I wanted to talk about this piece because it is similar to the mission and the history that was taught to me in elementary school. I visited the San Luis Obispo Mission and worked near the mission built in Santa Cruz, California. I was taught that this is where 'indios' were educated and taught to farm and live off the land. There was no mention as to what kind of genocide or mistreatment that natives underwent every day in these systems of oppression. We visited the mission and were not told what tribe lived there, so the erasure of language and culture and not questioning this reasoning was being normalized and instilled from such a young age. This is the awareness that is lacking. Calling out what actually happened on missions to the people and resources around the settled area is rarely mentioned in my K-12 education. I really liked this piece The Missionaries because of the little windows shaped like the ones built into missions in their window and door designs that were similar to the ones I saw in my upbringing and adult life. The background, a mountain range, reminded me of home and the flattened agriculture that many Mexican, Filipino, and Central American immigrants tended to in the strawberry, lettuce, and apple fields around me. Same systems of labor and abuse, adapting throughout time and dispossessing POC of their liberties.
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