Highsmith, Carol M. Mission Santa Cruz was a Spanish mission founded by the Franciscan order in present day Santa Cruz, California. 2012. Photograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/2013632074/
Students begin by doing silent visual analysis of the photograph, noting architectural elements such as the adobe façade and Mission Hill setting. In pairs, they discuss how the mission’s positioning on a hill overlooking the river suggests both spiritual presence and displacement. Next, students read Joy Harjo’s poem “Remember,” which evokes ancestral memory and connection to place. In a reflective written response, students compare how the mission image and Harjo’s text each speak to themes of loss, spirituality, and reclaiming memory.
Mission Santa Cruz was founded on August 28, 1791, by Father Fermín Francisco de Lasuén as the twelfth California mission, originally built on the San Lorenzo River floodplain before relocating uphill after repeated flooding; it served primarily the local Amah Mutsun (Ohlone) people and later fell into ruin after secularization, earthquake damage, and looting. An 1822–1824 adobe residence used by Indigenous families still survives at Santa Cruz Mission State Historic Park.
Source: https://californiamissionsfoundation.org/mission-santa-cruz/
Teacher’s Overarching Question
What does the physical presentation of Mission Santa Cruz—its architecture, setting, and preservation—communicate about the history it represents?
Supporting Questions
- What architectural and landscape features in the photograph suggest a specific narrative about the mission’s role in the community?
- How does the image obscure or highlight the mission’s Indigenous history?
- How might the photograph’s composition influence viewers’ perceptions of the mission’s significance?
Extension Question
If you were to create a new image of Mission Santa Cruz for a museum exhibit on Indigenous history, what visual elements would you include or change?
ELA Standard
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone.
Social Studies Standard
HSS Standard 11.3.3: Analyze how the rise of big business and migration influenced the West, including the effects on Native American populations.
NCTE Standard 4
Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language to communicate effectively with different audiences and for different purposes.
- Begin the lesson by guiding students through a careful visual examination of the Mission Santa Cruz image. Prompt them to consider what messages are communicated through the mission’s placement on the hill and its architecture—how does its elevated position shape our reading of the space, and what might the style convey about spiritual authority or colonial presence? Provide a brief lecture that includes the founding date (1791), original riverside location, subsequent move due to flooding, and the significance to the Amah Mutsun people and the local pueblo of Branciforte that developed across the river.
- Introduce Joy Harjo’s poem “Remember.” After reading, students annotate for poetic devices—imagery tied to land, repetition, and emotional tone—while considering how Harjo’s language reasserts Indigenous presence and memory. In pairs, they discuss how the poem creates an alternative memory space compared to the mission’s imposing architecture.
- Bring the class together for a whole-group discussion that asks how visual and poetic representations invite us to remember or critique history. Encourage students to compare the photo’s architectural messaging with the poem’s lyrical reclamation of place and memory.
- For assessment, students write a comparative reflection, citing at least two elements from the photo and two lines or devices in Harjo’s poem to support their analysis.
- As an extension, students photograph a place in their own community—such as a neglected building or a local landmark—and write a short poem or narrative that restores memory to that space, connecting it back to the mission–poem interaction.
Highsmith, Carol M. Mission San Juan Bautista in San Juan Bautista, a city in San Benito County, California. 2013. Photograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/2013634732/.
Highsmith, Carol M. Santa Inés Mission in Santa Ynez, California. 2013. Photograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/2013631417/.