Spanish Royalty Visit Junípero Serra Exhibition at The Huntington

Spain’s Prince Felipe and Princess Letizia visited the first major exhibition featuring Spanish priest Junípero Serra at the Huntington on Saturday, November 16.

The exhibit coincides with the 300th anniversary of Serra, known as the founding father of the system of 21 missions that today stretches from San Diego to north of San Francisco.

Prince Felipe honored in a dinner toast several dignitaries including U.S. Congressman Ed Royce; Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich; and James Costos, the U.S. Ambassador to Spain, the Pasadena Star-News reported.

The prince also noted that King Charles III’s effort to integrate Native Americans into Spanish society left a legacy that is relevant today especially for the 50 million Americans with Hispanic cultural background, the newspaper reported.

Prince Felipe and Princess Letizia will travel California and Florida for a week until Wednesday to strengthen the relationship between Spain and the United States.

“Junípero Serra and the Legacies of the California Missions” highlights at least three themes: the Early Modern Catholic worlds of Spain and Mexico within which Serra was born, lived, and worked; the degree to which Indian life and culture were at the center of Serra’s missions in Mexico and California; and the emergence of competing versions of Serra’s legacy and that of the missions through time.

The exhibition was curated by Serra expert and longtime Huntington Reader Steven Hackel of UC Riverside; Catherine Gudis, Director of the Program in Public History at UC Riverside; and The Huntington’s own Bill Frank, Curator of Hispanic, Cartographic & Modern Western Manuscripts.

Junípero Serra exhibition also features significant items loaned from California missions and major public and private collections in California, Mexico, and Spain.

The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens is located at 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino. For more information, visit http://huntington.org.