San Fernando Mission PDF

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Essay about the San Fernando Mission Museum...

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San Fernando Mission

The 21 missions of California stretching from San Diego to Sonoma are reminders of our nation’s past. Father Lasuen found the 14th mission on Septemeber 8, 1797, named San Fernando Rey de España. An earthquake that happened in 1971 had heavily damaged the church, that 3 years later the church was completed. The church at the altar is a statue of Ferdinand III which was hand-carved, inside the four walls are painted with Indian designs. This  mission provides artifacts and information for anyone in the community to be able to go and learn the history of Native Americans, other people, the tools, etc. On the way to the San Fernando Mission Rey de España, emotions we flying around, I didn’t know whether to feel excited, worry, nervous, etc. Once getting there the place looked beautiful and big along having trees with leaves surrounding the place beautifully. Upon entering the museum, and paying for the 5 dollar admission, I was in delight. The scenery; the green grass, trees, and the fountain that was in the middle had caught my attention, it felt as if I was in a park that was well treated. Furthermore, going into the first room, the Historical Museum, there were many pictures about the San Fernando mission that caught my attention because it looks so different back then than it does now. It felt as if I were in Mexico because of the dirt road and one of the pictures was of the building as if it had/ was collapsed/ collapsing. Throughout the whole museum, there were collections, one of them was of bells that Mrs. Harrington collected because she wanted people to learn about the missions and the bells on the shelf represented almost every mission in California. There were baskets that the Indian women (who are so

talented because the baskets were made from roots/ twig) made for storage, display, food, to sell, etc. I’ve never expected to see the wine cellar where they made wine and as for the blacksmith, the bellow was as big as I’ve never expected it to be. In general everything about the place was beautiful as well as information about the past. Overall, the history seemed reasonable to me except something wasn’t mentioned but I will be discussing that in paragraph 5. In my opinion, I did agree with the ways historical information was portrayed because Indians have actually never done see horses or an ox before the Spanish took over. From my understanding, Indians were used to only hunting and going out picking leaves for herbs/ fruits, not farming, until the fathers who came with the Spaniards taught them how to steady the plow with one hand and direct the team of animals(oxen) after the rain had softened the ground. Another piece of information that seems amazing to me was how the Father taught the Indians to make adobes to make their buildings permanent, the materials they used to make the mixture was soil, water, and straw. Along with this information I learned from my mother was that my grandpa (who lives in Mexico) uses this mixture to make the bricks for his house when every he starts building walls and thining back to their home I truly believe that because once a year I would still look at the walls he build and I can see some type of straw material in the bricks. I believe that the San Fernando Mission is important and multicultural in general because you have people who want to learn about the past/ of their ancestors. On the day that I went there, there weren’t many people, but I believe when the day is sunny or a good day to visit I imagine the mission being visited by many curious, historian, writers, etc people going to see what the mission has to offer, information wise. As someone who was born in California for my

20 years, I never heard of the mission museums all over the places, until now. For some people who are interested in more history behind the Indians, these missions have provided us to see, hear, and learn about the baskets, tools, how they made wine, the books, etc. Sonali Kohli, on September 16, 2018, stated, “Forced labor supported the missions, critics point out, and Spanish troops garrisoned near some missions were blamed for spreading syphilis and other diseases that devasted local communities” In this article, Sonali Kohli wrote how critics are now blaming Serra for causing harm to the Natives and not acting as a protector that he was supposed to be to them, but instead acting as an oppressor. Having the Spaniards spread diseases and letting it affect all the Native American communities. Among the information, I learned in this class and at the mission museum, I saw there wasn’t a piece of information, if I can recall, about Junipero Serra annihilating the Native American community. This made me think twice, I understand that books never show the real truth of any problems that Natives, African, and Mexican Americans go through, they are always shown as animals and/or bad people. As a historical museum, I expected them to have at least information about problems people have done (Junipero Serra). However, I understand if the information was written back then and nobody has added or any changed false lies to true ones. To conclude, the missions in the different locations are meant to teach you new information, as well as show you the different artifacts used back then. No museum and/or book would give true information because everyone also has a superior ethnic group that will always get away with the problems they created. Every single artifact that I saw was either new to me because there were objects that I didn’t know they would use back then to seel, use as a bowl, or as storage (basket). For anyone wanting to learn about the past, visiting any of the 21 missions,

that are close to them or if they want to travel to see all of the missions, its a great benefit. Not only are you gaining information, but are also seeing the artifacts you wouldn’t see today.

Citation

Kohli, Sonali. “Stanford Is Removing Junipero Serra's Name from Parts of Campus.” Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, September 16, 2018. https://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-edu-stanford-junipero-serra-20180916-story.htm l

Sorry I didn’t add a picture of myself there, I don’t like taking pictures...