The desecration of the La Cieneguilla Petroglyph Site is disheartening on many levels.

That vandals would deface images placed on stone centuries ago — the drawings likely date to the 13th or 14th centuries — indicates a lack of caring for our shared history and an inability to understand how precious these drawings are.

That they left swastikas and racially derogatory slurs behind reminds all of us of an ugliness present in our country — a rise in anti-Semitism that needs to be condemned each and every time.