Bad Indians: A Tribal Memoir

Mission San Miguel campanario, circa 1955
Soldiers brought them from the ships, hung them
first from trees, then on wooden frames. At last, the
bells sounded from the campanario in the church
itself—after we made it, after we built the church.
The voice of the bell is the voice of the padres. We
try, but we cannot always obey.
Bells at dawn, keening. Bells ordering us to prayer;
the alcaldes stand over us with cudgels and long
canes, invoke silence. Bells direct us to breakfast,