On 7th Street near Highway 280, a Día de los Muertos ofrenda is gaining attention from the city with a postponed encampment sweep.
At the ofrenda, various flowers are planted with signs pleading for justice and a picture of a dog is displayed in the center.
Miguel Maruyama, an unhoused man, said he made the ofrenda to honor his service dogNacho.
“I’m so happy to know that I get to keep the altar for another week at least,” Maruyama said. “I get to have it here for the celebration of the day of the dead, it’s important to me because it is part of my religion.”
Día de los Muertos is a Mexican holiday that occurs on Nov. 2 to celebrate and welcome back souls of deceased family members and friends for a short reunion, according to a History Channel website.
“The culture is that we celebrate the Day of the Dead, you would think that it is something that is sad and scary,” Maruyama said. “But it is actually a celebration, in Mexico it is very popular. It's popular, it’s part of our culture and religion.”
Maruyama had been on the streets for 46 days after he was fired by his employer and landlord shortly after their dog died.
“(My landlord) evicted me. I told her that I was not gonna leave her house until she pays me for the supplies,” Maruyama said. “She didn’t want to pay me, she hired someone to do the job I was doing and asked this person to scare me and my son so we would move.”
Shaunn Cartwright, a representative and advocate with the Unhoused Response Group, said the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and Senator Dave Cortese’s Office had before agreeing to postpone the abatement.
An encampment abatement is when a homeless encampment is removed from certain public areas, according to a web page from the city of San Jose.
Mario Lopez, a social policy innovator and community strategist from Senator Dave Cortese’s Office, confirmed a date change of the abatement in a message.
Lopez states in a message that the agency has agreed to postpone the abatement until after the cultural holiday.
“I want to get my dog's remains and I'm not happy being away from him,” said Maruyama. “Once I have his remains, I want to cremate Nacho.”
Miguel said he knows that he is on state property, but he and his son were forced to move their encampment twice before settling by Highway 280.
Victor Gauthier, a public information officer for Caltrans Santa Clara County, stated in an email that Caltrans is responsible for removing encampments that put the nearby community, Caltrans’ maintenance crews and first responders at risk when maintaining transportation networks.
“We didn’t choose to be in this situation, we came here and cleaned this place,” Maruyama said. “We worked really hard in here, planting all these plants to make it look nice and then it’s really sad that they just want to throw us on the street and we don’t deserve to be anywhere.”
