Extending a cultural combat that began years in the past, Caltrans has quietly demolished a statue of 18th century missionary and Catholic saint Junipero Serra that had neglected Interstate 280 in Hillsborough for 50 years — maybe pleasing some who had questioned Serra’s legacy, even because the transfer enraged his supporters within the church.
The art work’s development — constructed half a century in the past, utilizing rebar sprayed with a powdered type of concrete — meant that it couldn’t simply be moved to a different website, officers stated, so it was demolished as a substitute.
Standing at 26 ft tall, the larger-than-life Serra was wearing a monk’s gown with a cowl falling onto his shoulders as he neglected commuters trekking throughout the Peninsula. The statue had the names and founding dates of a number of missions carved onto its base; Serra established the primary 9 of 21 missions throughout California as he traveled north from Baja California with a band of conquistadors from Spain.
The Junipero Serra statue was constructed out of metal and concrete by artist Louis DuBois in 1975.
Since August, the statue’s former spot on the Crystal Springs relaxation cease in Hillsborough has been empty after the art work was eliminated by Caltrans. The statue didn’t meet the present necessities of the Transportation Artwork Program, in line with Jeneane Crawford, public data officer for Caltrans District 4.
Crawford didn’t reply instantly Monday to a query about which standards the statue had been discovered to not meet.
The statue was additionally often focused with vandalism and graffiti, Crawford added. There are presently no plans to place one other statue instead, she stated.
The statue’s removing comes a number of years after an inflow in protestors defacing statues of the now-controversial missionary in 2020 — together with one in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park that was toppled by a bunch of 100 individuals, one in San Rafael that was coated in pink paint earlier than being pulled down and one in Los Angeles that was taken down in an illustration by Native American tribes — amid bigger conversations about whether or not monuments of historic figures ought to stay standing at the same time as their legacies are being questioned.
The statue was devoted in June 1976, in line with the Smithsonian Institute.
Serra was canonized right into a saint by Pope Francis in 2015. On the time of his canonization, a whole lot of Native People from throughout California gathered in protest due to atrocities inflicted on their ancestors on the missions, together with stripping them of their languages and religions and punishing individuals who tried to flee. On the protest, elders spoke of whippings, beatings and different brutalizations of their ancestors.
The Caltrans Transportation Artwork Program installs art work on transportation infrastructure throughout the state that represents communities’ “unique aesthetic, environmental, scenic, historical and cultural values,” in line with Caltrans. Proposed artwork installations should meet a number of standards: they can not show textual content, distract transportation customers, embrace shifting elements or intrude with site visitors management units, amongst different necessities.
Caltrans consulted a number of non secular, arts and historic organizations in its choice to take away the statue, Crawford stated. Native Ohlone tribes had been additionally approached for enter.
The Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Space, which is comprised of surviving fashionable Native American lineages with ancestry via the Missions San Jose, Santa Clara and Dolores, didn’t reply to a request for remark Monday.
The choice prompted concern from some Catholics, together with Archbishop of San Francisco Salvatore Cordileone, who stated in a press release that he was not made conscious that the statue’s removing occurred till after it was destroyed.
“No one fought for St. Junípero Serra because apparently, officials from Caltrans and the Transportation Art Program didn’t consult with anyone who would give them an opinion that differed from their own,” Cordileone stated. “Once again, Catholics are subject to prejudice and marginalization.”
The construction was demolished as a result of it contained rebar and shot-crete development supplies that made it so it couldn’t be moved, Crawford stated. A CEQA allow was filed for its removing in March.
The statue was evaluated for the California Register of Historic Sources however was discovered to not be eligible, Crawford added.
Members of the family of DuBois, who had been interviewed for the Historic Sources Analysis Report, got discover of Caltrans’s choice to take away the statue in order that they may pay for its removing and preservation in the event that they selected to take action, Crawford stated.
Initially Printed: October 7, 2025 at 4:30 AM PDT
