Last month Doran and I left for Park City on a Sunday for my work meetings. Meetings were Monday and Tuesday with a Banquet on Monday night. On Tuesday we headed south towards Taos, New Mexico. Our plan was to drive as far as we could that first night. We ended up staying in Cortez, Colorado. There was only one room left at the hotel we stayed at and it was so cute. We wish we would have had the grand kids with us....sort of.
This is inside the fort.
The Fort is behind the TV.
Then we continued on the next morning.
We got to Taos early in the afternoon so we decided to stop at one of the cemeteries. The reason for the trip was to find my great-grandfathers grave and find somewhere to buy a headstone if it looked the same as when we saw it last. In 1994 we made a trip with the kids and found his grave looking like this:
I am not sure who put flowers on but with our 2011 trip we found out that Juan's sister had passed away about eight years ago. So with this information I am thinking that maybe she was the one to put the flowers on. Not sure who did the "headstone" but I was really sad to see it like this.
We then left to go find a hotel and do a little sight seeing while I was waiting to contact some relatives down there. We went to this old church, which they still use. They had just done some upkeep to the out side with mud and straw and the straw was so neat to see poking through the mud. It shimmered.
Inside the chapel starting at the front on one side of the wall began numbered pictures. One being the birth of the Savior and on around to the back of the room and back up the other side to the front ending with the crucificion. How sad. The most wonderful part of Christs' ministry was missing. My heart fell. Where was the hope? Where was the forever after? Where was the blessings and example and service that continues on?
It was a beautiful building but the spirit was missing.
The church was in the middle of a little plaza. I mean little. There were only a couple of shops and a restaurant. This was down an alley that lead to a shop, we think. We didn't dare go inside because it looked like a shop but also maybe someones house. But we got a picture of one of the tenants.
This is a typical old falling down home there.
The next day we went back to the cemetery to find great-grandpa.
Here he is. Looks about the same as 17 years ago. He is hard to find because it is behind some other graves that have bushes growing all over and on top of the graves. He is in the middle of a couple of big graves. He is buried North & South. This cemetery is the oldest in Taos and there is no rhyme or reason to how people are buried there. We have been spoiled with a beautiful kept cemetery in our town. Sierra Vista is NOT well taken care of. They don't have a sexton and I can't find anyone that knows who is buried in here.
Before we went down we found out that great-grandma Rosa is also there so Doran and I searched the whole cemetery. The more we looked the more heartbroken we felt. This cemetery is in shambles. There are these little critters make holes everywhere!!
This is one sample of how/where/why you cannot find headstones. We had to move bushes and almost crawl under things to see IF there was a headstone and if there was see IF you can read it. So sad. My heart ached for all those that are buried there and have been "forgotten". The people there are buried in all different directions. There are a lot of cemeteries down there. Some are religion owned and if you are not that religion, you can not be buried there. Some are family owned and if you are not that family, you can not be buried there. You get the picture. I even found out that you can bury a loved one in your back yard. How do you FIND these people when then "next of kin" passes on?
This is my dads cousin George and his wife Isabel. They are so busy with their bar that we had to go hang out in their bar to visit. We met a lot of their patrons and friends. They all consider themselves "cousins" down in that culture so I also had a lot of cousins.
We were having a hard time finding great-grandma Rosa's grave so George called Roger, another cousin, really! He is my dads other cousin. He is the grandson of Rosa. So we are second-cousins-once removed or something like that but remember down there you are COUSINS. None of the 1st, 2nd stuff. Just cousins.
He showed us where Rosa was buried.
While we were searching on our own we found this one and Doran tried to clean the metal plate of to see if we could see the name but the name thingy had fallen out I'm sure years ago. Anyway this is hers. Even sadder because she doesn't have ANYTHING written on hers.
Years ago when we talked about family history the story was that great-grandma Rosa was traded for a sack of flour when she was a baby. Until this trip I didn't realize that this was a common thing that happened back then in that area. Such a long story and even more I need to research but the story goes...When times got desperate the Indian tribes would go raid another tribe of their women and children when the horses ran out and bring them to Taos and other areas for trade. They were either sold/traded to use as slaves. (jenizaros) Some that were "traded" were raised as their own or had them do the work on the farm or houses. I am not sure if grandma was legally adopted or just raised by the Trujillo family. I wish I could find more information on them. The only dates I have found is a 1880 Census stating that Rosa was 8 years old. Jose Trujillo was a farmer and a widow. I am not sure when his wife, Ines Medina passed away nor do I have much info on them. So the buck stop here...er...the family line stops here, at least for now.
So instead of buying one headstone looks like we will be purchasing two. We found two places that can order headstones but neither one of them install them. You have to do it yourself. So we need to decide whether to hire someone to put it in for us or if we need to go back next year and do it ourselves. Roger mentioned that he might be able to set it up for us. We went to a mortuary and had a metal marker made for great-grandma so for now they look like this.
On the way home we stopped off at the Rio Grande gorge. Scary! It was windy and you had to hold on. We couldn't look down and walk over the bridge or we would get sick. There was a car way down there. I wonder if they went off on purpose or just missed the turn. Then I got home and someone had said that they have been having trouble with that being a popular suicide spot. Shiver.
Hanging on!
The sights between Taos and Durango were beautiful!
We got to one area that had multiple, multiple, multiple signs that said...."Do not stop and get out." "Do not stop and get out." Why? Because there was a field that was an elk farm. So what did we do? We stopped but DIDN'T get out. :)
And THESE.....were some fun signs we saw.
And I think I should use this as my Motto! Love it!!
I'm glad we went but I couldn't get out of there fast enough. The people were very friendly but the culture is not for me. But I still need to go back when I have more time and see if I can find information at the different church's there. It would help if I could speak Spanish and keep up with the fast talk down there.
On the way home we stopped in Durango for the night. EXPENSIVE! But we did enjoy some yummy dinner including dumplings...mmm.mmm.mmm
Our next trip....CALIFORNIA & ARIZONA!!
