One of the things I’ve always liked to photograph when I visit the sacred site of Chimayó are all the offerings left by other visitors. This time, the fence that usually held hundreds of crosses and other mementos wasn’t even there and the other places were penitents left shoes, or prayers rolled into tiny pieces of paper, or all the crucifixes and crosses hung on any available surface stripped clean. I have not been able to find out why the things were gone, but they were and the place felt different, less personal, less emotional. And the faith and sorrow of the previous visitors seemed to have evaporated.

All I could find were some worn crosses leaning on the parking-lot side of the fence, sort of like they’d been banished to a cross-graveyard.

el santuario de Chimayó
Chimayó, New Mexico
photographed 5.15.2022