Last Visit to Tumacacori

Tumacacori Garden

Tumacacori Garden © 2012 Bo Mackison

Can you look past the electric wires, telephone poles,
the matching but separate doors labeled MEN and WOMEN,
the coiled rubber hose, the 19th century stone wall cracked open for a water spigot?

Don’t heed the red stop sign hovering above the mission wall
or listen to the rumbling cars speeding from Nogales to the Border Patrol checkpoint.

Cover your ears with your determination for a sacred silence in this sacred space.
Block the sounds of horns blaring, ignore the heated words of the couple standing near the rose bush.

Shhh.

Can you hear rustling leaves, whistling wind? Can you see the shimmer of the cotttonwoods?

These winds were in this garden. The trees now camouflaging the sparrows’ nests, they were here.
The fountain — the garden’s heart — it was here with its rippling waters.
The dust blowing from the Tumacácori Mountain Range – that dust was here.

Those mountains? They stood in silence and watched.
Arched doorways sheltered the walkway, courtyard sheltered a painted statue of the Virgin with her Babe. They watched.

The yucca were here, the tepary beans trailed along the earth.
The nut tree saplings, freshly planted, they swayed in rhythm with the winds. They witnessed.

The che-che-chee of the sparrows joined the voices raised in song —  of protest and praise, with humiliation and elation, in mourning and in gratitude.

Tumacacori Church Entrance

Tumacacori Church © 2011 Bo Mackison

I hear their voices, I hear the choir lift their voices in song.
Harmonizing
Chanting
The rising alleluias, the longing amens.

Their voices. Do you hear them?
Che-che-cheee-ing alleluias.
Siss-siss-siss, leaves dancing, twirling along the dusty path.

Tumacacori Interior Bricks

Interior © 2011 Bo Mackison

Hearts dancing, hold your gaze on the star hunter, poised, aiming his arrow at the full moon.
Hidden voices in the whistling winds.
Hidden eyes, watching from Tumacacori.

Listen. Watch.

Hush.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She will be returning to Wisconsin later this week after living in Tucson for the last two months. She’s been exploring Arizona and living life “solo.” Occasionally she is moved to write poetry, as happened when she took a last visit to Tumacacori National Historic Site.

Rocks and Crosses

Cemetery and Leaning Trees

Make Way © 2011 Bo Mackison

This is the larger section of the Tumacacori Cemetery. There are a dozen early 20th century graves that are marked with piles of heavy rocks and rustic, wooden crosses. Any evidence of mission era graves are no longer visible, most likely destroyed by weather and human activity in the area. In the late 1800s, the mission was used as a corral during cattle drives. But by 1900, the people moving into the area recognized this as “sacred ground” or “campo santa” and petitioned to once again use the cemetery to bury their dead.

Tumacacori - Cemetery III

Tended Graves at Tumacacori © 2011 Bo Mackison

The grave of one year-old Juanita T. Alegria (1915-1916)  was the last person to be buried in the cemetery of the Tumacácori mission. Her grave, marked by the above ground adobe tomb, is the only one to be identified in the back section. According to the Park Ranger, her family still comes to maintain the grave and decorate it with flowers.

Tumacacori - Mortuary

Tumacacori – Laid to Rest © 2011 Bo Mackison

The cemetery and Mortuary Chapel are located at the rear of the church. The Chapel is about 16 feet in diameter and has a flat roof, though there were indications that is was originally intended to have a white dome similar to the dome on the church. This is where funeral masses were celebrated and rosaries were prayed for the dead.

One of the main reasons fro the outside chapel was the concern for the spread of illness. Many died from contracting Old World illnesses, usually small pox or measles, and to gather people in an enclosed area such as the larger church would have run the rick of more contagion. At the height of the mission, there were often one or two deaths every day.

This is the last entry for Tumacacori, although the entire series of photographs of Tumacacori National Historic Park are available in a Flickr set.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is living in Tucson for two months, exhibiting her photography in art shows, taking photographs of Arizona landmarks, both historical and natural, and blogging about photography, art fairs, and living life “solo”. It is an experience well worth the effort.

On the Journey

Tumacacori - In Balance

Tumacacori – In Balance © 2011 Bo Mackison

I am rather fascinated by the granary and the clay pottery. So many opportunities for composition studies. Maybe too many, hmm? Even though I have moved on, and I am visiting new places, I will share these photos of pots in this post, and then I will share photos of the cemetery at Tumacacori National Historic Park tomorrow.

Tumacacori - Two Plus Three

Tumacacori – Two Plus Three © 2011 Bo Mackison

I was asked, after I wrote about sitting in the garden at Tumacacori, what I heard and felt as I rested in that sacred space.

I let my thoughts flow freely as I sat there, as I took in this ancient place, still filled with the “ancient.” And as my thoughts came, I thought about freedom. It was as if this place was filled with an energy that was all about seeking freedom.

Tumacacori - Three Pots

Tumacacori – Three Pots

I sat mostly in silence, and listened–to the birds singing, the wind rustling the dried grasses, the footsteps retreating from me, and I wrote only a few words in my journal. As the thoughts came, I wrote, no censoring, no editing.

Give us our freedom.
Give us our freedom,
but we were never freed.

Now you say, “Let me be free.”
And your request has been answered.

Do not look back at the past; live in this moment.

Take this gift, give thanks, move on.

As I spend my time exploring southern Arizona on my own, I have been thinking a great deal about freedom, but also about connectedness, about creating, about making meaning.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is living in Tucson for two months, exhibiting her photography in art shows, taking photographs of Arizona landmarks, both historical and natural, and blogging about photography, art fairs, and learning to live on her own. It is an experience well worth the effort.