Hotel California - What are the "Mission Bells"?
"I heard the mission bell, and I was thinking to myself, this could be heaven or this could be hell."
This line refers to the old Spanish missions, which are an important historical and cultural feature of California, a reference which may not be recognized by those who are unfamiliar with the region. But why did hearing the mission bell make the character think "this could be heaven or this could be hell"? The mission bells can have two connotations: on the one hand, they call the people to worship and salvation, but on the other hand they indicate the domination and oppression of the indigenous people by the power of the colonial Spanish church. So to the character in the song, the sound of the mission bell gives him a kind of troubling premonition of what he might be stumbling into.
This line refers to the old Spanish missions, which are an important historical and cultural feature of California, a reference which may not be recognized by those who are unfamiliar with the region. But why did hearing the mission bell make the character think "this could be heaven or this could be hell"? The mission bells can have two connotations: on the one hand, they call the people to worship and salvation, but on the other hand they indicate the domination and oppression of the indigenous people by the power of the colonial Spanish church. So to the character in the song, the sound of the mission bell gives him a kind of troubling premonition of what he might be stumbling into.
California Mission Trail
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The Spanish missions in California comprise a series of 21 religious and military outposts, established between 1769 and 1833 to extend Spanish authority, spread Christianity among the local native peoples, and facilitate the colonization of the Pacific Coast region, the most northern and western of Spain's North American claims. These missions, built one day's travel time apart along what was called El Camino Real (The Royal Road), were a combination of church, fort, soldiers' barracks, travelers' quarters, workshops, and market center to attract the local native people. Spanish settlers gradually took lands around these missions, and introduced European fruits, vegetables, cattle, horses, ranching and technology into the Alta California region. However, the Spanish colonization of California also brought with it serious negative consequences to the Native American populations with whom the missionaries and other Spaniards came in contact, and so the missions came to symbolize both the spread of "Christian civilization", but also the oppression of native culture and religion.
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Mission Santa Clara 1777
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Around these missions, communities grew up which ultimately formed the basis for many of the towns and cities of modern California, and this explains why so many of the municipalities in California have Spanish names, especially saints' names: they come directly from the names of the old mission establishments. For example, the first establishment at the southern end of the California Mission Trail was La Misión San Diego de Alcala ("Mission of Saint Didacus of Alcala"), and the town that grew up there is still called San Diego.
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Mission San Diego de Alcala in 1848
Mission Santa Barbara
A bit further north on the Royal Road there was once a small mission called Misión Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles, which means "Mission of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels", and the town which grew up there was called El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles ("The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels) but in time it came to be known simply as Los Angeles ("The Angels"). Or LA for short.
Another one of the missions, near the far northern end of the Royal Road, was originally called La Misión de Nuestro Padre San Francisco de Asís ("The Mission of Our Father Saint Francis of Assisi"), founded in 1776. The town that grew up here came to be known as San Francisco, and the original mission buildings are still there in the part of the city called the "Mission District". There is nothing so characteristic of the Spanish heritage of Southern California, and the US Southwest as a whole, as these old missions. They give a unique sense of place, culture and history that sets this region apart from the rest of the country.
Mission San Francisco De Asis, as seen in the year 1835
Mission of San Carlos Borroméo del Río Carmelo,
at Carmel 
Mission San Juan Bautista
Misión Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles, in 1910
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Mission San Francisco De Asis,
in the city of San Francisco 
Mission San Luis Rey de Francia
The Mission at Los Angeles, as seen today
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