Welcome to my new blog!
Lately I have been wanting to start a page for all of the descansos aka roadside memorials I've been noticing lately. I just started to develop a budding interest in photographing these little shrines and crosses so I thought I'd create a blog to start with on blogger and if it gets bigger, I may buy a domain name, and spiff up the overall page design some more.
First of all: What is a descanso? It's a Spanish word meaning "to take a brief rest." Many years ago, when someone died, a group of family, friends, etc., would carry the coffin from the church to the final resting place for burial. The men who carried the coffin would periodically get tired if it was a longer journey, and they would stop briefly to relieve themselves of their temporary burden. Women dressed in black would follow in their footsteps, grieving all the way. Every time they stopped for a rest, the mourners would often times leave a small token behind to mark the spot where the coffin was set to rest--a planted flower--a small white cross on the ground--some type of token. These are the "descansos." Little tributes to the deceased. And we sometimes see them on the roadside--shrines, memorials, dedications to those who have lost their lives while en route to some destination away from home. A journey never completed.
These are not graves but rather markers to show where a person experienced their last moments of life.
The purpose of my blog is twofold--to celebrate the lives of those who died so tragically and away from home, and to remind us all that life is transient. Memento Mori. Remember you shall die.
Eventually, if my photoblog grows, I would like to set up some type of way to raise money to donate to nonprofit organizations like Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) or other such groups. That way we're not only recognizing those who have lost their lives, but also helping to prevent future lives from being needlessly lost by drunk drivers or other such ignorance.
I hope that you get something from my blog--if you are a relative or friend of the deceased, I hope you can find closure and peace, perhaps a feeling of hope that other lives can be saved from such tragedy, maybe even just a feeling of overall appreciation for the care and love evident in the creation of these little shrines. When I first starting looking at photos of descansos, I felt sadness. But the more I stopped to look, read, learn, research, and understand the lives of those who passed on, the more I realized that life is precious.
If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, whatever, please do not hesitate to comment on any of my posts or if you want to comment privately, feel free to contact me via my Gmail profile.
- Kate
