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“When you walk in that church and with those stone walls... that smell.
It is a sweet smell. It’s almost musky. A few years ago I had somebody who came into town and we went over to Espada and the doors were closed but we walked around the grounds but every now and then I would go to the doors because they have a little gap in them and I’d stick my nose in the gap.
I remember the guest asking ‘What are you doing?’ sniffs.
I go, 'I’m smelling my youth'. (The whole family laughs with her).
That smell...And all of these [churches] with the big stone walls and the musky smell and the smell of incense, you know."

 

Family Photo in front of the Rose Window at Mission San José.

NPS Photo

"That’s where it all began for all of us".

"This has always been here for us. This is our safe place. Our magic place".

"When they did the restoration of the mission, they didn’t put the cross on top so [grandpa] shimmied up and put it on the dome there. That dome right there. Grandpa put that up."