Junípero Serra: The Mission Man

Junípero Serra was not exactly the good old buddy of California native people that he imagined himself to be. Were his missions indeed like old-time concentration camps for the enslaved native population who didn't manage to escape the rule of the Conquistidores? Likely many of the diseases that decimated local people spread from the missions.

This statue's up behind a roadside rest stop off Highway 280, one of two major arteries on the peninsula that runs between San Francisco and the Silicon Valley. That freeway still bears the name of this man, though many of us don't relish the connection.

What are your thoughts on the man with more than one mission? 

References: 1491 : new revelations of the Americas before Columbus / Charles C. Mann.