Contestants on a Mission to Replicate State’s Past

Forget Tom Cruise and that new movie.

Rosemead homemaker Elizabeth Gonzales starred in her own version of “Mission: Impossible III” when her 9-year-old triplets came home from school with their separate fourth-grade California history class assignments.

Marin Gonzales was supposed to build a scale model of Mission San Juan Capistrano. Christopher Gonzalez was given Mission San Luis Rey. Joseph Gonzales got Mission San Juan Bautista.

“We’re in separate classes at Savannah Elementary School,” 9-year-old Marin explained. “That’s good.”

But their mother might have another take on that.

“When I heard they had to build three different missions, I said, ‘Okaaaaaaay,’ ” she explained Saturday as her boys proudly displayed their three Popsicle-stick missions in the courtyard of a genuine one, Mission San Gabriel.

They were among three dozen youngsters taking part in a model-mission competition sponsored by the San Gabriel mission and two San Gabriel museums: the Ramona Museum of California History, and the San Gabriel Historical Assn. Museum and Hayes House. Studying California history and the missions is part of the state’s fourth-grade curriculum standards.

Ten winners shared $725 in prize money donated by the Ramona Museum.

Elizabeth Gonzales described the assembly-line operation she organized to help her three boys with their projects: “We set up a table on the back patio. It took three weekends of work -- Friday after school, all day Saturday and all day Sunday after church. I was exhausted. But we got them done.”

The early mission builders used adobe bricks and clay shingles 200 years ago for their often ornate structures. The children showed Saturday that they used their imaginations.

Ten-year-old William Floyd of Pasadena traveled with his mother, his aunt and a cousin to inspect Mission San Luis Obispo before constructing his replica out of Legos. “I’m going to keep this. I’m not going to take it apart and use the pieces for something else,” he vowed.

Zach Freeman, 9, of South Pasadena agreed. He built the Santa Cruz mission out of Legos, staying up five nights until midnight to complete the model. “On the last night, my parents stayed up to 3 in the morning working on it,” he confided.

Timothy Welemin of Temple City, now 12, credited his father, Bob, for helping solve a thorny roof problem for his San Luis Obispo model two years go. Said Bob Welemin: “We tried macaroni shells, but they kept falling apart. We tried dyeing them and painting them, and it was nothing but trouble. So we used part of a model kit.”

Fabriana Gonzales, 11, of Pasadena topped her cardboard Mission San Fernando with a tiny model cat prancing across its roof and a miniature bird resting on its cross.

A sand-and-paste mixture coated the cardboard Mission San Jose built by Samantha Luevano, 10, of La Puente. “I’m going to keep this in my room forever,” she promised.

Molly Cheng’s experience constructing a model of Mission San Juan Capistrano may have been a life-changing one for the Arcadia 10-year-old. It featured tiny bells and a fountain that used a blue candy wrapper to simulate water.

“I want to be a designer when I grow up,” she said.

Listening from nearby, her mother, Jessica Cheng, seemed surprised.

“She told me she wanted to be a chef,” Cheng said, laughing.

The attention to detail on many of the models was striking. Olivia Arrieta, 9, of Pasadena removed the roof of her Mission San Rafael to reveal a room with a tiny cardboard table and four carefully made cardboard beds.

“It’s where the four founding fathers ate and slept,” she explained.

Juan Moreno Jr., 9, of San Gabriel proudly flipped a set of hidden switches on his model of the San Juan Capistrano mission to show how a series of 10 bulbs illuminated it. His father spent a day wiring it to work on batteries, he said.

On the balsa wood Mission San Carlos built by Jesus Padron, 9, of East Los Angeles, the base of an old lamp was turned into a fountain, pieces of a toaster-oven rack formed its two crosses, and parts of a recycled picture frame were used for doors.

Milk cartons taped together formed the Soledad mission for Nicholas Lozano, 10, of El Monte. Its windows were made from Triscuit crackers.

“The windows were my idea,” explained his 7-year-old brother, Kyle.

“I didn’t know what to make the windows out of,” acknowledged Nicholas. “Having a brother help you is faster and kind of fun.”

A nifty model built, and a sibling rivalry set aside. Mission accomplished.