The historical preservation commission of Santa Cruz last week advised the city council to remove a replica mission bell from a city intersection, saying the bell represents painful history for the indigenous people of the city.
In a Nov. 18 recommendation to the city council, the Santa Cruz Historic Preservation Commission wrote that some California indigenous peoples view the mission bells as a “colonial settler and racist symbol” that “glorifies the killing, dehumanization, forced labor and imprisonment of their ancestors.”
“The mission bells are a constant reminder of the brutal history of the Santa Cruz mission and to our indigenous populations,” director of parks and recreation Tony Elliot told the Santa Cruz Sentinel.
“[They’re] really representative of a lot of pain. Of the genocide and the history related to the Santa Cruz mission.”
Spanish missionaries founded 21 California missions between 1769 and 1833 to evangelize the native people of the area. St. Junipero Serra is considered the founding father of the missions, as he led the creation of the first nine.
The Franciscans founded Mission Santa Cruz Aug. 28, 1791, seven years after St. Serra’s death.
Critics of the missions, and of Serra, have long maintained that the mission system contributed to the virtual destruction of native Californians’ culture and way of life.
Experts have disputed claims that Serra was in any way involved in genocide, and in contrast, there is evidence that Serra advocated for the rights of the indigenous people in the face of mistreatment by the Spanish military.
The mission bell in question, located at an intersection near a park in Santa Cruz, is a replica installed in 2006.
The commission said Valentin Lopez, chairman of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, contacted the city in 2019 to ask that all the bells be removed. The city council in October 2020 approved a resolution to update the city’s historic district to provide “a more accurate depiction of the history of the indigenous people of the area.”
Lopez in 2015 wrote to Pope Francis to express his tribe’s opposition to Serra’s canonization.
The bell would be the third and final one in Santa Cruz to be removed from its place since 2019.
During June 2019, officials from the University of California Santa Cruz removed a bell— also a replica, installed in the 1990s— from the school’s campus.
Another bell, installed in Mission Park Plaza in 1999, was stolen during a June 11 protest.
Hundreds of mission bell replicas have been installed over the years along the historic “El Camino Real,” which today roughly follows the route of Highway 101.
According to the California missions’ website, the original mission church, whose bell tower collapsed in 1840, contained nine or ten bells, none of which have survived. The current mission bell tower also contains a replica bell.
During the years that the missions were active, the bells were mainly used to wake the Franciscan friars for their daily prayers.
The decision whether to remove the final bell will come down to the Santa Cruz city council. Eliot, the parks and recreation director, suggested the bell could be moved to a museum and replaced with a historical marker that contextualizes the history of the area….
The above comes from a Nov. 23 story on the site of Catholic News Agency.
So, at the same time, Mr. Lopez and members of his tribe, please burn all your books, dump your computers, TVs, cell phones, radios, and of course, you should no longer go to school, bike, have a car or drive, or fly elsewhere, and never get any medicines or medical treatment, because these artifacts are all created by this same Christian civilization, which you denigrate.
Really, Mr. Lopez, please end the victimization act. The Missions are now 300 years old, and are part of our history.
Think of the great good that has arisen from their work, and why every Californian now has a much better life.
Being woke is being stupid. This guy needs to be fired for putting his personal agenda on display while ignoring the truth and beauty of the Santa Cruz Mission.
But they have no problem with all the Spanish city and street names where they live. Good grief. Liberalism is a mental disorder.
Lopez needs to join the 21st Century. And, let’s not mention the casinos run by native Americans on their land and populated by the rest of us.
These casinos were meant to act as reparations, in part, for the past injuries suffered by Indian tribes. There is no question that this is a special privilege, provided by public vote, and that it has provided millions to the Indians, over the years, There appears to be no comprehension or gratitude for this special privilege granted to them by today’s citizens, and no relenting of continuing tribal demands, accompanied by vandalism and violence,
So let’s have another public vote.
My vote is that all of the licenses granted to Indian Casinos be rescinded, and that they should be closed.
The tribes need to be reminded of the need to end these complaints and vandalism, and it should be done now.
No brutal history, no genocide. Quite the contrary. Tony Elliot is a radical, or just an ass. #FakeHistory.
It is hard to give up your culture and identity, and ways of life. However, it used to be often said, that segregating Indians and giving them reservations to live on, was a terrible mistake, very destructive to them, promoting extreme isolation, lack of education, joblessness, poverty, family problems, violence, illegitimacy, alcoholism, mental illness, low self esteem, and total breakdown of their cultures. It has been often said, that it would have been a lot better, to just help the Indians integrate into White-dominant society, get rid of racial barriers, and help them lead good and successful lives, and help their children, and all future generations succeed.
We are judging people in history by today’s “standards”. The same thing could be said of Democrats treated slaves in the 1860s or the way the Aztecs treated their fellow human beings or how the Egyptians treated the Hebrews.
Living in resentment isn’t healthy for anyone.