Carl explains, “We are still a people that are still here, and that we do care about these grounds as much today as we did yesterday.”
NPS Photo Carl shares an early memory about his identity, "One of my oldest memories about the missions and being told that I came from these people, I was about 7 or 8 years old […] and my grandmother Clara pulled me aside, […] she told me, ‘There is one thing you have to remember. You’re like me. You’re Spanish and you’re Indian. We come from Apache people, there is Native American in our blood and we come from the missions.”
So whenever I would go to the missions, my first time was probably with a school trip […] and I went there and I just kept thinking about my grandmother and the people […] Since I was a child growing up on the south side of town, immersed in all the mission grounds, I always felt a kinship. And I felt that it was more than a home, that it was open and welcome to me, because I have people there looking after me even if you couldn’t see them. I always felt a strong connection to that." |
Last updated: October 14, 2021