UC Santa Cruz removes Mission bell: 'symbol of racism'

A bell placed by the Camino Real Association along old Highway 101, known as El Camino Real. Credit: Steve Heap / Shutterstock.

Updated June 23, 2019, 7:45 a.m.
June 22, 2019
Catholic San Francisco

The University of California at Santa Cruz removed the mission bell long located on campus, saying the bells marking the historic trail of the California missions "are viewed by many populations as a symbol of racism and dehumanization of their ancestors."

The ceremonial removal of the cast-iron bell took place June 21 In partnership with the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band. The bell was originally donated to the campus by a local women’s club many years ago and was located near the Hahn Student Services Building.

Founded by Franciscan missionaries, 21 Spanish missions were built from 1769 to 1833, stretching from San Diego to Sonoma. The religious outposts were not merely churches but also communities, with "all the work" done by Native Americans, according to missionscalifornia.com. Bells, brought over from Spain, were used to mark the times of church services, meals and the start and end of the work day.

In a June 14 press release, the university said campus leaders had been in discussions with Valentin Lopez, chairman of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, over the past year to coordinate the bell’s removal. The Amah Mutsun are the direct descendants of the tribal groups whose villages and territories fell under the sphere of influence of Missions San Juan Bautista and Santa Cruz during the late-18th, 19th and early-20th centuries.

“Val brought forth concerns to us about the symbolism of the bell," said Sarah Latham, vice chancellor for Business and Administrative Services. "He spoke of the historical injustices and oppression that the bell represents to the Amah Mutsun and indigenous populations. It was such a compelling statement of impact and I am pleased we have been able to work in partnership with them on the removal. Our students have also given voice to the need to remove the bell."

Lopez said "these bells are deeply painful symbols that celebrate the destruction, domination and erasure of our people. They are constant reminders of the disrespect our tribe faces to this day.”

The Amah Mutsun campaigned against the 2015 canonization of Father Junipero Serra, founder of the California missions.

"California Indians have never healed from the treatment their ancestors endured in the missions, and making Serra a saint is going to make it even harder for healing to occur," Dr. Donna Schindler, a tribal psychiatrist, said in a Sept. 4, 2014, article in La Prensa San Diego. "That is because in order for healing to occur, the truth must be told. If Serra is a saint, the truth about what really happened in the missions will be buried. A hundred years from now, people will think that since Serra is a saint, he must have done the right thing with the Indians."

Mission Indians were vulnerable to diseases introduced by Europeans. Only half the children born on a mission lived to age 4 and only two in 10 survived into their teens, according to californiamissions.com.

Although 10 percent to 15 percent of  Native Americans ran away from the missions, the majority of neophytes eventually were "totally assimilated and many came to cherish this life and found it difficult to leave when the missions were secularized," the website says.

In a September 2015 letter to Pope Francis, the tribe said canonization "will confirm the church's misguided belief that Serra led a saintly life" and "demonstrate that the church has no regard for the humanity of our ancestors."

Mission Indians were subjected to violent capture, enslavement, torture, rape, bad diet and squalid living conditions, the tribe told the pope.

The tribe said that although mission visitors are told indigenous came voluntarily and were treated as "children," in reality they did not realize that baptism would leave them involuntariy confined and forced to a lifetime of labor for clergy and soldiers.

In 2018, Stanford University announced it will seek to rename Serra Mall in honor of Jane Stanford. The university said two campus buildings currently named for Junipero Serra also will be renamed, but other campus references to Serra and the mission system will be retained, based on a set of university committee recommendations that have been accepted by the Board of Trustees.

Pope Francis canonized Blessed Junipero Serra Sept. 23, 2015, at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.

"Today we remember one of those witnesses who testified to the joy of the Gospel in these lands, Father Junípero Serra," the pope said. "He was the embodiment of 'a Church which goes forth,' a Church which sets out to bring everywhere the reconciling tenderness of God."

Father Serra "left his native land and its way of life. He was excited about blazing trails, going forth to meet many people, learning and valuing their particular customs and ways of life. He learned how to bring to birth and nurture God’s life in the faces of everyone he met; he made them his brothers and sisters."

The pope said the Spanish friar "sought to defend the dignity of the native community, to protect it from those who had mistreated and abused it. Mistreatment and wrongs which today still trouble us, especially because of the hurt which they cause in the lives of many people."

The pope said Father Serra had a motto which inspired his life and work: Siempre adelante! Keep moving forward! For him, this was the way to continue experiencing the joy of the Gospel, to keep his heart from growing numb, from being anesthetized. He kept moving forward, because the Lord was waiting. He kept going, because his brothers and sisters were waiting. He kept going forward to the end of his life." 

In a biographical note, the Catholic Encyclopedia notes Serra's lifelong fortitude and devotion as a missionary.

"During the remaining three years of his life he once more visited the missions from San Diego to San Francisco, six hundred miles, in order to confirm all who had been baptized," the article states. "He suffered intensely from his crippled leg and from his chest, yet he would use no remedies. He confirmed 5,309 persons, who, with but few exceptions, were Indians converted during the fourteen years from 1770. Besides extraordinary fortitude, his most conspicuous virtues were insatiable zeal, love of mortification, self-denial, and absolute confidence in God. His executive abilities have been especially noted by non-Catholic writers."

The action by the university came three days after California Gov. Gavin Newsom met with tribal leaders from around the state in West Sacramento and announced an executive order formally apologizing for what he called the "genocide" against native Californians by settlers.

Newsom read contemporary accounts of violence against Indians, saying, "It goes on and on and on, systematic slaughter of California indians. That's not what you learn in your fourth grade history books."

Newsom said the state's first governor, Peter Burnett, talked about "the war of extermination" against California Indians, and the state sponsored "24 killing militias" whose operations were reimbursed by the federal government.

"Genocide -- no other way to describe it," Newsom said. "And that's the way it needs to be described in the history books. I'm sorry on behalf of the state of California."

Newsom said his executive order formally apologizes for and acknowledges "our historic wrongdoing."

The governor said he is working with the tribes to encourage the creation of a "truth and healing council."

Editor's note: This article brought a flurry of overwhelmingly negative reactions on the Catholic San Francisco Facebook news feed.

"Why stop there?" one comment asked. "Why don’t you burn all the books that are any way related to the Mission period? Why not burn down the Missions? Why not burn any Spanish descendants from the Mission period? If we do that it will make us all feel better. We won’t have to learn anything, and we can satisfy our virtue signaling, self-righteousness and remain blissfully ignorant."

Another comment said, "These aren’t Confederate statues!"

A third comment: "I am from a Central American country. I have lived in this great country USA for more than 40 years. Yes, I like it very much. My children were born in Miami , Florida. My husband was from my country too. RIP. Over the years, probably the last 20 years, I've seen things that do not make sense, hatred makes people destroy history. Whether history is good or bad, history is for future generations to learn about their ancestors and/or the past of this country. In 20 more years I believe these generations won't have anything to see. Nothing to admire and to be proud of past people who gave their lives for this great country. Or they stood up for what they believed. I think this is the beginning of a system that will take over soon and we won't do anything to stop it. God bless America."

A fourth comment, translated from Spanish: "A great example of what is to be done throughout Latin America. Remove all vestiges of the invader and executioner. ... "