I
encountered this question at a website called City Profile
I've
been very fortunate to have visited all 21 California missions –
plus three in Baja California. I have to admit that not any single
one is my “favorite.” To me, all of them are awesome.
Think
of it. In the late 1700s, men wearing gray robes enter an unknown
land occupied by thousands of naked savages waving spears, bows, and
arrows. Outnumbered, with a minimum of soldiers to protect them, the
friars located sites and materials, laid out the structure without
any degrees in architecture, and built them with the help of people
who had never dreamed of anything like agriculture or constructing
such structures.
What
about the numerous Indian slaves they had?
That
is one of the biggest lies foisted upon those interested in
California history!
Due
to the kindness and devotion shown by the friars, the Indians
willingly came to the various sites. Their work days were far, far
easier than any we experience now – more then two centuries later.
They attended morning prayers, ate breakfast better than what they'd
known before, spent two hours in religious instruction, worked for
two hours, then broke for lunch. That was followed by two more hours
of work, after which they were free to look after their own needs and
desires.
How
about the whippings to make them work?
Another
bald-faced lie!
Only
when the individual could no longer be verbally corrected did the
friars spank them as a parent would spank a child of their time. The
friars looked upon the Indians as children to whom they, as spiritual
leaders and parents, were responsible. As parents, they spanked their
children when necessary. A clear and inviolate rule was that no
punishment was to cause blood to flow, create crippling bruises, or
other harm. For proof, check out Hispanic California Revisited by the
Franciscan Press of Mission Santa Barbara. [Be it known, the friars
daily “punished” themselves far, far worse!]
So,
which is my favorite
San
Carlos Borromeo at Carmel due to its unique architecture and
beautiful interior – and that it served as the headquarters for the
Franciscan friars.
San
Gabriel Archangel as it was the biggest with the most productive
horse herds and livestock.
San
Juan Capistrano as it shows best the various mission industries.
San
Antonio de Padua which lies far from the beaten path and is probably
closest to what the missions were like in the late 1700s.
When
one considers what the Franciscan friars accomplished in the 18th
Century, one has to wonder how on earth they did it.
These
men came from modest families in the outer areas of Imperial Spain.
Even if their families were blooded and members of the aristocracy,
they certainly had little or no background in the crafts needed to
create self-supporting communities. What education they did received
was ecclesiastical. They studied the bible and the teachings of the
Catholic church. They spent more time kneeling in prayer than in
actual physical activities.
Like
Father Serra, most felt called upon to set forth to the New World, a
place of danger in which they saw the opportunity to bring heathens
to the Word of God. They endured dangerous journeys in leaky ships on
which they had little in the way of decent food. They landed on the
east coast of New Spain to be faced with a trek of several hundreds
of miles to a place where they continued their education in things
felt necessary to their calling.
I
must admit that this is a place where my research into this era falls
short. I have been unable to gather little information on the
Franciscan mission to the College of San Fernando. I am certain it is
contained in the archives somewhere but have yet found a source to
provide me with more than the bare essentials of a school for
missionaries.
Fathers
Serra, Palóu and Crespí were but three of many who passed through
the college to go on to places in Mexico [Majica as known to the
inhabitants of that land]. These three first went into the rugged
Sierra Gorda mountains. Eventually Father. Serra was made President
of five Sierra Gorda missions. He built the Church of Santiago de
Jalpan, which is still in use, and supervised the founding of the
four other churches. After being appointed as a professor at the
college, he once again was given the chance to conduct a mission in
Mexico. Father Serra's missionary activity during these years was
mostly in south and central Mexico, in what is modem Oaxaca, Morelia,
Puebla, and Guadalajara; the region east of Sierra Gorda; and in the
province of Mesquital, part of Mazatlan [eastern Mexico]. The work
was very exhausting, and the only rest he had was during the time
required to go from one town to another or the return to the college
after a mission. One time he was poisoned, someone putting
rattlesnake venom in the chalice. He refused an antidote but
recovered just the same.
