Thread: California History according to the Catholic Monitor

According to the supposed reconquista attitude California was stolen from Mexico and the native Indians and Mexicans were abused by Americans. I came across this article on the internet and selected just a few quotes showing a different slant. What is really interesting is this article's editor is the Catholic Monitor.
http://www.sfmuseum.net/hist5/missions.html

MISSIONS OF SPANISH ERA HAD WIDE INFLUENCE
By F. GORDON O’NEILL
Editor, Catholic Monitor


The problem before Father Serra was not merely the study of many distinctly different tribal languages and the teaching of the Gospel in those languages, but the necessity of training the most degraded of all American Indians to work consistently and form centers of population where the missioners could reach them.

He therefore organized a series of centers in good agricultural lands, around which he gathered the reluctant and lazy savages.

From 1800 on until the end of the Mexican rule the missions suffered from the troubles of Spain, first in a war with France, breaking down Spanish discipline in Mexico, and then from the Mexican government after separation from Spain.


The fact is that the missions were broken up in 1834 under a decree for secularization passed by the Mexican assembly in Mexico City. The Franciscans were persecuted, the Indians were dispersed and the officers of the Mexican government secured most of the plunder

In 1834, before the decree of secularization was enforced, there were 21 missions attended by 30,600 Indians. In 1842 the number of Indians left was 4450. In 1834 the Indians owned 424,000 head of horned cattle; in 1842 there were left 38,220.

The mission period of California brought out the best and worst of Spanish character. The missions in the days of their building and peace were an idyllic Arcadia.

The Mexican government by destroying the California missions destroyed the basic organization of the country. A period of squabbling followed among the plunderers. Mexican rule weakened, so that a small force of Americans were able to take over California.

Uhh, didn't we PAY Mexico for the land?

You sell me your house and I pay you for it, do ya really really think you have a chance in HADES of ever getting it back - for free, 'cause you b*tch and moan about it? FUGGEDABOUDIT!!!

This might be more accurate - the Spanish stole the land from Native Americans. So, any reconquista by Mexico would amount to trying to reclaim stolen property.

Sure we did. But the point I am making is that we keep hearing how Americans stole and took everything from the native Indians and Mexicans. The truth is the Catholic Church ran the missions and had all of the money. The Californios which were descendants of the Spanish conquerers wanted the wealth and protested. Mexico broke up the missions under a secularization decree. The Franciscans were persecuted, the Indians were dispersed and the officers of the Mexican governemt secured most of the plunder.

When we won California we allowed these people to retain their property and yet we are the ones that stole.

Looks to me like it was the Mexican government that stole from the native Indians.

The Mexican government by destroying the California missions destroyed the basic organization of the country. A period of squabbling followed among the plunderers. Mexican rule weakened, so that a small force of Americans were able to take over California.

In other words, they ABANDONED California! Then sold land they did not want.

You have to remember this article is the Catholic Church point of view of the history. So you could say that Spain and the Catholic Church took the land from the native Indians and then Mexico took it from them and then we bought it from Mexico.

By the time we were in the picture most of the native Indians were already destroyed by Spain, the Catholic Church and Mexico.

Originally Posted by MontereySherry

You have to remember this article is the Catholic Church point of view of the history. So you could say that Spain and the Catholic Church took the land from the native Indians and then Mexico took it from them and then we bought it from Mexico.

From the time I first learned about California history in the fifth grade, this is how I have understood it. Its pretty simple. Indians>Spaniards>Mexicans>USA. The only claim that could possibly be made is by the American Indians of California, which is EXACTLY why the reconquistas embrace their indiginous background, and the whole Aztlan BS. "Mexico" or anything "hispanic" have absolutely no historic claim to the land. BUT the Aztecs NEVER were in California, or anywhere north of the Rio Grande. Aztec myth says that they originally migrated from the "North" which reconquistas conviently consider the American Southwest lost to the USA in the Mexican War which has absolutely, positively NOTHING to do with Aztec mythology. It is a cherry picking of history to meet modern political aims.

I think the authors point is to show that the Mission system was destroyed by MEXICO and not the USA. The misconception started with the "Mission Myth." I learned about this in college. It was propagated by a book called "Ramona" written in the 1800s (there is a city in SD county named after the fictional "Ramona" character). The book tried to gain sympathy for the plight of the American Indians by portraying the Spanish period in California in the most positive of lights. Claiming that things were oh so much better for the Indians under Spanish and Mexican rule, until the Yankee came to break up the Mission System. The book was intended to do for the Indians what Uncle Tom's Cabin did for slavery. But it is, in the end, a myth. That is what the author was pointing out.

I found myself involved in this academic exericise while at SJSU...

I was doing research via the Libraries IS and journals sections...and after several days arrived at what I believe even a writer over at VDARE arrived at...

The Indigenous Indians of California have a claim...
Spain has a claim...
Portugal has a claim...
Great Britain has claim...
Old Russia has a claim...
France has a claim...
The United States has a claim...
...and of course do to recent anthropological discoveries and research...certain caucausoid-like ghosts and aboriginal ghosts have a claim as well...

Welp, common sense told me that in reality only two parties really have a valid claim...


The United States via purchase and force of presence via settlement.

and

The Indigenous natives - including the ghosts mentioned. (Forget it Aztecs...it does not apply to you...)


Funny thing is that SJSU like other universities in CA has a Chicano-Studies Dept and professors who seem to be more interested in re-writing history than simply telling it. Oh, they tend to be closeted Marxist's as well and their student body seems to be dominated by Hispanic - [Americans (this part actively left out)].


So I'll wrap in the similar manner as others have already done. They don't want the the truth...they merely want a proganda outlet that benefits from a protected status within a bureacracy from which they can wrest California back for themselves at not only our expense - but the expense of the true indigenous natives as well. They don't give one bit a damn about the various tribes up and down California. They merely want to have CA back as their racist empire of rancheros on which the natives are once again peons and others only exist as contractors providing a service that the "elite" were too lazy to learn or do themselves.


One postive thing I learned from this an many other research projects was that our CSU and UC systems have outstanding library systems. 99% percent of the students that use them barely touch the tip of the iceberg information-wise.

...count on them instantly being destroyed should the U.S. ever lose control to Mexico or the above mentioned party within.

=

Originally Posted by mrrabbit

One postive thing I learned from this an many other research projects was that our CSU and UC systems have outstanding library systems. 99% percent of the students that use them barely touch the tip of the iceberg information-wise.

...count on them instantly being destroyed should the U.S. ever lose control to Mexico or the above mentioned party within.

Yes, I am sure it will be like Hitler burning the books. After that I suppose it will be WWIII.

What is sickening is reading all the different blogs all over the internet regarding the Absolut ad dictating to us Americans what our true history is.

We are not allowed to have any national pride. All countries have events in their past that they are not proud of, but they constantly seem to try and put down Americans. This atmosphere of trying to control us by guilt is growing old.

If we show or quote facts they simply tell us we have santized our history.