descansos

          Someone vandalized a descanso on Highway 80 west of Midland. Descansos are a familiar sight on the roads of west Texas, as they are in almost every other state. The tradition of placing memorials at the site of someone’s death is centuries old and not culture-specific.  Roadside memorials can be found in Egypt, Germany, Ireland, Australia, Brazil, Greece, and many other countries.  Descansos proclaim to the world that the deceased deserves to be remembered, and that the victim’s passing will not be unnoticed.

            For many people, a site takes on a sacred quality once human blood has been spilled. The spontaneous memorials that appeared at Ground Zero in New York or the federal building in Oklahoma City are examples in a grand scale of the human urge to commemorate tragedy. The act of leaving an offering helps the mourner to process their personal reactions to death.

            Some writers believe the tradition has its roots in the crusades of the middle ages. The graves of soldiers that died along the way to the Holy Lands were marked, and on their return, the crusaders would refurbish the graves and pray for their souls.  In colonial times, conquistadors and emigrants often died from sickness and Indian attack. The dead had to be buried where they died. Travelers could not return the body to the sanctified ground of a graveyard.

            According to Rudolfo Anaya in “Descansos: An Interrupted Journey,” the term descanso originated in northern New Mexico during the 1600’s.  Anaya, one of the best ever writers born on or near the Llano Estacado, says that the first descansos were resting places where those who carried the coffin from the church to the graveyard paused to rest. Led by a priest, and followed by women dressed in mourning black, four to six men would carry the coffin. When they rested, the priest prayed, the women wailed, and all contemplated the effects of death upon others. Someone would break a juniper sprig and stick it into the ground to mark the spot. Others would fashion a rough cross of pinyon wood and plant it in the ground. With time, these resting places, used many times, would become an altar for every funeral procession.

            Descansos remind travelers to stop and say a sudario (prayer for the dead) for the souls in purgatory. Descansos are the beads, and the road is the rosary. For some, a cross must be erected on the spot where a person dies, where the soul leaves the body, or otherwise the soul will not be able to rest and will wander aimlessly, haunting those whose duty it was to put up the cross.

            Some descansos are merely piles of rock, others a cross adorned with plastic flowers. Others feature a concrete marker. Some are built from the wreckage of the car in which the victim was killed. Water bottles are frequently placed next to the cross as well. I have seen descansos ornamented as graves are during “El Dia de los Muertos,” with food, wreaths of marigolds, and candles. The descansos are often well tended, with family members coming and cutting weeds, arranging rocks, adding flowers, religious figures and more. Descansos are not only reminders of a journey never completed, but also a form of folk art. They are created and maintained with love.

            Although descansos are expressions of private grief, they have a public aspect. They always face the highway, to be seen by passing strangers. Their emotional power calls out to travelers. They are reminders for motorists to drive safely, to never leave the house without kissing loved ones goodbye, and to not leave angry.

            Roadside memorials are not without controversy. In Florida a disc jockey decided that local descansos were tacky, macabre, and nasty. He encouraged listeners to uproot the memorials and bring them to the station to be trashed. North Carolina recently passed a law banning them. In Colorado, an atheist brought suit, claiming that public property was being used to endorse religion. He told the state troopers that arrested him late at night with a pickup full of flowers and crosses that he was “cleaning up the interstate of discarded refuse.”

            Most states protect the right of citizens to erect descansos. In New Mexico they are respected as “traditional cultural properties.” In West Virginia, the memorial can remain if the people that erect the memorials register them with the state. In Arizona in the 1940’s and 1950’s, the state Highway Patrol erected crosses to mark the location of traffic fatalities. In Montana, the American Legion Highway White Cross Program was launched in 1953. In these states, construction crews will carefully preserve the sites while road maintenance is done. As long as the memorials do not cause traffic hazards, state employees leave them alone. As “traditional cultural properties,” descansos can be considered protected resources and eligible for the National Register of Historic Sites.

            In Texas, various local chapters of Mothers Against Drunk Driving erect markers for the victims of drunk driving. The state of California does the same for similar victims. The driver of the car that caused the death must put up the descanso. The community of Alton, Texas erected a memorial for 21 schoolchildren that died when their bus plunged into a water-filled pit beside the road. In Florida the Department of Transportation will erect a marker with the words “Drive Safely” and the name of the deceased.      

            The American Friends Service Committee has begun an “Adopt a Cross” project in Tijuana to commemorate all those that have died during attempts to enter the United States. Yearly averages of 320 mojados or alambristas die in boxcars, semi-truck trailers, and in the desert heat during long illegal treks to find jobs. During the 50^th anniverasary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a Christmas posada procession occurred there, with the names of the dead called out in witness.

            Que descansen en paz. May they rest in peace in their interrupted journey.