Junipero Serra and The Mission System: The Destructive Legacy

Join us as we shed light on the dark history of the man who Pope Francis canonized in 2015. Elias Castillo, author of A Cross of Thorns will be in conversation with noted indigenous author Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz.

Castillo, a former reporter for the San Jose Mercury News, spent years researching life at the missions through historical documents at Santa Barbara Mission Historical Archives, Mexico's National Archives in Mexico City and numerous university libraries. He studied documents written in Serra's hand and little-known letters and reports from Serra and other Franciscans, documents from Spanish governors and military leaders, and eyewitness accounts from travelers.

The truth is painful and not widely understood.

Elias Castillo is the author of
A Cross of Thorns: The Enslavement of
California's Indians by the Spanish Missions.

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz is the author of An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States, which won The Before Columbus Foundation’s American Book Award in 2015.

Praise for the book:

A must-read for anyone interested in the truth behind this nation’s founding.”—Veronica E. Velarde Tiller, PhD, Jicarilla Apache author, historian, and publisher of Tiller’s Guide to Indian Country
.
“This may well be the most important US history book you will read in your
lifetime.”—Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams