Mission San Juan Capistrano, A Beautiful Monument To The Theft Of Land, Lives, And A Culture

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​Mission San Juan Capistrano, A Beautiful Monument To The Theft Of Land, Lives, And A Culture

...Continued from 6/19/2026:
      On Wednesday, June 3, Tom and I left Fallbrook and soon thereafter we were on the scenic highway back to Los Angeles.

       The town of San Juan Capistrano was along the way, so we decided to stop there and see the famous old Spanish mission where,  I learned as part of my Catholic education,  the swallows return every spring on  Saint Joseph's Day, March 19, to nestle in the mission eaves.
        However, as we were to learn, the swallows no longer come to the mission since their nests were cleaned out in the 1990's, but the birds still do return and settle in elsewhere around the town for the spring and summer (though we didn't manage to see any swallows during our visit).
        The historic mission district of San Juan Capistrano appeared to be  a tourist-friendly spot,   

...in the center of which was our destination, the Mission San Juan Capistrano. 

      The entrance to the mission  opens into a lovely courtyard landscaped with flowers and trees.  

      One can wander among the ruins of the mission's massive Great Stone Church, destroyed in an earthquake in 1812.

         We walked along the colonnades of the mission veranda,

...which opened into rooms and artifacts from the past.

         The posters and pictures on display in these rooms tell the mission's story.

      Mission San Juan Capistrano was founded in 1776 by Father Junipero Serra, Spanish Franciscan missionary who accompanied the the army sent by the king of Spain to colonize the New Spain territories of Mexico and California.
       For his part Junipero Serra oversaw the building of missions up and down the coast of California and the conversion of the region's indigenous people to Catholicism.  For this Junipero Serra was made a Saint by Pope Francis in 2015.

      From Father Serra's  missions grew the major cities of California from San Diego to San Francisco. Serra introduced European crops and flowers which flourished in the area's Mediterranean climate and eventually turned the state into an agricultural giant spread with an abundant variety of blooming plant life.  
       Junipero Serra brought in the first cattle, which quickly proliferated and from which arose California's vast ranching industry. 
       California was born and grew from Juniper Serra and the Franciscan missions, and Mission San Juan Capistrano is called the jewel of these missions.

        But in the words and images on display here there was a  subtext that made only light reference to a massive ugly truth of Junipero Serra's missions that couldn't be missed by those of us who were already aware of it, and that truth, embedded in the pictures and posters of Mission San Juan Capistrano, is this:
         That Mission San Juan Capistrano and all the Franciscan missions along the California coastline were built upon the backs of enslaved, cruelly mistreated indigenous people.  
​       In this region it was the Acjachemen people who were baptized,

...then brought to the mission where they were enslaved and used as labor for the priests.

       The society and traditions of the Acjachemen were taken from them by the Franciscans and replaced with European culture and religion.

      Their land and way of life was stolen by the cattle ranchers.

      And once inside the Mission, there was no escape for the Acjachemen. They were condemned to servitude for life.
       Here's an excerpt from Wikipedia that was not among the artifacts at Mission San Juan Capstrano:

        Nor was this excerpt from one of Serra's letters:
​ “In the matter of correcting the Indians,” Father Serra wrote to the governor of California in 1780, “when it appeared to us that punishment was deserved, they were flogged, or put into the stocks, according to the gravity of their offense.”

       I did find this historian's understated, feather-light admonishment at the bottom of one of the posters:

       It reads:     
​"As stewards of history  it is important to consider scholars, historical records, and first hand accounts. For some, Serra’s legacy is questioned. Because of his leadership of the California missions, and thereby the system of Spanish colonialism, some hold Father Serra responsible for the loss of California Native American population and culture. As a leader, Serra oversaw Spain’s mission system which identified Native Americans as potential Spanish subjects and did not value the original native religion, culture or autonomy. A goal of the padres was to teach the indigenous people to live a life of European culture and societal norms while abandoning their own traditions. Furthermore, colonialism inadvertently introduced European diseases to the native Californians. Without immunities or modern medical knowledge, diseases spread quickly which caused the loss of thousands of Native Americans and decimated their population. There was great loss to the California Native American way of life during this time."
        However, another poster offers this moral defense of Juniper Serra:

       On the wall of the mission there is an inscription that reads, "Veritas Vos Liberabit," 

...which means, "The Truth Will Set You Free."
        Whatever truth the indigenous people of California learned from Junipero Serra did not set them free, but enslaved and destroyed them. The least we can do centuries later is fully acknowledge the awful ugliness of that truth,

...instead of beatifying the man.

​References:
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/30/us/attack-on-statue-of-new-saint-junipero-serra-digs-up-old-conflicts.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/16/opinion/junipero-serra-catholic-saint.html