California and the Erasure of Junipero Serra’s Legacy | RealClearPolitics
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top California political figures are notably silent on a big cultural issue roiling Hispanics, Native Americans, and the Catholic Church, even last week when it was commanding the media spotlight in the state.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, President Biden s stalled choice for ambassador to India, announced the renaming of Father Serra Park, located across the street from Union Station in the heart of the city. Garcetti timed the event to what is now officially known in the city as Indigenous Peoples Day, but still Columbus Day to the federal government.
The move followed California Gov. Gavin Newsom s decision to sign a bill permanently removing St. Junipero Serra s statue from Capitol Park in Sacramento where it has stood since the 1960s. The eight-foot bronze figure and several others like it were defaced and toppled last summer during the nationwide protests denouncing racial injustice. Under the new law, a monument commemorating California s native peoples will replace it.
Two of California s Catholic archbishops, Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco and Jose Gomez of Los Angeles ardently opposed the bill and refuted its characterization that enslavement of both adults and children, mutilation, genocide and assault on women were all part of the mission period initiated and overseen by Father Serra.