Tuesday, November 30, 2004

President Bush Signs the California Missions Preservation Act

On Tuesday, November 30th 2004, HR 1446, the California Mission Preservation Act, finally became a reality when President Bush signed it into law. We would like to applaud Senator Barbara Boxer and Representative Sam Farr for championing this bill in Congress, and congratulate all of the legislators who co-sponsored it and supported it.

This Bill will provide $10 million dollars over five years to the California Missions Foundation for projects related to the physical preservation of the twenty-one California Missions. This incudes important projects like strucutural rehabilitation and stabilization and conservation of mission art and artifacts.

Please note, however, that these funds require a 1:1 match of additional money that the California Missions Foundation must raise in order to be eligible. We need your help now more than ever to raise the matching funds. Our goal is to raise an additional $2.5 million every year in order to keep up with the Federal timeline. Please help us help the California Missions.

The twenty-one California Missions are among our most historically valuable NATIONAL treasures. They are well-known landmarks in California as the progenitors of many of our coastal cities and influencing land-use in the state to this day. (think Highway 101, Pueblo de Los Angeles) However, the missions' significance to national history has not been stressed enough. Their role as progenitors of Spanish Colonial expansion throughout the American west reminds us that the resettlement of the American continent over two hundred years ago did not just include British colonists on the east coast. Furthermore, the missions of the southwest including Alta and Baja California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas figured heavily in the history of Native Americans for good or ill, and must be preserved as a reminder of our complex past.

We at the California Missions Foundation are elated to see that our Federal Government recognizes the need to preserve the California Missions for the benefit of present and future generations of American citizens.