Join us on Saturday, August 28th from 1 pm - 5pm as we watch the historical bell removal ceremony for the last standing “El Camino Real” mission bell located in downtown Santa Cruz. The event will take place at Santa Cruz Mission/Mission Plaza Park and is an outdoor event, but masks are required. The event will also be live-streamed on the @removethebells Facebook page if you are unable to make it.

The City of Santa Cruz made an unanimous decision to remove all El Camino Real mission bells from public property. Amah Mutsun Tribal Band has made this request statewide, with Santa Cruz being the first city and California to start the removal, in addition to requesting the removal of all other monuments that may “glorify and celebrate the domination, dehumanization and erasure” of California’s indigenous people.

”Mission bells symbolize the enslavement of Indigenous people in the California Mission system. The El Camino Real bell markers were created in the early 1900s to promote automobile tourism and visitation of the missions and to celebrate a white-washed, romanticized and distorted history.” - San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center

The event will begin at 1pm with many great speakers from our community followed by a 1-mile procession at 3pm to the bell removal ceremony location. For those who cannot join in on the 1-mile procession, there will be a limited number of shuttles available.

We hope you can join us at this historical event whether in person or on livestream. For more information, click here.