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Homeless San Jose man’s Dia de los Muertos shrine to his service dog under threat of removal by Caltrans

Online Niel October 29, 2024

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) — A homeless San Jose man is fighting to keep his Dia de los Muertos shrine up after Caltrans reportedly threatened to tear it down.

The shrine is in honor of his service dog, who died shortly before he became homeless.

It is located near the corner of 7th and Virginia Street in San Jose.

Complete with his leash, harness, toys and photos, Miguel Maruyama’s service dog “Nacho” is commemorated in a Dia de los Muertos shrine, also known as an ofrenda.

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“The size is how much I love him and how much I miss him,” Maruyama said. “I’ve had him since he was born, he’s been with me for almost 12 years.”

Nacho was trained as a service dog to help with his now 19-year-old son’s epilepsy.

“He was very important in our family, we miss him very much,” he said.

But the massive shrine was built on Caltrans property, on the side of an on-ramp to I-280 in San Jose.

Maruyama moved here last month with his son after he lost his job, was evicted and Nacho died.

“We recently got a notice from Caltrans that we’re trespassing because we’re on state property, and they posted a notice that the shrine is going to be destroyed today, supposedly this morning,” he said.

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Caltrans posted “notice to vacate” signs around its campsite over the weekend, saying all personal belongings and debris from the camp had to be removed by 8:30 a.m. Monday morning.

“I was very sad because this is part of our tradition,” he said. “Mexicans celebrate Day of the Dead, which is just a few days away, so I was very sad that they would come and destroy the altar before Day of the Dead,” he said.

ABC7 News reached out to Caltrans, and they said they’ve delayed cleaning up that site for now, though they didn’t say if it was because of the Day of the Dead holiday.

“I’m very happy that the city is going to let me keep this for another week, but I still don’t know what I’m going to do next, I don’t know what I’m going to do yet. it happens after a week because we still have to move out of here in a week and we still don’t have a place to go,” he said.

Meanwhile, Maruyama heads towards community donations via GoFundMe for help to stand up.