Mission San Gabriel opens to the public for first time after fire nearly destroyed landmark

It’s been nearly three years since Mission San Gabriel Arcángel closed its doors to visitors.

But on Saturday, July 1, those doors swung wide open as the landmark structure – known as the birthplace of Christianity in Los Angeles – reopened to the public.

After being nearly destroyed by a fire and closed by a global pandemic, the mission underwent a series of repairs and refurbishments.

Saturday was a kind of resurrection day. And visitors such as Luis Hernandez and Cindy Arias, residents of Lake Forest, got a taste of it.

They visited Mission San Gabriel not knowing it was its first day of re-opening.

As Roman Catholics, they wanted to know more about the story of the first Spanish missions, but they also wanted to understand the painful and often complex origins of the church.

Both from El Salvador, Hernandez and Arias noted the similarities between some of the artifacts of the mission and their home country.

“The way they live is similar to the way my grandparents lived, which reminds me of El Salvador,” said Arias, standing outside the mission.

Church officials are grateful that there are any artifacts to look at after the July 10, 2020, fire, said to be caused by arson.

The blaze that began in the adobe and wood building’s choir loft consumed the roof of the mission and seriously damaged its interior.

Scores of firefighting teams — more than 85 firefighters and 12 engine companies from through the west San Gabriel Valley — doused the blaze. But by then there was major damage not just to the roof but to the interior, including its pulpit and altar.

Fallen debris from the roof and ceiling, and firefighters’ heavy equipment, caused severe cracks in the floor tiles.

But after donors gave to the effort to rebuild the landmark – a process that involved several delays – the facelift was open for all to see on Saturday. The site’s school and more modern church had been open, but this was the first time, the mission’s oldest church – which technically is the actual mission — and its museum were reopened for the first time.

Among some of the refurbishments were repairs to the the ceiling of the mission, which had to be hand-milled. The pulpit canopy was replaced. There’s new lighting, among many other major improvements.

But aside from some of the more technical improvements, Terri Huerta, the mission’s communications director, noted the re-imagining of the museum inside Mission San Gabriel, which has been revamped to tell the stories of the mission’s colonial legacy and impact on Indigenous groups.

Mission San Gabriel, founded in 1771 by Franciscans under the leadership of Father Junipero Serra, is one of 21 mission churches in California often known as the birthplace of Christianity in Los Angeles.

But it left what church leaders acknowledged was a “complex” history. On one hand, the landmark paved a path for the Roman Catholic Church in the region and in the United States. On the other hand, But it would also displace the area’s Native American inhabitants – a fact that Los Angeles Archdiocese sought to acknowledge, even as the mission opened to the public on the day that celebrates the sainthood of Junipero Serra, the controversial Spanish priest who established the landmark.

Huerta expressed that now, students and visitors are approaching the mission’s history with a different set of values and questions – and the museum needed to be updated to reflect that.

The mission worked with Steve Hackel, a history professor at UC Riverside specializing in California native history, and Yves Chavez, an associate professor at the University of Oklahoma specializing in Native American art.

“In the history of this museum, there had not been any real discussion of Native people here,” said Hackel, on hand on Saturday.  “This is a product of collaboration between descended groups”.

Hackel explained that what the museum intends to do differently now is highlight the history of the people here. There had not been the same level of engagement with the population. Local Indigenous groups were in conversation with the archdiocese in the remaking of the museum.

Now, the museum includes QR codes and video displays that aim to make the experience of visiting the mission a more interactive. A sheet of liturgical music from Vexilla regis prodeunt – a  17th-century Latin hymn — now includes an audio clip of USC Thornton School of Music students singing it. Native voice actors were used to re-enact the trial of Toypurina, and her role in a planned rebellion against Mission San Gabriel in 1785.

A Wall of Names of those who had been baptized in the mission are displayed accompanying a TV tracking the movement of people to San Gabriel over time.

On the wall included the date of each person’s baptism as well as their place of origin – all of which was a culmination of years of work, Hackel said. Much of the information was extracted from the Mission Sacramental Records, which was part of the Early California Population Project (ECPP) to incorporate the records of California missions into a searchable database.

The changes made to the museum aimed to tell a more truthful story of the mission’s purpose and legacy.

But Huerta said it was only the beginning of a plan to continuously make the experience of visiting the mission more interactive and educational – to provide greater context for a piece of history that is integral to the founding of the San Gabriel Valley.

On Sunday, Mass will be celebrated at the renovated mission, officials said.