El Camino Real mission bell to be removed from UC Santa Cruz campus

Representatives of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band and the UC Santa Cruz are holding a ceremony Friday morning for the removal of the El Camino Real bell from the school’s campus.

Representatives from the Amah Mutsun say the bell, which is one of the hundreds on display in California, memorializes the California Missions. They say it glorifies the domination and dehumanization of their ancestors.

“They are constant reminders that our people, and our history, continue to be disregarded to this day… The true history of the California mission system has never been told. It is shameful that these places where our ancestors were enslaved, whipped, raped, tortured and exposed to fatal diseases have been whitewashed and converted to tourist attractions,” said Amah Matsun Tribal Band Chair Valentin Lopez.

The Amah Matsun requested that the bell be removed, and they received support from UCSC faculty, students and administrators.

Lopez says the missions bring millions of dollars in revenue from tourism to the Catholic Church, the State of California and local businesses, but most of the tribes that survived mission times still lack basic resources.

Lopez and other tribal members this is similar to the movement to bring down Confederate statues, that both are presented as benign historical markers when they are really political symbols that enshrine the past and obscure historic crimes.

The Amah Mutsun have presented two options for disposal that they consider acceptable- it could be placed in a museum with an explanation of its removal and context, or it could be melted down and “recycled for peaceful purposes.”

KION’s Ashley Keehn will have more from the bell removal ceremony at 5 and 6 p.m.