A civil lawsuit has been filed against the city for removing Historic Landmark #3, the Fr Serra Statue, without due process:

http://www.ventura.courts.ca.gov/CivilCaseSearch/CaseReport/56-2020-00543397-CU-PT-VTA

SB News Press:

https://newspress.com/ventura-sued-for-removing-serra-statue/

THERE IS NOW AN OFFICIAL WEBSITE FOR SERRA STATUE DEFENSE UPDATES:

www.defendserra.com

ALL DONATIONS GREATLY NEEDED AND APPRECIATED!  

https://www.gofundme.com/f/save-serra

Coalition for Historical Integrity:

 

On July 15th, 2020 the Ventura city council voted UNANIMOUSLY to remove the Fr Serra statue from in front of city hall. This was done in a deliberately expedited and fraudulent manner. Not only did they circumvent the law by denying the statue its landmark designation (which was never before questioned)...there was no real community decision. If there had been, it would have been made at the ballot. Instead, they deliberately avoided the ballot to exclude the Ventura community. Once again, those that claim that DEMOCRACY MUST PREVAIL, are the same ones that DENIED THE VENTURA COMMUNITY A DEMOCRATIC PROCESS.

Although the statue may never return to city hall...WE MUST CHALLENGE THOSE THAT ABUSE THEIR POWERS, LEAST THEY BEGIN TO BELIEVE THERE WILL BE NO REPERCUSSION.

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The desire to rewrite history has plagued humankind since ancient times. Often one group seizes power and uses that power to modify or even erase a common history to fit a particular agenda, or simply appease a particular group. No one deserves the power to erase history, and our monuments and statues are testaments to both the GOOD and the BAD of our common past and our ancestors.

Fundamental to the establishment of all the California missions, Fr Junipero Serra was also an essential part of the establishment of California as a Spanish colony and later an American state. Unfortunately, the arrival of Europeans to California resulted in a drastic decline in native population due to the diseases (namely small pox) that they introduced into this continent.

In reality, the Spanish mission system was far more humane and (Christian) in its philosophy in comparison to that of the Anglo-Saxon (American) model. In contrast to the American policy which determined to simply force natives onto reservations and become dependents on the United States, it intended to Christianize the natives, train them in European crafts and farming, and create autonomous neophyte communities.

-The Spanish crown in fact viewed Spain as two 'global' communities: The kingdom of Spain (in Europe), and the kingdom 'of the Indies' (in the New World).

As always, the people that want to destroy, remove or alter history almost never fully understand it, or they simply don't care to. Please sign this petition and say NO to removing our common history. The answer is to create MORE statues and monuments to new values and heroes, not to destroy or remove the old ones.