Marti Correa de Garcia introduced David Bolton, Executive Director of the CA Missions Foundation. David has an impressive portfolio of current and past associations, including the DC based Spain Council and the Yo Gang, a Santa Barbara High School Alumni Athletic Club, sports writing for the News Press in the 1980’s and announcing sports for local ABC affiliates. Tasked with preserving Mission buildings and related structures, the non-profit CMF was established in 1998 and has benefited from generous donations from, among others, the Hearst Family. One of their highly successful programs, “All Aboard the Bus”, supports Title 1 student visits to the California Missions; teachers relate that the students return highly motivated to learn more about their California heritage.

 

In the last 20 years the Foundation has generated over $10 million in preservation funding, notably restoring and preserving the Missions’ extensive Colonial Art and Sculpture collection, restoring Mission San Miguel and Carmel, and restoring the crypt below the altar of the Santa Barbara Mission.

 

David wove an enlightening and entertaining tale of the history of the Missions, beginning with the Reconquista and expulsion of the Moors and the Jews from Spain in 1492, and including the story of how the Jesuits and Dominicans were superceded by the Franciscans in the establishment of the Missions in California. He shared how the intertwined Arab and Jewish, native and Spanish cultures impacted the colonization of Mexico and flourished with the establishment of the Land Grant system in 1821. David connected cultural geography and the impact of the Sonoma Mission’s old vine Zinfandel on the resuscitation of the declining European wine industry. David further illuminated how connected the original colonial families in Sinaloa are with prominent local families of Mexican heritage in Santa Barbara yet today.