Chumash descendant Marianne Parra speaks on 1824 Chumash Revolution against the California Missions

I was honored and humbled to welcome a very special guest to Political Payne; Marianne Parra is a descendant of Indigenous Chumash peoples held in Missions Santa Ines, Santa Barbara, and La Purisima de Concepcion, the locus of the largest armed uprising against the California Missions in 1824. Marianne grew up on the Chumash Reservation in Santa Ynez, just a few miles down the highway from Mission Santa Ines, where the conflict first began.

In this interview, Parra discusses the legacy of the Franciscan Missions in the lives of the Chumash peoples during the Spanish and Mexican colonial period and up into today, the oppression and destruction of Indigenous lives in California, and the heroic resistance and revolutionary assertion of autonomy by the Chumash in 1824.

This interview was conducted with the goal of serving my MA Thesis in History at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, which focuses on 1824 as an important flashpoint in California Mission history and attempts to reexamine the “Chumash Revolt” or “Chumash Rebellion” as a revolutionary war fought by the Chumash, who were met with a counter-revolution by the Spanish Franciscans and Mexican military of Alta California, but ultimately the conflict destabilized the Mission system and helped fuel indigenous resistance which lead to the secularization of the Missions just ten years later by Mexican officials. But more importantly, I hope this discussion along with others will help us all reexamine the Missions as settler-colonial institutions in California history and respect the agency, autonomy, and voices of Indigenous Californians. Thanks again to Marianne Parra for sharing her perspective and experience on my channel!