PORTOLA STATUE HOIST ON ITS OWN PETARD

Caltrans workers remove Gaspar de Portola statue from Highway 1 right-of-way, destination unknown, following years of controversy over Spanish conquistador De Portola's role in Early California history. (Photo courtesy of Dan Stegink)

Comments

[Lionel Emde]

And what does that have to do with the lack of a public process in a supposed democracy?

Public hearings, a debate, whatever, are required to fulfill the current historical requirement for removal of a public artwork.

Where's the public process?

[Jay Bird]

"Junipero Serra, who arrived in 1769, created a harsh and unforgiving regimen that would ultimately claim the lives of 62,000 Indians and devastate their civilization, including the extinction of a number of small tribes."
https://www.mercurynews.com/2015/01/23/elias-castillo-junipero-serra-sainthood-belies-cruel-history/

"If members of a nearby Indigenous tribe were baptized, they were then brought into a mission where they were ordered to abandon many aspects of their culture and customs, and forced into labor — and prevented from leaving. Anyone who tried to escape the mission was subject to being hunted down and brought back." https://www.kqed.org/news/11826151/how-do-we-heal-toppling-the-myth-of-junipero-serra

[Lionel Emde]

I went to the rest stop on 280 where the statue of Serra stands, and it is still there. Down in the parking lot are posted legends for the statue and its creator, Louis DuBois. (1975) There is no mention of any scheduled removal/destruction of the work.

I'm pretty sure this would be a demolition job; the statue is 26 feet tall, steel and concrete, and you're not going to get it on a flatbed as they did with the Portola statue.

All for an internet petition! What a sick joke.

[Lionel Emde]

I've contacted both of our state legislators (Becker and Berman) in an attempt to find out what public process was followed and where exactly the statue is now. To date, the very helpful legislative aides have gotten nothing but boilerplate replies from Caltrans, although one reply from Caltrans contained the surprising news that Caltrans also intends to take down the statue of Junipero Serra from its location on Interstate 280.

I've also sent an inquiry to the governor's office about this matter and received no reply. The complete lack of a public process is the news here, and it's unacceptable. Someone submits a petition with a supposed 500 signatures and public art starts being removed willy-nilly? Anyone with an ounce of sense knows that internet petitions are easily created and manipulated.

[Lori C.]

As this was a gift from Catalonia, I submitted a public records request to Caltrans on January 23 to find out what happened to the statue because I was interested to see if we could have it placed in a museum with an appropriate plaque describing what he did AND what his expedition caused (not a fan of destroying art...). As of today, June 10, the process that is supposed to take 10 days has been delayed six times by Caltrans. The latest email stated:

"Caltrans is in the process of gathering and reviewing the requested records. Your request will take extra time to fulfill because of the need to:
The need to search for and collect the requested records from field facilities or other establishments that are separate from the office processing the request. Consequently, Caltrans is exercising its authority under Government Code section 7922.535, to extend the time to reply to a Public Records Act request. You will receive a further, more complete response no later than July 03, 2024."

Very disturbing to know that either (1) Caltrans is so inept that it cannot figure out where the statue went, or (2) that the final disposition is such that it simply is refusing to respond to a public records request.

[Lionel Emde]

No, it wasn't after "years of discussion"; it was after the complaint of an individual.
More to follow.

[Jay Bird]

'The removal was the result of years of discussion over whether it was appropriate to honor a conqueror sometimes credited with "discovering" the San Francisco Bay, an event that led to the near eradication of the indigenous people in the area.'
https://www.pacificatribune.com/news/city-reflects-on-removal-of-portol-statue/article_4bfbfd82-bf9c-11ee-b5ad-dff67fb77e10.html

[Carl May]

Historic colonial ugliness aside, could it be that even the Caltrans Department of Public Aesthetics was grossed out by the crude angular appearance of the statue?

[Lionel Emde]

This is interesting, quite apart from how one may feel about the Spanish colonization of California. Caltrans, after an unknown sequence of events, removes a public statue on public land without any apparent public process.

I'm inquiring with local officials to see if anyone knows how and why this was done.