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UID:Indybay-18838546
SEQUENCE:18995241
CREATED:20201118T155600Z
DESCRIPTION:At its November 18 meeting, the Historic Preservation Commission of the 
 City of Santa Cruz will discuss the proposed removal of the Mission bell at 
 Mission Plaza Park, in the Mission Hill Area Historic District, and all 
 other Mission bells from the City of Santa Cruz. The meeting begins at 
 7PM.\n\n\nBACKGROUND\n\nAt the beginning of the twentieth century, civic 
 boosters, developers, and automobile promoters worked together to increase 
 tourism and settlement in California by encouraging a nostalgic and 
 positive remembering of California’s Spanish colonial past. The promoters 
 picked a mission bell with a shepherd’s staff to mark and memorialize the 
 route of a California state highway that followed the mythical trek of El 
 Camino Real (“Royal Road”), that connected the twenty-one California 
 missions and four presidios (military forts), and several pueblos from 
 Mission San Diego de Alcala in the south to Mission San Francisco de Solano 
 to the north, turning the missions into money-making tourist 
 destinations.\n\nIn contrast, Amah Mutsun Tribal Band Chairman Valentin 
 Lopez and other California Indigenous peoples view the mission bells as a 
 colonial settler and racist symbol that glorifies the killing, 
 dehumanization, forced labor and imprisonment of their ancestors. The bell 
 was a potent symbol of the domination of the Catholic Church and the 
 Spanish state over all aspects of the lives of the indigenous people who 
 were forced to live “under the bell.” \n\nOn June 21, 2019 
 representatives of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band and the University of 
 California Santa Cruz (“UCSC”) administration assembled on campus to 
 remove an existing bell. However, there are two other bells located in the 
 City of Santa Cruz. A bell marker on Mission St at Mission Plaza Park in 
 the Mission Hill Area Historic District was dedicated on March 8, 1999. 
 Another mission bell marker at Soquel and Dakota streets was installed in 
 2006.\n\nIn September of 2019, Chairman Lopez of the Amah Mutsun Tribal 
 Band reached out to the City to express that the mission bell markers 
 represent an omnipresent reminder of the destruction and domination of 
 California Indigenous people and to ask that the two mission bells on City 
 of Santa Cruz property be removed.\n\nIn late 2019, then Vice Mayor 
 Cummings began discussions with Chairman Lopez regarding the removal of the 
 Mission Bells. In early 2020, Mayor Cummings along with council members 
 Brown and Mathews had follow up discussions with Chairman Lopez regarding 
 the removal of the Mission Bells, but due to COVID-19, these conversations 
 were put on hold. During one of the protests in the summer of 2020, 
 protesters vandalized portions of the Historic Mission Plaza and the 
 Mission Bell was removed from Mission Plaza. This act prompted 
 conversations between many of the stakeholders in the Mission Historic 
 District on whether to replace the bell or whether the bell should be 
 removed and whether there was an opportunity to assess the way the story of 
 the Mission was being told to ensure that it reflected the perspective of 
 indigenous people.\n\nFrom late July - October of 2020, Mayor Cummings and 
 Director Tony Elliot hosted community meetings with representatives from 
 Friends of the Santa Cruz State Parks, California State Parks, Museum of 
 Natural History, Chairman Lopez from the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, and other 
 indigenous leaders to discuss if and how to move forward with removing the 
 mission bells and how to reimagine Mission Plaza Park in the Mission Hill 
 Area Historic District to better illustrate the history and experiences of 
 the local indigenous people. Items discussed at these meetings included 
 ideas for the replacement of the mission bells, concepts for Mission Plaza 
 Park in the Mission Hill Area Historic District, and recommendations from 
 the attendees. Consensus was reached that the bells should be removed 
 throughout the City and that the narrative of Mission Plaza Park in the 
 Mission Hill Area Historic District should be revised.\n\nAt the October 
 13, 2020 Santa Cruz City Council meeting, the City Council unanimously 
 approved to adopt a resolution of the following:\n\n1.) That the Santa Cruz 
 City Council endorses the community’s effort to update the narrative of 
 Mission Plaza Park in the Mission Hill Area Historic District so that a 
 more accurate depiction of the history of the indigenous people of the area 
 is included, and;\n\n2.) That the Santa Cruz City Council directs the 
 Historic Preservation Commission to place an item on the next possible 
 agenda to discuss the removal of all mission bells from the City of Santa 
 Cruz and bring back a recommendation on whether or not to remove the bell 
 for the City Council to consider.\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2020/11/18/18838546.php
SUMMARY:Discussion of Removing Mission Bells from the City of Santa Cruz
LOCATION:Online, join meeting 
 here:\nhttps://ecm.cityofsantacruz.com/OnBaseAgendaOnline/Meetings/ViewMeeting?id=1591&doctype=1
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2020/11/18/18838546.php
DTSTART:20201119T030000Z
DTEND:20201119T050000Z
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