Remnants of Spanish colonization of the Americas, Mission San Juan Bautista provides a window into the development of the American West and the beginnings of the state of California. From its initial construction in 1797, the area surrounding the building has transformed over time becoming a colonial Spanish mission, Mexican pueblo, and finally an American town. The Mission San Juan Bautista encapsulates the inventive artistic influence of Spanish colonial artists seen in the church's collection of apostolate paintings. The church also embodies the effects of Spanish colonist's program of religious and cultural conversion on local Native American communities marked in the adobe structure, which local American Indian laborers from the Mutsun tribe mostly constructed. Mission San Juan Bautista and the surrounding historic district are touchstones for understanding the diversity of cultural influences that have shaped life in California today.