2C California Missions

California Missions


http://www.rawbw.com/~cmi/
http://www.californiamissions.com/cahistory/index.html
http://www.ca-missions.org/contact.html
http://www.cuca.k12.ca.us/lessons/missions/missions.html

1. Contains a brief paragraph how it connects to your study of humanities.

The topic of California Missions relates to humanities because it is a great and important part of California's history. A lot of California's history began with the Spanish Missions. There are 21 missions along California's El Camino Real which is known as "The Royal Highway". They represent the first arrival of non-Native Americans to California. The missions also brought many things to California such as Christianity, livestock, fruits, flowers, grains and industry. This was also the start of the civilization in which we live today. All 21 California missions tell a story about the history of California.

1. Observation: What did you choose? What do you see or hear or feel or think of in the choice you made? What is the subject of the work? If you chose a 'thing' what is the work made of and what techniques (colors, lines, shapes, textures)does the creator use? Be specific in your description. If you chose a place, be specific in your description of what you see or hear. Talk to your reader as though they cannot see the item but somehow must draw a painting of what you see or hear.

The California Mission Chain was started in 1769 by Father Junipero Serra at the direction King Charles III of Spain. King Charles wanted to establish permanent settlements in Alta California to keep control of the land as other people and countries were beginning to come to the area. The land that was settled was to become part of the Spanish territory. The missions were built near the coast to establish towns, and to be able to trade with ships and people coming to the area. The last reason for building the missions was to convert the Indians to Christianity. The missions were placed a day's walk from each other. All of the 21 missions along the El Camino Real is 650 miles long. The missions all resembled each other and they all had a quadrangle where the shops and rooms were, along with a church and a bell tower. The church was built so that it was as tall as the highest tree in the area so that it could be easily seen from afar.

2. Interpretation: What is your choice about? Give specific examples to support this statement in 2 sentences; do so in a way that teaches us something about your choice. Make Paulo Freire proud! .75 point

The chain of the California missions is such a great part of history. Those of us who live in California are lucky enough to be surrounded by the Missions and lucky enough to visit them if we want to and experience a little piece of history all on our own

3. Judgment: What led you to your choice? What do you think or feel about this choice? Why do you feel this way? Support your thoughts with specific observations. .5 point

I chose the California Missions because I wanted to learn more about them. I have heard that they are an important part of the history of California and I wanted to know why. I am Hispanic and I was curious about how my heritage played a part in California with the missions. I wanted to know how the missions began and what they brought along with them. I didn't know that many of the largest cities in California started as pueblos of the missions. Cities such as Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Gabriel, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano just to name a few. They all grew up as part of the mission system. The California Missions are important because of this and without these missions, these towns most likely would not exist. There is almost nowhere in California that you can't see some remains of our Spanish and Mexican heritage, the missions were a very large part of that heritage.

4. Questioning: What else would you like to know about this choice? When completing the question section, lead your audience into the question by stating a fact you do know, yet you still have the related question. This way, both your audience and you will have an educational experience. Example: I learned that John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath was based on his personal experience working with farm workers. I would like to know if the characters he used in that book are fictitious or are they people he met? .5 point

I learned that with the arrival of the Spanish in California, many Native American lives were lost. I would like to know more about this and why this happened?

5. Using your classmates work from last week, tell us one thing you learned from 1 student. Is this one thing some common experience you share or some experience that is completely different than what you experienced? Is this one thing related to our class theoretical foundation and if so, how? Is that one thing related to historical or cultural context of this country or a different one? Link that persons blog to this entry (eg cut paste that blog entry here) . .5 point

I learned from Anthony that rattlesnakes are a venomous snake that are common in California. I was not aware of this at all. I learned that the snakes are sometimes used in cultures and by some religious groups. Many people are fascinated with snakes as I was growing up, and many people are afraid of snakes as I am now. I think that no matter if you have ever been around snakes or not people have an opinion about them. Whatever the case may be they definitely are a fascinating creature and they have an affect on people in one way or another.
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