Sites of Power and the Power of Sight: Vision in the California Mission Landscapes

Abstract

The relationships of sight and power in the landscapes in California missions are explored in this study of three periods of mission history – the sites’ origins as the locus of colonial encounters between Spanish Franciscans and the Indigenous peoples of California, their later re- invention as public sites with “California mission gardens,” and contemporary tourist destinations. While seemingly disparate settings, this paper argues that the imposition of western power on Native peoples and the creation of romanticized oases in tourist destinations are parallel in a number of respects, particularly in the control of vision. The paper also explores diverse perspectives on this view of the land by examining indigenous ideologies of landscape and local expressions of meaning within garden design.