CONSIDER THIS: Just My Imagination Running Away with Me

By MICHAEL RODRIGUEZ
Managing Editor
editor@sbnewspaper.com

Michael Rodriguez

This ain’t Hogwarts, kids. There’s not a doubt in my mind that young people – heck, maybe even a few grown men who’re young at heart – will go wandering through the San Benito Municipal Cemetery over the weekend in search of the Santa Muerte statue published on the front page of this weekend edition. Twenty bucks says at least one group will bring the Ouija board.

While I understand the fascination into the occult, there are some things you just shouldn’t mess with. Take it from me.

After reporting on the numerous ghost sightings and eerie sounds nearby residents and even local police officers swear they experienced at San Benito’s old high school, or the former Berta Cabaza Middle School as others may know it, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little freaked out.

While folks like Heather Cathleen Cox might tell you I’m somewhat of a softy (this is a damaging lie, by the way), I actually consider myself a tough guy. My menacing appearance doesn’t really give me any other choice. So when the time came to accompany the good folks at the San Benito school district’s TV station, KSBG Channel 17, to the old BC, I played the role of “the protector.” If I was going to be on camera for a special KSBG was producing on the old BC’s purported haunting, I had to play that part to perfection. “Don’t touch that!” I’d exclaim to a cameraman who’d get a little too close to an inanimate object. Of course, I didn’t know what I was talking about, because other than observing my surroundings inside a decrepit building, taking pictures and interviewing those who were with me, I was pretty much out of my element.

I had a laugh at my own expense, sure, but it really wasn’t that funny. The truth is, I was just trying to focus on anything other than being scared out of my mind. That building, the old BC, is beyond creepy. The creeks and cracks, the footsteps, foul odors and utterly eerie cold spots in the most random of places – not to mention the unexplainable mechanical malfunctions experienced by everyone involved, including photographers and videographers – were enough to send chills up my spine.

I couldn’t wait for all of it to end, yet I was very intrigued by the subject, especially since this was my crack at covering a haunting, which is on my journalistic bucket list.

Days later, after the stories were published and the special was aired, I remember driving past the old BC at about 2 a.m. It was a Friday night during the fall, when our deadline extends to 12 midnight to accommodate sportswriters covering Friday night football, and I couldn’t wait to get home. As I approached the school, I was suddenly overcome with the feeling that I wasn’t alone in the vehicle. It was probably one of the more uncomfortable experiences of my life, to keep gazing in the rearview mirror and expecting to see someone.

Now I know what you’re going to say, that the feeling was subjective due to the fact that I had already grown fearful of the building. So of course I’m gonna get those weird feelings, right? Well, regardless of what really happened, the point is that it was all as a result of me subjecting myself to the experience. It’s nothing I regret, especially since those stories we published then were great reads and served as a snapshot of how the community viewed its historic buildings at that time. Doing the KSBG special was also one of the more memorable experiences of my time at the San Benito News. Still, if I knew then what I know now, I definitely wouldn’t have been so brazen in my approach.

On Thursday, I accompanied Francisco E. Jimenez, our staff writer here at the News, to the cemetery to photograph the Santa Muerte statue…you know – the one that an expert on the occult said was designed to kill someone. That wasn’t a pleasant experience either. Just read the article if you haven’t already, because I’d rather not go into detail about what I experienced at the cemetery and the following morning.

Whether you believe in the supernatural or not is irrelevant. Sometimes the imagination can be a greater enemy than any statue, especially if your mind constantly plays tricks on you.

So to kids, young adults and adults young at heart, I suggest you take my advice before arming yourself with flashlights, a couple bags of chips and a Ouija board to investigate something you may not even begin to comprehend. The consequences may be dire, or nothing may happen. But why risk it?

Read this story in the Jan. 20 edition of the San Benito News, or subscribe to our E-Edition by clicking here.