California Assembly Bill 1821, authored by Assemblyman James Ramos of California and signed into law by Governor Newsom, mandates that,  beginning January 1, 2025, all schools in California are required to teach the historical truth about the “Mission Era” and the gold rush and its effect upon California’s native peoples.

Recently I gave a talk to a university class on my screenplay ALTA CALIFORNIA. I began by asking these students, most born in California, to name ONE HISTORICAL PERSONAGE FROM “THE MISSION ERA”—excluding Padre Junipero Serra.  No one had an answer!

"History is written by those who win and those who dominate." (Edward Said)

Questions and statements about “The Mission Era” not taught in schools:

1. Who were the military authorities representing King Carlos III of Spain?  Pedro Fages, Fernando de Rivera y Moncado, and Felipe de Neve.
2. Serra disagreed with all three Captains and had the first two, Fages and Rivera, removed from California.
3. Who is called the founder of Los Angeles?  Captain Felipe de Neve.
4. What were the causes of disagreements between the military and spiritual authorities?
   1. Funding.   Money for the missions came from King Carlos, yet Serra sent his annual accounting to the Pope!
   2. Protection. Serra’s determination/foolhardiness versus military caution.
   3. Attitude to and treatment of the native peoples:
      1. "That spiritual fathers should punish their sons, the Indians, with blows that appear to be as old as the conquest of the Americas... .Two or three whippings applied to them may serve, for them and for the rest, spiritual benefit for them all!"  Junipero Serra
5. What would become of the mission natives (neophytes) when the Spanish left?   Military and spiritual decisions (de Neve and Serra) were radically different.   Who won?  Reason?  Consequences?
6. What was the general attitude of the Spanish soldiers to the native population?
7. Cordero and Camacho were actual historical figures.  Tales tell of native women fleeing to the hills if these two were among the soldiers coming to a mission.
8. Which was the final mission built on the Camino Real?  Santa Barbara because of the hostility of the Chumash tribe.
9. Governor Felipe de Neve "made it a rule to give a present to every Indian he met on his tours--this at his own personal expense."  (see Edwin A. Beilharz, Felipe de Neve: First Governor of California, California Historical Society, 1971, page 3).
10. "At the time of [Neve's] death, he had not seen his family for twenty years, and did not even know his wife [Maria Nicolasa Periera de Neve] had died in Seville some time before." (Beilharz, Felipe de Neve, 3)
11. Serra and Neve died in the same year, 1784.
12. Serra was buried with ceremony.  His grave is in the Carmel mission.  He was canonized in 2015, despite objections, including the destruction of the San Gabriel Mission.
13. Neve is buried, according to his wishes, in an unmarked grave in Hacienda Nuestra Señora del Carmen de Peña Blanca in Chihuahua, New Spain.   His exact burial place is unknown.
14. "Serra practiced various habits of penance, to purify his spirit and cultivate communion with the Passion of Christ. He wore a sackcloth spiked with bristles, or a coat interwoven with broken pieces of wire, under his gray friar's outer garment.  In his austere cell, Serra kept a chain of sharp pointed iron links hanging on the wall beside his bed, to whip himself at night when sinful thoughts ran through his mind."  (Wikipedia)

"The aim of studying history is not to remember the past--it's to be liberated from it."  Yuval Noah Harari

George Santayana: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

Chief Pontiac (d. 1769): "They came with a Bible and their religion, stole our land,

crushed out spirit...and now tell us we should be thankful to their 'Lord' for being saved."

“Tell me the facts and I’ll learn. Tell me the truth and I’ll believe. But tell me a story and it will live in my heart forever.”   Native American Proverb

LOGLINE: It is “The Mission Era” in California.  A mixed-blood native scout, torn between his native heritage and Spanish conquerors, is thrust into a battle of survival and identity as he navigates oppressive mission life and brutal colonizers.

ALTA CALIFORNIA is an historically correct script viewed through the eyes of a fictional character, Paco Palido.    Paco has three tasks before him: 1) Revenge the murder of his mother by a Spanish soldier; 2) Discover who and what he is and who are his people in a rapidly evolving world; and, 3) Aid his new-found people prepare for the coming of the white man from the East.

The script divides into three sections.

Part One: Who Am I?

 Here we are introduced to Paco Palido (fictional), a mixed blood whose tribe and mother are slaughtered.  Before her death, Paco’s mother gives her son a clamshell necklace: an object that recurs in the story.

• Paco is taken to a residential school where, despite repeated punishments,  Paco refuses to give up the “heathen” necklace, or to accept baptism into a faith that assigns his dead mother to its Hell.

  He is rescued from the school by Captain Felipe de Neve who employs Paco as a native scout. 

  In that role, Paco witnesses the repeated confrontations between Neve and Padre Junipero Serra over the treatment of “neophytes” (baptized Indians), misused funding, and clashes over protection and safety.  

  Paco also witnesses how some Spanish soldiers, against Neve’s express command, abuse native women.  Two Spanish soldiers invite Paco to accompany them on a “deer hunt.”  He refuses and is jailed overnight.

  Neve, suspicious of what this “hunt” involved, sends Paco to talk with the leader of the local tribe.  The Headman informs Paco what happens, but insists the two soldiers face native, not Spanish, retribution.  “Our way is poison.” 

  The Headman also informs Paco that it is in Santa Barbara, among the “heathen” Chumash, where Paco will find his people.

   

  Part Two: Are these my people?

  Paco is captured by the Chumash!  The necklace his mother gave him saves Paco.  The Chumash recognize him as one of their own. 

  In a powerful and haunting scene, Paco, aided by a young and beautiful Chumash girl,  Ifapi, meets the ghost of his murdered mother.

  He leaves the Chumash having found his purpose, knowing he has to help his people prepare for a place in this rapidly evolving world.

  Part Three: How Can I Help My People?

  With the Spanish preparing to leave Alta California, all focus is upon preparing the neophytes for the coming invasion of white men from the east. 

  Two opposing solutions are offered.  Serra believes the neophytes must remain in the missions where God will protect them.  Neve disagrees, believing the neophytes must return to their tribal ways away from the mission.  Only one solution will succeed. 

•  

  (N.B. This challenge between Neve and Serra over the future of California natives in the missions is historical fact.  See "Felipe de Neve" by Edwin A. Beilharz)

  Paco, who carries Neve and the King Carlos’s decision to various missions, soon learns how determined, uncompromising and Machiavellian the “Good Padre” really is.  His solution will win by fair means or foul.

  Serra and Neve die in the same year.  Paco returns to his new-found tribe, the Chumash, and his new-found love, Ifapi. 

  Comments:

  Alta California focuses on both Paco's struggle to find his place in a rapidly changing world, and his wish to seek revenge on his mother’s killer.  

  A Nicholl Fellowship critique said of the script, "There is meaning here. There were themes having to do with racism and faith and the nature of both. The script also seemed to be saying something about humanity, and this was well integrated into the piece and arose out of it organically."

  Alta California is a multiple national and international film festival award winner including Los Angeles Film and Script, Richmond International, Lonely Seal, WeScreenplay Diverse Voices, Accolade Global (Native American/Aboriginal Peoples), Wiki Screenplay, and many more in the USA and overseas in Canada, South America and Europe.   It was a second rounder in Launch Pad Feature Competition.  It is also a top-rated historical screenplay with MovieBytes.