Highsmith, Carol M. La Purísima Mission, Lompoc, California. 2012. Photograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/2013632530/.
Students begin by examining the photograph of Mission La Purísima Concepción, noting architectural features such as the white stucco walls, chapel entry, and surrounding landscape. Small-group discussions will explore how the mission’s secluded and pristine setting reflects Spanish colonial intentions of isolation, control, and religious outreach. Then, students read excerpts from There There by Tommy Orange—a contemporary novel exploring Indigenous identity in California. They reflect on how the mission’s legacy of displacement and cultural erasure parallels the novel’s depictions of intergenerational trauma and modern Indigenous resilience. Students respond through a written reflection connecting image and text.
La Purísima Concepción was founded on December 8, 1787, as the eleventh Spanish mission in California and rebuilt in a rural Lompoc location after the 1812 earthquake destroyed the original complex. The mission became the center of the 1824 Chumash Revolt—one of the most significant Indigenous uprisings during the mission era—when Chumash fighters temporarily took control of the mission, illustrating resistance to colonial religious and educational structures.
- How do physical spaces and their histories shape cultural memory and identity?
- What impact did La Purísima’s rural location have on Indigenous communities?
- In what ways did mission operations disrupt traditional Chumash lifeways?
- Extension Questions: Can you think of modern spaces—churches, schools, monuments—whose design influences’ histories are remembered or forgotten?
- How does There There reflect ongoing cultural displacement in California?
ELA Standard
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.2. Determine two or more central ideas in a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to provide a complex analysis.
Social Studies Standard
HSS Standard 11.10.7. Describe the role of religious institutions in US social and political history.
Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions of human experience.
- This lesson uses visual and literary analysis to explore how place can both erase and affirm cultural identity. Begin by guiding students through a close study of the photograph of Mission La Purísima Concepción—the remote setting, serene architecture, and Colonial-era design. Ask students to consider: How do the environment and design communicate control, spirituality, or separation?
- Next, provide a concise historical overview: the mission's role in converting Chumash peoples, the 1812 earthquake and 1813 relocation, and its legacy as a site of forced labor and cultural disruption. Encourage students to explore recent efforts at site restoration and public memory.
- Students then read selected passages from Tommy Orange’s There There—specifically those that deal with intergenerational trauma, identity loss, and the struggle for cultural continuity among California Native communities. Through Pair-Share and journaling, students connect mission-era assimilation with modern urban Indigenous experiences, exploring how both stories involve “stolen spaces” and attempts at reclamation.
- The culminating activity: Students craft a visual-literary synthesis. They choose a place—perhaps a local monument, school, or mission—and create a multimodal analysis, pairing an image of that place with a contemporary literary or poetic text. Each student presents how place, structure, and narrative interact to shape or challenge collective memory.
- This approach fosters visual literacy, historical understanding, empathy, and critical thinking about how spaces reflect and shape identities—past and present.
Highsmith, Carol M. Mission San Miguel Arcángel is a Spanish mission in San Miguel, San Luis Obispo County, California. 2012. Photograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/2013633483/.
Highsmith, Carol. Mission San Carlos Borromeo del rio Carmelo, Carmel Mission, Carmel, California. 2012. Photograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/2013630541/.