But,
to continue about what the friars had to do besides teaching new
disciples and conducting holy rites. They were called upon to
construct European style buildings in a land where permanent
structures were unknown. The Indians lived in crude shelters made of
twigs, limbs and brush, open to the breezes. The friars had to find
the materials and shape them to be used for building not only places
of worship but places to live and conduct the various trades.
Then,
as if that were not enough, in order to put it all together, they had
to be carpenters, masons, potters, farmers, herders, veterinarians,
doctors, linguists, and teachers. Where on earth did they learn all
of this.
Reviewing
genealogy records for the period shows that most of the soldiers who
served with the friars at the missions were poorly-educated men who
had few skills beyond their military duties. Some were farmers and
all knew horsemanship and how to care for their animals. I guess this
is where the Indians learned to becomes such outstanding vaqueros in
such a short time.
Part
of learning so much about California history is having the bubbles
burst on some of the cherished stories I learned and loved about my
home state.
One
of them, of course, is Zorro, The Masked Avenger. A landed Spanish
Don, he rode forth to wrong the rights against the poor and
unprotected populace of Mexican California.
Oh
yeah?
It
turns out that Zorro, The Fox, is a fictional character from the mind
of a New York-based dime-book writer of the early 1900's, Johnston
McCulley.
What
a bummer. But, my research teaches me there were no Spanish Dons
[those holding Spanish royal titles] who owned the massive Rancheros
in early California. The huge land grants were handed out to private
soldiers who had completed their enlistments in lieu of a lot of pay
they had not received from the Royal Treasury. There were a couple of
officers who received grants but they were Criollos, Spanish/Indians
born in the New World. These soldiers often “hired” local Indians
to work for them, their pay being in the form of food, clothing,
housing, and animals.
Another
myth was of the famous/infamous bandit Juan Murietta. I went to high
school in Redlands, not far from a place called Murietta Hot Springs.
I always thought that was perhaps one of his hideouts from the
terrible American posses sent out to hunt this brave defender of
Mexican rights. I learned not a lot of truth is known about this
historical figure. Some say he was part Cherokee and part Spanish
peon run away from sugar cane plantations in the American southeast.
I also discovered there was little heroic or patriotic about him. He
was an out and out cutthroat thief and murderer of the lowest order.
Another
is how land grants were measured. Somewhere, I heard the story of how
a rider would start out when the sun's rim rose in the east and ride
until it fully set in the west. Anything inside this circle was
considered part of the grant.
Alas,
another fairy tale. During Spain's rule, the governor's simply marked
out an area the perspective soldier grantee felt he could work and
drew it up on a hand-sketched map. The grants increased radically
during Mexican rule as the Mexican government and governors used them
to pay back political favors. They were supposed to be landed estates
of the Mexican gentry but often lacked substance and certainly did
not have the massive, adobe structures we modern people think of.
The
entire system of large ranchos fell apart with the rise in power of
Americans who created first, the Republic of California or The Bear
Flag Revolt, but quickly lost out when General John Frémont showed
up and claimed it for the United States
And
yes, American Destiny carried forth in the claiming of California,
resulting in massive deaths of Indians who, up until the
secularization of the missions, had been protected by the friars. It
is something I find saddening in the history of my native land. The
very first order of the American governor was to round up all Indians
and force them onto reservations drawn up by local magistrates and
businessmen.
One
final myth was how American pirates had raided the coasts of
California, Oregon, and Washington. It was actually _French_-
pirates!
Growing
up in Southern California I took for granted the names of a lot of
places. I knew, for example, that Los Angeles somehow stood for the
City of the Queen of the Angels. I knew that Pico Boulevard was named
for a Mexican governor. I also thought that Palos Verdes stood for
Green Poles.
