Friday, April 29, 2011

An Interesting History of Mission San Jose

Having read all that has been posted since my initial entry i am all at once seeing the value of this tool for communication. Since I missed last weekend I am very much looking forward to our day tomorrow and to getting some more time with the "DSCQHR shovel bum tribe". Just the process of going through my field manual and documenting my thoughts and observations has been a revelation for me. My learning curve is steep and I accept the challenge 100%.
Always one to want to understand context, I have taken a book out from the library that is giving me a look-see into some of the past conceptions of just how Mission San Jose came into being. "History of Mission San Jose 1797-1835" by Father Florence McCarthy published in 1958 is a great insight into a colonialist/religious view of how and why the Mission exists. It is so steeped in racism and prejudice that it is almost laughable. Still it helps to understand the milieu of this place and all that happened through the first third of the 19th century. I would very much like to find one that is more realistic and covers up to the present day if anyone has suggestions. Having said that for me, reading this book will help me to appreciate the site and to be able to have even more questions and conjectures on how this little "slice" of the earth reflects the past.

3 comments:

  1. Mark, can you bring that book to class tomorrow? I could use some more history too.

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  2. Mark: I'll bring Randall Milliken's book titled "Native American's at Mission San Jose" to the site on Saturday (5/7) for you to look through and borrow (though I will need it back for the historical background section of my site report). It's a good resource for the non-prejudiced view of the prehistoric/premodern peoples of the Fremont area.

    I also just received my McCarthy book and I agree it takes a lot of discipline to read past his demonstrative tone and get to the historical substance.

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  3. Could you please bring both books to the site next Saturday? I'd like to look at both of them. Did you get them from the CSU library? I'm trying to find some info on the Dominican Sisters - have you seen anything in your search?

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