Teaching History, Researching Teaching: August 2012

A group called Shaping San Francisco host monthly gatherings on the history of the city which I normally attend but will have to skip tomorrow. Until last month, it was held at the dance studio Counterpulse which is three blocks from my house. Here’s the location at Mission and Ninth circa 1854:

Looks like "Mission Plain Road is simply "Mission" these days...

Archiving San Francisco is part of what Shaping San Francisco does. In fact, you can contribute through their project Found SF. They also do awesome historical bike tours…one day as a teacher I hope to take my kids on some!!

So I was exploring Found SF today and thought I would share this picture of Mary’s pierced heart, from Mission Dolores circa 1796:

The Immaculate Heart, pierced by three daggers

Here’s my mash-up of the accompanying essay:

“Behind the wooden altar in the sanctuary at Mission San Francisco de Asís, is a wall painted in the late eighteenth century by Indian labor. Painted directly onto plaster, in ochre, white, red, yellow, black, and blue/grey, the mural, which is adorned with abstract patterns as well as Christian imagery, is still virtually unknown to the public, despite its rediscovery and subsequent publicity in early 2004. This mural covers the entirety of the rear wall of the church, behind the historic wooden altar. It measures 22 by 20 feet and includes two statuary niches. It was eclipsed in the year 1796 by an impressive baroque-style relief sculpture shipped from San Blas, Mexico called a reredos. This reredos continues to stand as the backdrop to the mission altar and has concealed the wall painting for over 200 years…

“Mission San Francisco de Asís takes its “nickname” of “Dolores” from the nearby stream, Arroyo de Nuestra Señora de los Dolores. The friars honored the Blessed Virgin Mary by depicting her heart pierced by swords… [more on the meaning of Dolores and the pierced heart below...]

“The first known visual record of any decoration at Mission Dolores was an illustration in 1816 by artist Louis Choris. His watercolor painting depicting Indians dancing at Mission San Francisco shows colored geometric patterns on the lower portion of the buildings facade.” Louis Choris is described as “an exceptionally talented Russian-Ukranian expedition artist who visited California in 1816.” This link has more images of the Native Americans of San Franciscode Asís.

Natives Dancing at Mission Dolores, by Louis Choris

This is a tangent, but I found the essayists choice of the word "Indian" interesting. In most cases, I might assume it was a thoughtless mistake. But the folks at Shaping San Francisco tend to be involved with Native American politics and cultural activities, so I thought there might be another reason. The politically correct term “Native American”, in my experience, isn't viewed that favorably by Native Americans. While working with Native American artists at the Museum of Northern Arizona and while spending time on the Navajo Rez supporting elders and struggling against a variety of injustices, I noticed that Native Americans rarely used the politically correct term to describe themselves, but used the term "Indian" instead. They'd been using it for centuries; why change now? It was explained to me that when people said "Native American", it was for their own benefit: the word made the speaker feel better about themselves as a politically correct thoughtful person and allowed them to fit into a politically correct culture. The use of the word "Indian" was actually more intimate, and I changed my own politically correct language to reflect that. I even found myself in the ironic situation of using the term “Indian” when writing for Native American audiences and their friends and supporters, and using the term “Native American” when writing for everyone else, such as right now.

As for Mary’s pierced heart, the subject of the Native American mural drawings and the object of their (perhaps forced) devotion, Wikipedia has this to say: “The Immaculate Heart of Mary (also known as The Sacred Heart of Mary) is a devotional name used to refer to the interior life of the Blessed Virgin Mary, her joys and sorrows, her virtues and hidden perfections, and, above all, her virginal love for God the Father, her maternal love for her son Jesus, and her compassionate love for all persons”. While the Sacred Heart of Jesus symbolizes complete and unconditional love for humankind in all their imperfections, the Immaculate Heart of Mary refers most importantly to the devotion to Jesus regardless of the hardships involved. The most common representation of the Immaculate Heart is the heart pierced by a sword, which refers especially to Mary's suffering at the foot of the cross. However, as we see on the mural image above, her heart is pierced many times: another name for Mary is Our Lady of Sorrows, in which her heart is pierced seven times, including not only by her son's crucifixion, but later by receiving his body into her arms. Mission Dolores is named after Our Lady of Sorrows, or Mater Dolorosa, "the mother who suffers." The mother is a powerful image, for no one can suffer more, be willing to suffer more, and be more devoted than a mother to her child. In other words the image of the pierced heart is a symbol of complete and utter devotion, a worthy object of worship. Here is an image of Mary's seven sorrows and images of the immaculate and sacred heart below.