Many people in California grew up with a simplified, mythologized version of Junípero Serra that included building models of Spanish missions.
While espousing beatings for Indigenous peoples, Serra helped preside over a system of enslavement in the name of spreading Catholicism.
Attending Catholic schools while growing up in California, I distinctly remember making tiny clay blocks for my Spanish mission project, but I definitely don’t remember being taught that Father Serra’s missionary work led to a 90% decline of the Native population.