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/.
Students begin with silent visual analysis, focusing on the adobe façade, bell wall, and pastoral setting. In discussion pairs, they explore how the mission’s placement and design connote authority, sanctuary, and colonial presence. Next, they read Joy Harjo’s poem “Remember,” which evokes ancestral memory and deep connections to the land. Using guided marking, students analyze how Harjo’s imagery resonates with the mission’s setting. Finally, in reflective writing, students compare how the photograph and poem challenge or affirm each other’s portrayal of place, memory, and cultural erasure.
Mission Santa Inés was founded on September 17, 1804, by Father Estévan Tápis to serve Chumash populations in the Santa Ynez Valley. After the 1812 earthquake, it became a seminary in 1844, underwent secularization in 1836, and was restored in the 20th century by Capuchin Franciscans.
Source: https://missionsantaines.org/mission-history/
- What is the first item you notice on the front of the mission?
- How do the curved archways affect your view of this building?
- What do you notice about the grounds around the building?
- Extension questions:
- How does the photograph of Mission Santa Inés convey the mission’s historical role, cultural impact, and relationship to the surrounding landscape
- What visual details in the photograph suggest the mission’s purpose or authority?
- How does the composition of the image—its framing, perspective, and background—shape our interpretation of the site’s significance?
- What elements in the photograph might reflect both sacred intention and colonial influence?
- How might photographing a space in your own community reveal similar or contrasting layers of history, identity, and cultural memory?
ELA Standard
W.11–12.2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
Social Studies Standard
HSS Standard 11.3.2. Examine key issues in the development of the western United States, including the displacement of American Indians.
NCTE Standard 6
Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions, media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.
- Students begin with a silent visual analysis of the photograph of Mission Santa Inés, focusing on the adobe façade, bell wall, and pastoral surroundings. They should then consider: How do the architecture and landscape of Mission Santa Inés tell stories of sacredness and colonization? What does the bell wall reveal about the mission’s function and control?
- After observations, provide historical context on the mission’s founding in 1804, its service to Chumash populations, its role as a seminary after the 1812 earthquake, and its eventual secularization and restoration. Discuss the Chumash experience and the mission’s place in broader patterns of Indigenous displacement in California.
- Students then read Joy Harjo’s poem “Remember,” marking lines where land, memory, and identity intersect. In pairs, they compare Harjo’s land-centered vision with the mission’s physical presence in the Santa Ynez Valley, discussing: How does Joy Harjo’s poem link land, memory, and identity?
- A Socratic seminar follows, centering on the question: In what ways do visual and literary texts shape our understanding of stolen sacred spaces? Students use both the photograph and Harjo’s poem as evidence, weighing how each represents memory, sacredness, and erasure.
- For their culminating task, students create a multimodal reflection by pairing a photo they take of a local structure or landscape with a short poem or prose piece, revealing the layered cultural or historical meanings of that place. This synthesis helps students practice visual literacy, interpretive reading, and place-based storytelling while connecting the past to their own community spaces.
Highsmith, Carol M. La Purisima Mission, Lompoc, California. 2012. Photograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/2013632530/.