Spontaneous Shrines and the Public Memorialization of Death

356 Pages·2006·32.898 MB·English

by  Jack Santino (eds.)

Spontaneous Shrines and the Public
Memorialization of Death

SPONTANEOUS SHRINES AND
THE PUBLIC MEMORIALIZATION
OF DEATH
EDITED BY
] ACK SANTINO
*
SPONTANEOUS SHRINES AND THE PUBLIC MEMORIALIZATION CF DEATH
© lack Santino, 2006.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 2006 978-1-4039-6888-3
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First published in 2006 by
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ISBN 978-1-349-73485-6 ISBN 978-1-137-12021-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-137-12021-2
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Contents
List 0/ Illustrations Vll
Introduction
Jack Santino
Performative Commemoratives: Spontaneous
Shrines and the Public Memorialization of Death 5
Jack Santino
2 Communicative Commemoration and Graveside Shrines:
Princess Diana, Jim Morrison, My "Bro" Max, and
Boogs the Cat 17
Jeannie Banks Thomas
3 Mourning in Protest: Spontaneous Memorials
and the Sacralization of Public Space 41
Harriet F Senie
4 "We'll Watch Out for Liza and The Kids": Spontaneous
Memorials and Personal Response at the Pentagon, 2001 57
Margaret R. Yocom
5 Oh Did You See the Ashes Co me Thickly
Falling Down? Poems Posted in the Wake of
September 11 99
Steve Zeitlin
6 Louisiana Roadside Memorials: Negotiating an
Emerging Tradition 119
Maida Owens
7 "Like a Trace": The Spontaneous Shrine as a Cultural
Expression of Grief 147
Hege Westgaard
vi CONTENTS
8 A Memorial Wall in Philadelphia 177
Jonathan Lohman
9 Twelve Aggie Angels: Content Analysis of the Spontaneous
Shrines Following the 1999 Bonfire Collapse
at Texas A&M University 215
Sylvia Grider
10 "The Call of the !ce": Tragedy and Vernacular
Responses of Resistance, Heroic Reconstruction,
and Reclamation 233
Diane E. Goldstein and Diane lJe
11 The Missing and Photography: The Uses and Misuses
of Globalization 255
Ariel Dorfman
12 EI Dia de los Muertos in the USA: Cultural Ritual
as Political Communication 261
Regina Marchi
13 Signifying Places of Atrocity 285
Ralph Hartley
14 Forty Years of Conflict: State, Church, and Spontaneous
Representation of Massacres and Murder in Guatemala 305
Matthew J Taylor and Michael K Stein berg
15 Trains ofWorkers, Trains of Death: Some Reflections
after the March 11 Attacks in Madrid 333
Cristina Sdnchez-Carretero
Contributors 349
Index 355
List of Illustrations
2.1 Jim Morrison's graveside shrine, Paris 20
2.2 Photos left at Jim Morrison's graveside shrine, Paris 21
2.3 Greeting card left at graveside shrine, Sah Lake City, Utah 29
2.4 Graveside shrine for a deceased pet, Ogden, Utah 35
4.1 At the memorial, Capt. H.T. Helmkamp promises his
fallen friend, "We'll watch out for Liza & the kids" 58
4.2 St. Bartholomew's School poster features the hands
of their students. Oamaged wall of the Pentagon
appears in background 59
4.3 At the Pentagon memorial, a boy gives tribute to
firefighters at the World Trade Center 63
4.4 With a foam-core poster of their faces, Native Americans
from Marysville, Washington, tell visitors to the memorial
that "TULALIP BINGO~ CASINO EMPLOYEES
WILL NEVER FORGET SEPTEMBER 11 2001" 72
5.1 The Twin Towers personified 102
5.2 Posting Poems on Canal Street 103
5.3 "Goin' Home"-Union Square 104
5.4 "Oear Steven, I Never Met You" 113
6.1 Memorial to Jerry and Todd maintained by the
family members 122
6.2 A cross outside Jennings on the Cajun prairie with a
Cajun Mardi Gras mask 126
6.3 An elaborate cross in the median ofI-49 near Opelousas 128
8.1 The mural on 50th and Wood lawn 179
8.2 Slain child, grieving mother 179
8.3 (a) "Paul Robeson" 4502 Chestnut Street. Artist: Peter
Pagast.; (brOr. J" Ridge Avenue and Green Street.
Artist: Kent Twitchell 182
8.4 "Tribute to Atiya," 17th and North Street. MAP photo 189
8.5 "Sunrise-hope for a better tomorrow" 192
8.6 Oecorated portrait 198
viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
9.1 Aggie Bonfire 218
9.2 Large plain cross 225
9.3 Shadow cross 226
9.4 Set of twelve angels 228
10.1 Memorial's placement on the bridge overlooking
the beach. The shrine was constructed of stuffed
animals and bouquets of flowers 235
10.2 Flowers and stuffed animals tucked into the chain links 236
10.3 Gravesite of Jessie EHiot and Adam Wall 240
12.1 Pan de Muerto offered in memory of a dead migrant 274
12.2 Commemorating unidentified migrants 275
13.1 Sidewalk shrine in the business district of Zagreb 291
13.2 Mothers and wives of the missing mourn with bricks
in front of the Uni ted Nations compound, Zagreb 292
14.1 Inside the Catholic Church in San Juan Cotzal, Quiche 310
14.2 This 15-meter-wide mural is painted on the
perimeter wall of the Catholic Church in Cantabal,
Ixein. This fuH-color mural was painted in January
2001, a fuH four years after signing the peace treaty
in December 1996 311
14.3 Small wooden crosses on the inside wall of the
Catholic Church in Nebaj, Quiche record the
name and date of death of victims 316
14.4 The large monument in Cuarto Pueblo, Ixein. Built
by local residents, this white and blue monument
records the names of over 470 residents murdered
in Cuano Pueblo, Xalbal, Zunil, Los Angeles, and
Ixtahuacan Chiquito by the Guatemalan military in
March in April 1982 317
14.5 Monument of an indigenous women in the plaza of
Chimaltenango. An indigenous woman breaks an
M -16 rifle symbolizing the end of 40 years of civil war.
This monument occupies a prominent place in the
plaza of Chimaltenango 318
15.1 A family lighting candles at the shrines in Atocha
next to a banner used in the demonstration on
Friday, March 12 335
15.2 Shrines at Atocha train station 337
15.3 Shrines at EI Pozo train station 337
15.4 "Colombia cries for the 11M victims" 339
15.5 White palms in Atocha 342
15.6 Black ribbon: "Sergio, 17 year old, why?" 342
15.7 Child's drawing 344
Introduction
] ack Santino
The articles in this volume focus on a wide range of materials: roadside
cross es in Louisiana; the responses to September 11 in New York and
Washington, DC, and the Texas A&M bonfire collapse among other.
While certain well-known tragedies such as the Oklahoma City bombing,
the death of Princess Diana, and the September 11 attacks have brought a
great deal of mass media attention to the contemporary mourning ritual of
spontaneous shrines, this volume does not attempt to be universally inclu
sive of every such tragedy. That is impossible. Instead, this book will deal
direcdy with certain instances such as 9/11 in New York and at the
Pentagon, the Texas A&M Bonfire collapse, as weIl as trafflc fatalities, gang
related violen ce, and drowning. Many artides analyze the spontaneous
shrine tradition with reference to such widely known events as the death of
Princess Diana and the Oklahoma City bombing. These articles provide an
analytical framework for discussing spontaneous, vernacular responses to
untimely death.
An important point of the book is that aIl of these examples share the
qualities of simultaneously commemorating deceased individuals, both
celebrities (e.g. Princess Diana, or ]FK]r.) and noncelebrities; at the same
time they suggest an attitude toward or a position on a public social issue.
I term these two qualities commemoration and performativity. The com
memorative aspect is self-evident. I am using the term "performativity,"
after the linguist J. L. Austin, to refer to the fact that in each case of spon
taneous shrine there is a component of addressing a social issue, of trying to
convince people, of trying to make something happen. Commemoration
can be and often is private. The public aspects of the shrines are due to
the social conditions that caused the deaths and the political issues they
reference.
Not every public death memorialization shares these two poles of a
continuum equally. Some, such as the AIDS quilt, the actions of the Madres