(NM) potential state law protecting descansos (resting place, road side memorials)?

[The Straight Story]

Family angered by removal of daughter’s descanso

By Kevin Shank, The Taos News

Antonia MieraMarch 13 - 4:20 p.m.
Family of the late Antonia Miera are outraged at what they consider the desecration of their daughter’s descanso when it was removed from Paseo del Pueblo Sur by a motel property manager Saturday (March 10).

Miera, 16, died in a vehicle-related incident Oct. 24 in the parking lot of the motel, Hacienda Inn at 1321 Paseo del Pueblo Sur. Her boyfriend, 23-year-old Arturo Mondragón Jr., stands accused of vehicular homicide in her death and is awaiting trial.

The man who took down the artistic iron cross said he and the motel owner consider it bad for business.

.....


“They shouldn’t be allowed to put something like this in front of a business. Would you want to mow around it, and have to pick up trash?” Campbell said.

Roybal-Gonzales said the family is willing to help maintain the descanso site, and in fact have considered taking care of the entire stretch of road through the “Adopt-A-Highway” program.

The family has retained an attorney and plans to return the cross to its original site through proper legal channels.

She said a potential state law protecting descansos will be on her side.

http://taosnews.com/BreakingNews/morenews.html#descanso070314

I found one small blurb elsewhere:
MADD(Mothers against Drunk Drivers) in Texas have managed to get support from some judges in what they consider to be just punishment for someone who taken a life. if so ordered by the judge, the driver of the car that caused a death must put up a Descanso to the person who lost their life. MADD is also working to get other states to co-operate m the same program. I must admit that of all the Descansos which I photographed none seemed to have been put up by MADD.

If anyone comes across something else toss it in.

[Horse with no Name]

1. They don't bother me

I live in a rural area and most are off the side of the road and not in the way.
However, to have one in town where others had to maintain it shouldn't have to be in anyone's job description.

[The Straight Story]

3. It's been a hot topic here in the past :) :

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1961309

[Horse with no Name]

4. I think on any given day

ANYTHING could be a hot topic.:eyes:

[The Straight Story]

5. True that! I almost started a notepad of hot topics to review at year end:

anna nicole, edwards' house, etc and so on :)

Seems like there is always a flavor-flame of the week.

[Solo_in_MD]

10. As long as they are there with the permission of the property owner

Hypothitical Scenario:
Little Johnny gets drunk, runs off the road, and hits a tree on someones property.
His buds build a memorial to him around the base of the tree without permission.
They want to hold some sort of memorial to him there.

Why should the person who had to clean up much of the original mess be obligated to allow the memorial, and all the trash and traffic that goes with it. Call it harsh, but I've seen that exact same scenario several time here on the east coast.

As I recall some property owners have tossed the stuff causing no end of heartburn

[Horse with no Name]

12. There is one outside of our town

a beloved teacher hit a tree on her way home and died.
The day of her funeral it was put up. That has been almost a year ago.
However, a couple of weeks ago, someone cut down the tree she hit.
I have been curious how that came about.
And I agree...nobody should be forced to tend to someone else's memorial since they didn't know them.

[TygrBright]

2. The motel's gonna lose this one...

...descansos are pretty important here. Even the tacky ones are lovingly maintained and watched over by someone. Tinsel at Christmas, bunting at 4th July, etc. And they're everywhere.

One way to reduce their number might be to restrict the hours and points of sale for booze, thus lowering the butcher's bill on the roads every year, but the bribes from the convenience store and tourist industry lobbyists are too important to our honorable state legers to even consider that.

ironically,
Bright

[Solo_in_MD]

13. Looks like the gov had a hand in the confusion

and that it was not placed where the permit was issued for. It may also have been on private property. *sigh* sounds like a good deal more grief than was necessary.

[alittlelark]

6. I love seeing those memorials.

Sometimes I stop. They are not allowed in CA, but I travel to NM 3-4 times a year. They are beautiful, individual, and cautionary.


I cannot understand why some would be disturbed by them. They are placed with love and sorrow to warn the rest of us, and allow us to respect those honored by the crosses/placards.

[The Straight Story]

7. A neat website about them and some pics

http://www.panam.edu/dept/lrgvarchive/Descansos.htm

[SoCalDem]

8. I see them ALL OVER here in S. California.

If they are illegal, no one removes them :shrug:
personally, i think they look tacky, but if the families want to do them, it's not my place to say they can't :)

[alittlelark]

9. They are illegal in our state.

You can buy a white cross from the St. Police for ?$. No decorations allowed.



In NM there are some beautiful memorials. Sometimes those w/children involved have balloons. The families spend a great deal of time and effort on these memorials.


They are beautiful.

[Horse with no Name]

11. When I was in Phoenix over the holidays

I believe it was on 51st and Olive but on the side of the canal there was one with several teddy bears, candles, toys, etc. My mom told me that there was a church bus wreck where several children died.
It was very sad but very elaborate.

[Kickin_Donkey]

14. They may be illegal in CA ...

but they're still all over the place ... and I'm up in NorCal.

They didn't start becoming popular here, in my neck of the woods, until the '90s. Before that, I always considered them a Southwestern thing.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

15. When they build them in the right-of-way, they've got to go

It's a safety issue. Would emergency vehicles be able to get by stopped traffic on their way to an accident if the shoulder is blocked by one of these memorials? I have no problem if they put their memorial on private land next to the accident site, with the owner's permission, of course.

Here in SoCal I have seen several memorials grow from simple wood crosses that remain for a couple of months to a year into huge monuments 6 feet high constructed from concrete and rocks and usually a statue of the Virgin Mother. And it's always the same reaction when the government tells the family it's going to be removed from the right-of-way: "You are dishonoring the memory of our child's life." Gee, let's put a huge memorial up where each and every one of the tens of thousands of people who die on the highway are killed each year. F*ck, why stop there? How about monuments where someone was killed when a small airplane crashed, or where they died when they had a heart attack (nothing like a big hunk of concrete in the middle of a public tennis court), or where they tripped and broke their neck? In five years we'd be a country of monuments.

Another thought: Suppose someone stopped to read the name on the monument and they were hit by a car. A second memorial would have to be built next to the first.

[REP]

16. Not On Private Property

Personally, I think they're tacky as hell anywhere they are - no matter how eloborate they are, they are in extremely poor taste - but expecting a private property owner to put up with that nonsense takes the cake.

If we were to build little ticky-tacky teddy bear memorials to everyone who ever died anywhere, this country would be covered in votive candles and misspelled memorial notes.