Amber Paulson
Prof. Vanbenschoten
07/19/09
Field Assignment

1. The place I attended was the Mission San Luis Rey de Francia in Oceanside, California.  This mission has a museum that one can explore independently, an operating Catholic Church, a mission cemetery, and a number of outdoor exhibits and excavation sites.  

2. I chose the Mission San Luis Rey because I grew up in Oceanside, the town the mission is located in, and I have never actually explored the site and its history.  

3. The Mission San Luis Rey de Francia is one of the 21 missions along the coast of California that were established by the Spanish between 1769 and 1823 (Malloy).  Of the missions, San Luis Rey is the largest.  

4. This event, activity, or place closely relates to the following themes and content of History 12:
                1. The mission system of California
                2. Early Natives of California
                3. California history as it changes with time
	    4. Encounters between California Natives and outsiders

5. The first theme is related to the Course as follows: The mission system of California is a system that truly shaped the state and left a permanent mark of California’s Spanish heritage.  Not only did this mission maintain contact with the Natives of the area but it also portrays how the Mission San Luis Rey changed over the centuries.  
The second theme related to the Course as follows: The Luiseno people were the Natives of much of San Diego County before the Spanish occupation.  The mission museum displays a number of cultural artifacts from this tribe and significantly focuses on how the Luisenos helped create and shape this mission.  
 The third theme is related to the Course as follows: A large portion of the museum tour focuses on how the Mission San Luis Rey changed with time.  It began as a Spanish built mission, was abandoned and used by U.S. soldiers as barracks, was rebuilt in the early 20th century, served as a accredited college, and served as an elementary school.  Like many things we’ve studied in this course, the mission has adapted to the changes that took place around it.
The fourth theme is related to the Course as follows: Many studies of history include analyzing the initial contact that explorers had with native people of the lands they arrived on.  Almost all of California’s history involves some type of contact between Natives and settlers.  The mission is a prime representation of an initial contact such as this. 

6. This event, activity, or place went beyond the Rawls textbook in several ways.  First of all, it took me away from the textbook.  I left my apartment and personally explored a historical place.  The visual images of the trip remain in my mind much more strongly than any text ever has.  Secondly, though Rawls does focus on the mission systems in the first few chapters of his book, actually visiting the Mission San Luis Rey allowed me to focus on one mission, rather than try to look at all 21 of them, and understand its unique story.  I was able to delve more deeply into the history of the Mission San Luis Rey.  Another way the mission went beyond the text is that it allowed room for interpretation.  When an individual reads a book, he or she understands the information according to how it was written.  When an individual is able to wander, observe, and interpret, one’s own, personal understanding is formed.

7. My event, activity, or place raised several questions about U.S. History that interested me or left me troubled or confused. First of all, I found it interesting that the mission neglected to mention the unwillingness of the Natives to assimilate into the mission.  In his text, Rawls does touch on this, stating that to the Spanish, had “religious, economic, military, and political motives” with the Natives (Rawls, 30).  To the Spanish settlers, the Natives were pawns and the Natives were aware.  Rawls touches even more on this issue in the “Native Resistance” section (Rawls, 46).  In visiting the mission museum, and not backing it with any other sources of information, one would believe that the Natives were supportive and excited about the Spanish presence on their land.  Another thing that troubled me was an actual part of the mission history.  I couldn’t truly believe that the surrounding community would allow the mission to deteriorate as it did in the late 1800s.  It took me back to my very first discussion post in which I wrote about the ever0changing Acropolis.  This historic image was actually used as a place to store ammunition.  Likewise, the great Mission San Luis Rey, the largest mission built, was used as barracks for the army. It just shocks me that at a given time in history, people cannot see the value in a particular monument until they find it necessary to salvage the history of an area and create a creation legend.  

8. In conclusion, this experience showed me that history is always around and not necessarily far away.  Like I said earlier, I grew up next to this mission but I never once explored its history.  All my life, this historical image with a rich historical background has been less than a mile away from me.  I also learned that one cannot rely on one source to obtain an accurate view of something.  The mission museum neglected to mention that the Natives were, for the most part, forced into the mission system and exploited because they were less powerful than the incoming Spaniards.  From this experience, I have learned to explore everything I see, whether it seems trivial and a little boring or not.  Looks may be deceiving and an image that I’ve associated with my childhood has transformed into an image I associate with my community’s history.