The
word "descanso" comes from the Spanish "to
rest." It is used to refer to roadside crosses that mark
the spot where someone has died suddenly and unattended, without
last rites. Where you take your last breath is as sacred as
where the body lies later on, and removing a descanso is an
act of
desecration.
This
image was taken while location scouting for a film. I'd pulled
over to photograph a thunderhead towering
above an adobe
church (barely
seen in the background), and it was only afterward that I noticed
the marker further down the fenceline. The triad
of cross, thunderhead, and mesa made for a scene arguably weightier
than the church.
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