Xochitl

At first I wasn’t sure what I was looking at. Was it art? Was it a descansos? It was so large and established, like no memorial I had seen before, but upon inspection it was definitely a descanso.

“Descanse en paz”, the plaque says. Etched in stone, mounted on a stone pedestal embedded in cement and surrounded by a triangular structure, a memorial to Xochitl Valile Pickett Hernandez.

Most of the memorials I have photographed would be easily missed on the side of the road; some have been almost impossible to spot even though I am actively looking.

Not this one. Nobody is missing Xochitl.

The site appeared well kept and even more well visited. Bottles and cans of cervezas littered the ground around the memorial. There is probably some irony in this, but again the Internet wants Xochitl’s story to stay between him, his family, and god.