Public interest anthropology, political market squares, and re-scripting dominance: from swallows to ‘race’ in San Juan Capistrano, CA

Abstract

This article explores a disturbing irony of certain touristic festivals and heritage sites: although these festivals and sites tend to draw heavily on the language of shared heritage and community, the dominant narratives and cultural symbols embodied in these venues sometimes celebrate more traditional and problematic ‘racial,’ ethnic, and gender hierarchies. Via a case study of the annual swallows festival held in the California Mission town of San Juan Capistrano, this article offers an illustration of the value of embracing a public interest anthropology (PIA) framework for identifying and addressing the hidden racisms underlying some heritage tourism sites. Moreover, the article suggests that the political market square metaphor for conceptualizing tourism festival management could be productively reframed and paired with a PIA approach to facilitate more inclusive, color-blind approaches to developing tourism policy.

Resumen

Este artículo explora una inquietante ironía de ciertos festivales turísticos y lugares históricos: aunque esos festivales y lugares tienden a recurrir fundamentalmente al idioma de la herencia compartida, las narrativas dominantes y los símbolos culturales incorporados en estos puntos de reunión algunas veces celebran más jerarquías tradicionales, étnicas, de género y racialmente problemáticas. A través de un caso de estudio del Festival anual Swallows que tiene lugar en la Misión California de la ciudad San Juan Capistrano, este artículo ofrece una ilustración del valor de adherirse a un marco antropológico de interés público para identificar y dirigir el racismo escondido bajo algunos lugares histórico-turísticos. Además, el artículo sugiere que la metáfora del mercado político para conceptuar la gestión del turismo de festivales podría ser eficazmente reconstruido y unido con la aproximación de la Antropología de Interés Público para facilitar el desarrollo de una política turística más completa y no sesgada racialmente.

Résumé

Cet article explore l'ironie dérangeante de certains festivals touristiques et sites historiques : bien que ces festivals et ces sites aient tendance à exploiter abondamment l'idée du patrimoine et de la communauté partagés, les narrations dominantes et les symboles culturels ancrés dans ces lieux célèbrent parfois des hiérarchies «raciales», ethniques et de «genre» plus traditionnelles et problématiques. Grâce à une étude de cas du Festival annuel de Swallows, qui se tient dans la ville californienne de San Juan Capistrano, cet article offre une illustration de l'intérêt d'englober un cadre de l'anthropologie de l'intérêt public afin d'identifier et de s'occuper des racismes cachés sous des sites de tourisme historique. En outre, cet article suggère que la métaphore de la place du marché politique utilisée pour conceptualiser la gestion des festivals touristiques pourrait être utilement recadrée et associée à une approche de l'Anthropologie de l'Intérêt Public, afin de faciliter des approches plus inclusives pour développer les politiques de tourime.

Keywords:

• public interest anthropology
• political market squares
• inclusion
• tourist sites
• festivals

Palabras claves:

• Antropología de interés público
• Mercados políticos
• lugares turísticos, festivales

Mots-clés:

• anthropologie de l'intérêt public
• place du marché politique
• sites touristiques
• festivals

Notes

In 2008 alone, 25 potential new world heritage sites were identified in the USA alone (http://www.nps.gov/oia/topics/worldheritage/USWH_Sites.jpg), with a reformulated list of 14 nominees forwarded on to the UNESCO World Heritage Center. This figure represents only the tip of the proverbial iceberg, as far more regionally and locally proclaimed heritage sites are emerging that may not achieve global recognition but are, nevertheless, important regional leisure destinations.

‘Californios’ refers to the Hispanic populations from colonial Mexico who arrived, settled on, and colonized the California frontier in the period ranging between 1769 and 1821. This term is also used for their descendants.

The Acjachemen (or Acâgchemem) people are also known as ‘the Juaneno,’ as they were dubbed by San Juan Capistrano missionaries.

For samples of this genre of representation, see McGroarty (1929) and the 1927 Mary Astor film Rose of the Golden West (a romanticized story of California's Spanish days filmed on location in the Mission San Juan Capistrano grounds).

It should be noted, however, that despite this influx, Californios (old Hispanic families residing in California) and Indian remained the largest groups in San Juan Capistrano through the 1930s (Haas, 1995, p. 110).

As Haas (1995) observes, it was partly in the interests of establishing a broader based economy for the struggling town that O'Sullivan embarked upon the mission restoration with the hopes of promoting tourism (p. 125).

Some years later, it was determined that the swallows actually fly to Goya, Argentina, and not Jerusalem.

Today, less than 10% of San Juan Capistrano's land remains available for further development.

According to Morgan, Pritchard, and Pride (2002), emotional appeal, media attention, and marketing are all essential ingredients to place branding.

The swallow festivities and celebration of western community imagery have become so entwined with San Juan Capistrano orientations that upon taking office, San Juan Capistrano city officials are presented with the western wear accoutrements of badges and bandanas.

The Fiesta Association is a volunteer-run organization with an open-door membership policy. This group plays a key role in organizing and monitoring many of the San Juan Capistrano's swallows festival activities.

It should be noted that the regular participants in this gathering tend to be somewhat demographically skewed toward retirees and professionals with flexible work-schedules and immigrant laborers and working mothers are rarer. However, on occasions when controversial decisions were on the horizon, working male and female minority stakeholders made it a point to attend the first half-hour of the meeting in order to speak out about the issues at hand before beginning their work days.

To a lesser degree, the town's disappearing or long-suffering swallows were occasionally invoked (often with ironic humor), as a metaphor for developments that some perceived as threats to San Juan Capistrano's collective well-being. For instance, when developers proposed building a golf course on open land in a run-off area perceived by local environmentalists to be unsuitable for development, members of the environmentalist group attended the coffee chats to rouse support for their battle: their fliers and entreaties at the coffee chat emphasized the need to ‘save our open space, save our swallows’ heritage.' As they stressed, the swallows had been systematically driven from the center of town due to rampant development, to the point that they need to be enticed back by the release of ladybugs for the benefit of tourists – allowing the golf course development would be akin to the ‘death knell’ for the swallows which have ‘been with us since before the days of Father Serra.’ Although many at the coffee chat initially relished the idea of a local golf course (and developers attended to push for their cause, as well), the strategic deployment of community symbols in this forum (which is attended by public officials) sway public opinion, and the proposal was rejected by City Hall, despite the offer of developers to sweeten the deal with the construction of a new city park.