Rhetoric Society Quarterly Oct 2019

Revisiting Missions: Decolonizing Public Memories in California

Brenda Helmbrecht Schlumberger (Ireland)

Abstract

Living in California seems to require interaction with the state’s twenty-one historic Spanish missions, either by visiting them as a tourist, driving by a mission in one’s neighborhood, or learning about them as a schoolchild. While the missions ostensibly celebrate California’s history, many promote an anachronistic and dishonest re-telling of history that elides the devastating impact of the missions on Native communities (both historically and today). The missions operate as largely uncontested tourist attractions that promote self-serving collective memories about California’s founding narrative. Rhetorical analysis, I argue, can lead to a more honest engagement with the “hard truths” of their pasts, thus enabling a decolonizing paradigm (Lonetree). Toward this end, this essay focuses on the missions’ role in shaping public memory in California by comparing the rhetorical choices made at two locations: Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa and La Purisima Mission State Park.

Journal
Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Published
2019-10-20
DOI
10.1080/02773945.2019.1668048
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Open Access
Closed
Topics
rhetorical criticism decolonial rhetorics
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (1)

  1. Enoch (2023)
    Suffrage Statuary and Commemorative Accountability: An Intersectional Analysis …
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly

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CrossRef global citation count: 6 View in citation network → Build reading path →

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