It
wasn't until I got into deep research for my Father Serra's Legacy
series that I began to learn much, more about the area of my birth
and childhood. Following are some examples:
Olvera
Street: Having started as a short lane, Wine Street, it was extended
and renamed in honor of Agustín Olvera, a prominent local judge, in
1877. That man was a descendant of Francisco Olvera, a servant in the
late 1700s. And, Wine Street was so named because of the profusion of
wild grapes in the area – they were cross-bred with grapes brought
from Spain.
Sepulveda
Boulevard, a major travel artery in the area that ends at San Pedro,
the vast ranch granted to the Sepulveda family via Juan Jose
Dominguez by Governor Fages. Juan came to LA as a cowboy from Villa
Sinaloa, Mexico. He was single and 53 years old. The Sepulveda family
were descendants of three lancers – soldados de cuera – who came
to California with the early expeditions. It is possible that one or
more of their children married Dominguez or his forefathers.
[A
word about this photo – it was taken about 1870, more than 60 years
after the founding of the rancho. But, it shows the lush grasses that
allowed for herds as big as 2,000 or 3,000 that roamed all throughout
Southern California – the vaqueros being California Indians who had
never even dreamed of the existence of horses or cattle less than a
hundred years earlier.]
And
then there is the town of La Habra. In the rancho days when vast
herds of Mexican cattle and horses grazed over the hills and valleys
of Southern California, Mariano Reyes Roldan was granted 6,698 acres
(27 km2) and named his land Rancho Cañada de La Habra. The year
was 1839, and the name referred to the “Pass Through the Hills,”
the natural pass to the north first discovered by Spanish explorers
in 1769. In the 1860s, Abel Stearns purchased Rancho La Habra. Soon
thereafter, heavy flooding followed by a severe drought brought
bankruptcy to many cattle ranchers.
I
certainly knew that any of the places named San or Santa had
something to do with Catholic saints. I just didn't know how that
came to be. I learned that, when a location of than a mission was
named, it was for the saint whose feast day it was on the Catholic
calendar.
I
certainly didn't know the history of the famous Beverly Hills. It
seems that a Luis Manuel Quintero, who came to California from
Guadalajara, Mexico, was a Poblador who signed up with
Captain/Governor Rivera. He was also a tailor who was there for the
founding of Royal Presidio of Santa Barbára and Mission San
Buenaventura. Three of his daughters married soldiers. A
granddaughter married Vincent Villa who became the owner of Rancho
Rodeo de las Augas on what it now known as Beverly Hills. I only
wonder if that was the source of the famous – and very exclusive –
Rodeo Drive. Perhaps the rancho's driveway?
I
also grew up with earthquakes being far more common than
thunderstorms. So, it was interesting to learn that, when Don
Gaspar's initial expedition came across a river they named after
Santa Ana, they encountered an earthquake and name the river as el
Rio de los Temblores or River of Tremors.
Redondo
Beach = after an original settler, Candelaria Redondo, widow of
Francisco Xavier Sepulveda. Probably one of her five children had a
rancho there.
El
Segundo? The second what? Aha! Here it is courtesy of Wikipedia: The
city earned its name ("the second" in Spanish) as it was
the site of the second Standard Oil refinery on the West Coast (the
first was at Richmond in northern California), when Standard Oil of
California purchased the 840 acres (3.4 km2) of farm land in 1911.
How
about Azusa? I always got a kick out of this from the song, Route 66.
Azusa originally referred to the San Gabriel Valley and river, and
likely derives from the Tongva place name Asuksagna. And then,
there's Cucamonga. The Mission Gabriel established the Rancho
Cucamonga as a site for grazing their cattle. In 1839, the rancho was
granted by the Mexican governor of California toTiburcio Tapia, a
wealthy Los Angeles merchant. Tapia transferred his cattle to
Cucamonga and built a fort-like adobe house on Red Hill. The Rancho
was inherited by Tapia's daughter, Maria Merced Tapia de Prudhomme,
and her husband Leon Victor Prudhomme. The name “Cucamonga” is
probably derived from a Tongva word for “sandy place.”
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