Someone
asked me what drew my interest to the founding of the California
missions.
Well,
the answer isn't easy. I grew up in a home full of books. I can't
remember when I first started to read but know it was before I
entered kindergarten. I read everything. Fiction. Non-fiction.
Encyclopedias. Collections. Book of the Month. And lots and lots of
National Geographics.
Reading
naturally led to writing. I took a typing class in elementary school
and took advantage of it by using an old Remington manual Grandmother
Duple had. Then, when I entered the Army and was reassigned from the
shop to the parts room, I continued to write on evenings when there
wasn't any cash in my pockets and the television [Armed Forces
Network] wasn't showing any programs I enjoyed.
However,
it was only when I bought my first PC in the mid-80's that I became
serious about writing. I wrote a lot of short stories and sold them
to esoteric magazines that nobody read. It wasn't for the money, just
to see if I had what it took to become published.
Being
introduced to the world of slot teams took away whatever time I had
for writing. Endless hours sitting in casinos pulling the handles of
One Armed Bandits was not an inspiring way of spending one's times
and coming up with ideas for writing. As I've written in Lost
Wages in Las Vegas, the best thing about that was winning some
jackpots that led to a vacation in Mazatlan, Mexico where I met and
married Alejandrina, my wife of more than 20 years.
I
don't quite remember when I bought a new PC, only that it was the
type that came in a black and white spotted box. It opened up a whole
new world to me. I
had no idea how fast and graphic the internet had become. Being able
to conduct research online gave me an entirely different format for
writing.
With that out of the way, what brought me to writing
about Father Serra?
It
was a combination of several things. I came up with an idea of a
story where a young boy crosses the Atlantic to escape Vikings and
lands in the New World. He meets an Indian boy and the two journey
across the land, facing and overcoming all sorts of dificulties. In
the end, it became more of a travelogue than an interesting novel.
With a lot of re-writing, I came up with Follow
the Raven
which I ended up self-publishing on Amazon.com. But, the basic idea
was still there.
My
next effort was a story about a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan
suffering from PTSD. He goes AWOL in frustration and meets an
ex-Green Beret who is an Indian living on the reservation south of
Tuscon. I've spent time in the desert and thought it would make a
good background for the story. That, Native American myths and
healing methods, along with learning about the flora and fauna of the
Sonora Desert helps the soldier overcome his amnesia. Sonora
Symphony was
published by a publisher I had no faith I, so we ended our
collaboration and the book was removed from the sale lists.
But, the basic ideas were still there. Two young people
of entirely different backgrounds. The Desert. That left a story line
to make it work.
I grew up in Southern California and had, at one time or
another, visited every one of the California Catholic missions and
even spent time assigned to the Presidio of Monterey. I had also
driven from La Paz to Tijuana, passing many of the missions there.
On to Google Search and Wikipedia! How to put it all
together?
One thing that had bugged me for years was hearing
politically correct types spout about how the cruel Catholic priests
enslaved the pristine, innocent Indians, covering their backs with
blood as they forced them to toil in their fields. I remember time
spent in the county museum, Mission San Gabriel, Olvera
Street, and other historical spots in Southern California and that
was NOT what the history told me about that time.
The first individual who stood out in my research was
Father Junipero Serra, a simple man from a small farm village who
took vows of poverty in the Order Minor of Friars of Saint Francisco
de Asis. He did not seem to be the kind of person who would enslave
anybody, even as he became firm in his beliefs and goals. This is the
“politically correct” version I heard and read in so-called
“history books.” In fact, as he showed in his efforts to found
the five missions in the Sierra Gorda region of Mexico, he
treated his disciples as if they were his children – an outlook of
his order and his own.
How did his small, often ill man manage to lead an
effort to explore unknown lands, deal with Stone Age people, and toil
to create self-sufficient entities to feed and clothe those who came
to the church, as well as supplying the soldiers?
Thus started the research. The more I found, the deeper
my interest. The Internet, while not an end-all, is an amazing tool
for discovering worlds far away and deep into the past. There were,
of course, some questions I could find no answers for. Again, thanks
for the Internet, I discovered where to go to get those answers and
friars at all levels of The Order of Saint Francis, to include
someone in Rome, I received the answers.
Thus, the when and where was traceable. Now, how to tell
the story away from how dusty tomes told it and how to bring the
human side in front of the reader?
Creating fictional characters isn't as easy as it seems.
What do they look like? What happens when they become emotional? What
are the strengths and weaknesses? How do they react to new or
dangerous situations?
There are plenty of guidelines available to help do this
and I studied every one I could find. Once that was done, the next
was delving into the time and place from which each character came.
If Timothy was on a merchant brig on the 1700's, what did it look
like? What were the details of the rigging, watches, food, and so on?
If they set out to reach the far norther shores of the New World,
where would they stop for supplies and what difficulties would they
encounter?
Jaime – christened by the woman who first cared for
him as Jaimenacho for Saint James and Saint Ignacio – was not that
difficult. He too is forced from his simply life into a completely
new environment with every little thing different. How does he look
upon those who have brought him into this new world? How easy it for
him to learn Spanish?
Only when all of that was done could I start the story.
What followed involved research on Baja California itself.
That wasn't all that difficult as I've been there and there is plenty
of material available on it.
I hope this answers the questions.
