1. By Sarah Macedo
This photo, the information
presented, and the other
illustrations are all from Mission
San Luis Rey or its website.

2. When reading What Caused the Pueblo
Revolt of 1680 about the various
interpretations of a single event, I began to
think about how the way history is
presented also varies depending on the
teller. To take a look at this first hand in the
study of Latin American history in
California, I visited Mission San Luis Rey
and took note of how the information was
presented.

3.  The San Luis Rey Mission is
known as the “King of the
Missions” because it is the largest
of the California Missions.
 It was named after the 13th century
French King, St. Louis IX, and was
run on the land of the Luiseno
Indians.
 One of the reasons for its
establishment was for the
conversion of the Native peoples
of the area, a common goal of the
Spanish colonies.
 After observing and analyzing the
displays available at Mission San
Luis Rey, however, I find that the
information given presents the
Spanish perspective of the
experience while neglecting to
show the Amerindian contributions
and point of view.

4.  On the tour, the visitor travels through
eight rooms. The first of these rooms is
the only one that attempts to explain the
experience of the Native Americans, but
its exhibit contains mostly information
about their culture pre-European contact.
 It hosts arrow heads, native stoves, and
woven baskets. Although it does give
credit to the civilization by stating that
their work is an example of a “lost art of
much skill”, it does not explain how their
previous knowledge contributed to the
building and maintaining of the Mission.
The fact that it is a “lost” art also implies
that it was pushed out of society based on
the greater Spanish technology that
replaced it.
 In one section of the room it stated that
there is one example of a written source
given by an Amerindian from the Mission
studying in Italy, but they neglect to
include what the source said.

5.  The lack of primary source information
given from the Native American
perspective also contributes to the
imbalance of perspective.
 In the remaining rooms there are
recreations of the Mission kitchen, working
tools, and a Spanish sala. While these
recreations contain period artifacts with
plaques detailing their use, I find that they
did not thoroughly explain who used the
artifacts. The only reference to work done
by Native Americans I saw was one
sentence stating that the neophyte women
spun the fibers into wool.
 The descriptions did, however, state the
role the artifacts played in the overall
function of the Mission as intended by the
Spanish who ran it. The economic gains
through trade and production of things like
hide were a common characteristic of the
European settlements, but it depended on
the labor of the Amerindians.

6.  The Mission also contains written
accounts from the Spanish who worked
and visited San Luis Rey.
 Primary sources can be a powerful tool in
understanding the past, but it is important
to consider their biases. The only written
primary sources on display detailing the
experience of the Amerindians were those
written by the Spanish. They were also
posted in the archways between exhibit
rooms away from any displays.
 According to one of the signs “…his
Mission was…the one in which those
poor Indians received the best
treatment… ”. It goes on to say how
paternally the priest treated the
Amerindians and the gifts they received.
Although this sign does discuss the
Native Americans, even this description is
given from the Spanish perspective. It
does not explain how the Native
Americans felt about this arrangement
themselves, only how it appeared to the
author, AugusteDuhaut-Cilly.

7.  There is also a film that gives an overview of
the Mission. Even during the film, however, it
only shows the Spanish intentions of
conversion and the history of the Mission up
to its modern state.
 Furthermore, this film neglects to show the
influence of the Native Americans or how
they felt about this institution. In fact, the film
commented how the Mission today
“continues to serve area residents as it did
200 years ago” . This implies that it was the
Spanish that served the Amerindians and
that it was the Spanish technology that
helped the native peoples.
 According to records left behind by previous
Spanish religious leaders in the
Americas, such as Sepulveda and Las
Casas, it can be argued that it was the
Natives who would be the ones serving the
Spanish through forced work and
oppression. It was their labor that produced
the crops and goods that were used and
traded. This perspective, however, is missing
from the film’s content.

8.  Even the plaques and
monuments outside the
Mission do not acknowledge
the presence and influence of
the Amerindians.
 There are large signs posted
around the Mission land
detailing the efforts of such
groups as the Spanish, early
American Californians, and
even the Mormons who labored
on the land in the 19thcentury.
 This gives the impression that
the Native Americans did not
significantly contribute as much
as the other groups did.