by the urban sprawl of Mexico City. It's the sound of the stone carvers of Chimalhuacan — as the borough is known — who still pursue a craft passed down for generations, even after the local source of quarry stone was exhausted. The village cemetery is filled with yard-high (meter-high) statues of saints and a knot of men who coax flower garlands and flowers out of the blocks of stone with their chisels.