Mision Santa Margarita 1935 - 1942

James Jones made this drawing, titled "Mision Santa Margarita", sometime between 1912 and 1942. Jones died very young at the age of 30, so while we don't know for certain when he drew this particular mission, we do know the socio-political climate that would have surrounded its making. During the early 20th century there was an increasing interest in both indigenous cultures and the legacy of Spanish colonialism in the American Southwest. The missions are, of course, a complicated symbol as they were religious outposts but also instruments of colonial power, places where indigenous populations were often forced to convert to Christianity. Jones' drawing is almost architectural in its precision, but the ruinous qualities suggest a history of decay, a material history but perhaps also a moral one? Jones gives us the mission as a thing of beauty, but also as a ruin that should give us pause.