Terrace Park Cemetery

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Terrace Park Cemetery located in Holtville that was founded in 1930 and in 1995 burials for undocumented immigrants where funded due to overcapacity in Evergreen Cemetery. This Cemetery is divided in two areas the front is a nice green area and at the back separated by a fence is a dirt lot with brick stones with inscriptions John Doe and Jane Doe. At the dirt lot in the back is where undocumented dead immigrants and people who were never identified are buried. Since Imperial Valley is well known for immigration is no surprise that Terrace Park Cemetery is filled. Organizations like Border Angels go to place crosses where undocumented immigrants are buried.

Terrace Park is a big part of Imperial Valley because most of the community in Imperial Valley are Latinos and are tied to undocumented immigrants one way or another. Terrace Park Cemetery is controversial because of the fact that undocumented immigrants are just placed in the back of a dirty cemetery separated by a fence from United States Citizens. It is also controversial because of the fact that each John and Jane Doe cost about 2500 Dollars. It takes many processes to burry a John or Jane Doe one of the most expensive ones is the research done to find out who this undocumented immigrants are. Money that could go back to the Imperial Valley community is used to pay for undocumented immigrants.

Imperial Valley’s Terrace Park symbolizes Imperial Valley’s issue with immigration and how uncared for undocumented immigrants are even in death. Terrace Park’s issue has been tied with racism in the Imperial Valley against the Latino Community in Imperial Valley and undocumented workers that has been going on for years. The symbol of Terrace Park is most crucial right now for the fact that Donald Trump is president and has very spiteful views against Latinos and Mexican undocumented immigrants. Terrace Park symbolizes the values a group of hard working people that crossed the borders and left their families for a better life to come to Imperial Valley through the border dessert and didn’t make it.

The Cemetery of the Not Forgotten is located in a closed fenced area in Terrence Park Cemetery in Holtville, CA and was created in 1995. Unlike many cemeteries, this location is a three acres of dirt terrain and have a brick stone representing the deceased. Each of the bricks indicates John Doe or Jane Doe as they wouldn’t identify the individual. They’re up to 240 bricks currently in this location. As of 2009, they haven’t use this site for burial and opted for the cremation process for budget reasons. This site is still remember by groups like the Border Angels to commemorate and remember the immigrant who sacrifice their life for a better one.

During the Operation Gatekeeper in 1994, the United States heavily increased security among their border states. This cause a surge of illegal immigrants to surge in the process of crossing over in the U.S. territory. The reason for their deaths were the usage of other routes that were dangerous. The routes were in the desert, were in can reach to high heat temperature in the day and low freezing during the night. Thus, the U.S. government created pauper cemetery throughout southwest side of the nation.

This cemetery is located in Holtville California and it’s a lot more than just a cemetery. In back of this place past a field of dirt is hundreds of unidentified illegal immigrants buried. There are rows and rows with names of “John Doe” or “Jane Doe” written on rocks on the dirt floor. These immigrants died most likely out of drowning in canals and of dehydration from extreme heat exposure. This monument represents Imperial Valley in a drastic way. Especially living in Calexico which is closest to the Borderline we see the struggle for immigrants to cross on a regular basis. As we walk to the park or drive to the grocery store we see many Border Patrols just waiting to catch someone in the act.

This cemetery is symbolic because it represents what many outsiders of this country have suffered trying to make it the United States and how Imperial Valley has to deal with this on a regular basis. When people first found out about this cemetery and what it contained they started to go and pay respects. Teachers would take students and they would place crosses and flowers on the stones. This was in the beginning but now no one really goes. When I saw these rows of all the immigrants who had passed it looks so lonely and forgotten. It was very sad to realize how these people died alone without saying goodbye to whom they loved.

The Terrace Park Cemetery is located in Holtville, CA and is filled with nameless immigrants that died while trying to cross the border illegally. I believe it was originally just a cemetery for the people that were never identified.

It isn’t a place to go and visit on a daily basis. Partly because it’s hidden from view and no one really knows it even exists. It’s a place where they would put the undocumented bodies to rest. No one really pays respect to it because it’s been there for years yet it still shows something is going on in present time, whether we have a physical place to see it or not.

I believe it represents something controversial here in the valley because it’s a symbol that represents us as a border city. We see this or hear this on a daily basis it’s something that happens but we sometimes choose to ignore it, but yet it happens.

Terrace Park Cemetery is located in Holtville, California. A monument is something that is memorable to the community. This cemetery is a memorable monument to the Imperial Valley because it symbolizes the people that make up this Valley. This is where hundreds of unidentified migrants lie. These people died while trying to illegally cross the US-Mexico border in the mountain and deserts. Some migrants came with their families, traveling with toddlers and in some cases drowning in irrigation canals and others from thirst or exposure to extreme heat.

The front of Terrace Park Cemetery is well kept with grass, flowers, headstones, and wet soil. While, in the back, surrounded with a fence are the unidentified migrants where there is only dirt and is remained closed to the public. There are large bricks, each inscribed are “John Doe” and “Jane Doe” and a row number; for example Row 10 -32 John Doe.

There have been rituals that have happened in Terrace Park Cemetery, like the Day of the Dead. Since the Imperial Valley is close to the border we tend to share holidays. This holiday is when families honor those who have died and pay respect by placing small crosses. Also, church groups perform ceremonies for those who died in their journey.

This monument may be problematic to some people because they are separated from the main cemetery. Also, because the county pays for their cremation which is about $645.

The Terrace Park Cemetery in Holtville is a beautiful grassy and well-kept property that was established in the 1930s. It’s filled with flowers and mementos for those that have passed but it hides a dark secret. Behind this beautiful cemetery lies a dirt-covered potter’s field where the bodies of hundreds of unidentified immigrants were laid to rest. This resting place is now known as the Pauper’s cemetery and it was first established around the mid-1990s. Since then there have been around 240 people buried there, each of their graves marked by a brick with the words John or Jane Doe. They stopped burying people in this part of the cemetery in 2009 and now the bodies that are found are cremated and the ashes are scattered at sea. You would think that people who live in Holtville would know a lot about this place; however, many of the residents of the small town have gone their whole lives without knowing that it even exists and that area of the cemetery remains closed to the public.

Usually people only visit the front part of the cemetery, where their loved ones are buried. The back is alone and desolate almost all year long; however, there is one day that is the exception and that is on “El Dia de los Muertos” or “The Day of the Dead.” On this day several members of religious groups, community members and human rights activist will gather at Terrace Park Cemetery to the final resting place of the countless unidentified migrants to celebrate and to mourn the lost lives. Groups like the Border Angels like to mark the graves with small, wooden crosses imprinted with the Spanish words “Fe” which means faith and “No Olvidado/a” which means not forgotten.

Terrace Park Cemetery can be considered to be quite controversial. The front of the cemetery is beautifully well-kept and accessible to all and the back is just a dirt-covered field that is closed to the public. It’s literally fenced up so no one can cross. It seems that those poor unidentified men and women can’t escape the border keeping them away, even in death.