Lessons from Mission San Juan Capistrano, also turning 250

If a historical reckoning can happen here, it can happen anywhere

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On a cloudy weekday morning last month, I visited San Juan Capistrano hoping to see the future of this country in a place gladly stuck in its past.

The city of about 35,000 has always considered itself an island of Old California, even as clogged roads and McMansions blemished the once-pristine hills. Physically and spiritually, San Juan Capistrano is centered around its mission, one of 21 established by the Catholic Church under the Spanish crown in the 18th and 19th centuries, forming the scaffold of modern-day California.

These southern reaches are one of the few areas of an increasingly purple Orange County that went with President Trump all three times. So I wasn't surprised that the downtown looked liked a MAGA wonderland as I walked toward the mission.

Drivers pledged their allegiance to Trump with decals and bumper stickers. Banners on light poles proclaimed "250"-the birthday celebrated this year by both the mission and the United States. It's a number that the president has tried to hijack by tying a love of this country's history to fealty to him.

How the history of Mission San Juan Capistrano is told has long been a reflection of my native Orange County, which itself has exemplified some of America's worst tendencies: a love of avarice, retrograde conservatism and suburban sprawl; a hatred of immigrants and liberalism; a civic religion of nostalgia for a bucolic yesteryear enjoyed only by a few.

I first visited my local mission in fourth grade. We learned about the annual return of swallows, admired blooming roses and citrus trees and absorbed a simple story: Spanish conquistadors and Catholic priests tamed a wild land, and we should follow their example.