Protesters topple another statue of California mission founder Junipero Serra

Protesters tore down a statue of Junipero Serra outside Mission San Rafael Arcángel on Monday to denounce the founder of the California mission system.

The protesters poured red paint on the statue, then used ropes to topple it in downtown San Rafael as part of an Indigenous Peoples Day rally, KPIX reported.

“Our people were forcibly put here,” said Dean Hoaglin with Coast Miwok of Marin, KTVU reported. “They did not ask to come here to this mission. They were enslaved here.”

Serra, a Catholic priest, founded nine of the 21 missions in California in the 18th century, according to Franciscan Media. He was canonized as a saint by Pope Francis in 2015.

In recent years, Serra’s legacy has come under increasing criticism in California in light of documented atrocities and mistreatment of Native Americans at the missions. The Catholic Church says Serra opposed such actions but others consider him an oppressor.

Serra statues in Los Angeles and San Francisco have also been torn down by protesters, while other cities have removed the statues, KCBS reported. In 2018, Stanford University removed his name from several campus buildings, the Los Angeles Times reported.

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Mike Brown, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, said protesters did not ask church leaders to remove the San Rafael statue before pulling it down, The Marin Independent Journal reported.

“You go to the city. You go to the board. It’s all dragged out. We don’t want to do that. We just want to get it done,” said protester Lucina Vidauri with Coast Miwok of Marin, KTVU reported.

San Rafael police said five people were cited for vandalism at the protest, according to the station.