Why California’s Missions Should Get Real

Visitors can handle the truth, so why not tell them up front?

California’s 21 missions are a staple of the state’s tourist industry, attracting millions of visitors each year. As places of worship, the missions offer solace and a taste of 18th century life on the Spanish frontier. But as witnesses to history, the missions remain trapped in fantasy and disguise, tile-roofed movie sets in an absurdist Zorro romance.

See the saintly friars as they pray and plant citrus trees.

See the dashing Spanish soldiers on their magnificent horses.

See the happy native laborers, busy making adobe bricks and weaving baskets.

Scene from a 1939 diorama on mission life showcased at the San Francisco World’s Fair of that same year.

California Indian children happily swarm a Franciscan friar as depicted in a Carmel Mission exhibit.

The truth sets fire to this fish wrap, beginning with the destruction of native culture and the indenturing of California Indians as laborers. The floggings, sexual abuse, and outright killings, not to mention the thousands of deaths from disease, only add to the stench. Yet the Hollywood…