The Mission

Exploring History Beyond The Mission

Discover your personal history and the history of the neighborhood where you live and work. Viewers can use the following questions and activities as catalysts for exploring and recording the history of their families and communities.

Questions for Family Viewers

How many ethnic groups can you identify in your community? What is their history and their present-day role within your community?

When did your family immigrate here? Why? What are your family members' most memorable experiences about immigrating to the United States?

How do the immigration experiences of your family compare to the experiences of present-day immigrants?

Activities for Schools and Organizations

• Interview senior citizens from various ethnic groups and produce an oral history of your community. Illustrate the history with photographs from family albums.

• In the early days of San Francisco, street names commonly referred to the landowner or to their esteemed colleagues, friends or family members. Research the history of the street names in your neighborhood.

• Choose a critical time in your neighborhood's history and produce a newspaper, including relevant news articles, editorial columns and cartoons of the day.

• Create a cross-cultural food fest and explore the origins of ethnic cuisines in your community.

• Have a contest for the best poem or short story about the experience of an immigrant moving to your community.

• Write and produce a play illustrating key events in your community's history.

• Create a "living museum" tour consisting of sites of key events in your community's history.

• Research the poets and authors who lived in and/or wrote about your community and produce a reading of their works.

• Have a musical night featuring artists from different cultural groups in your community.

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