Folk Art in Texas Page: 51
203 p. : ill., ports. ; 29 cm.View a full description of this book.
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FOLK GRAVE DECORATION ALONG THE RIO GRANDE
tional Choctaw ritual.4 One wonders how such
material culture customs travel into other folk groups,
with no apparent connecting links.
In small Hispanic and Pueblo Indian communities
in the Southwest, the deceased person was tradi-
tionally carried by neighbors from the church to the
graveyard-sometimes a mile or so away. Carrying
a coffin so far is tiring, necessitating a descanso-
rest stop-from time to time. Eventually these rest
stops became permanent, traditional; crosses were
erected (or painted on a tree or wall nearby) to mark
the solemnity of the place. Apparently from this
custom arose the practice of marking the places of
death for accident victims. On one winding road in
north-central New Mexico I encountered three such
crosses painted side by side on a cement block wall,
denoting the place where three men had met their
ends. And just a few miles away, near Pojoaque, a
more elaborate marker-also called a descanso
locally-commemorates the site of a wreck in which
Lenny Gutierrez died.
The most unusual grave I photographed as I
traveled the length of the Rio Grande was one that,
like the descanso, holds no body. Even so, it incor-
porates nearly every example of folk grave art I have
found anywhere, with the exception of the scraped
earth mound. It marks the site where, during the* 51 *
influenza epidemic of 1918, a young man named
Pablo Pacheco was buried. When he "died" while
the epidemic was raging, there was no help outside
the family to inter him properly. He had often in-
sisted that he wanted to be buried at home, and he
got his wish. Three days later he awoke from a coma,
dug himself out of his backyard grave, and over the
years has created his own monument celebrating his
personal miracle. Had he been buried in a "box,"
he says, with the top nailed down, he never would
have survived. Since they just rolled him in a blanket,
he lived! On his monument are saints' statues (some
framed in old TV sets), Kewpie dolls, cherubs, crosses
of varied materials, plastic wreaths and flowers-the
whole range of grave decoration is there. And to top
it all, it is the only grave I have found where the
"deceased" can chat with you in detail about his
demise.
Notes
1. Quoted by Terry Jordan, " 'The Roses so Red and The Lilies
so Fair': Southern Folk Cemeteries in Texas," Southwestern
Historical Quarterly 83 (January 1980): 229.
2. Ibid., pp. 232-34.
3. Ibid., pp. 235-39.
4. Ibid., pp. 250-54.
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Folk Art in Texas (Book)
This book describes popular folk art of Texas, including basket weaving, hat-making, yard art, sculptures, murals, cemetery art, quilt-making, tattoo art, and other miscellaneous folk art. The index begins on page 198.
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Abernethy, Francis Edward. Folk Art in Texas, book, 1985; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc67647/m1/59/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Press.