Professional Documents
Culture Documents
07 - CTP - LHP - (105-128) CZ
07 - CTP - LHP - (105-128) CZ
hough it had experienced no large-scale rebellion since the coma Pueblo uprising in 1599, all was not peaceful in New Mexico. In 1632, natives attacked Fray
Francisco Letrado, a missionary at Hawikuh. They riddled him with arrows as
he knelt and, grasping a crucifix, prayed for his enemies. Two years later, Hopi
sorcerers poisoned another missionary, Fray Francisco Porras, who had been working
among their people.
Much progress had been made in New Mexico since 1599. Numerous missions, tens of
thousands of converts, an established Spanish settlement at
Santa Fthe colony was flourishing. Though New Mexico
still remained a drain on the finances of the Spanish crown,
it had begun to carry on a profitable trade with Mexico City.
Every two years caravans of about 32 wagons made their
way from the capital to Santa F, carrying supplies of goods
the colony could not produce itself. The arrival of a caravan
occasioned rejoicing and fiestaand all the more so because
it was to return to Mexico laden with goods made and sold
by the inhabitants of New Mexico.
Yet, internal and external conflicts continued. The
chief internal problem was a controversy over jurisdiction
between the friars and the secular governor. As in Florida,
so in New Mexicothe governor claimed authority over
the entire missionary enterprise, while the friars demanded
complete autonomy for themselves. Raids by nomadic
tribes, the Comanche and the Apache, on outlying settlements was the chief external threat throughout the 1660s. In
1669, the Comanches of Mescalero raided Christian Indian
villages, taking captives, whom they sacrificed and then ate.
The natives of the outlying settlements villages were hard
put to defend themselves, for they had lost many to epidemics that arose in conjunction with a terrible drought. This
drought did more than endanger Christian Indian villages;
it provided an opportunity for Pueblo Indians, indignant
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because the Spanish had suppressed their native gods and ceremonies. These discontents
(many of whom were shamans, or medicine men) spoke to the fears of their people. Why
had so many disasters befallen them? It was, the shamans said, because the people had abandoned the ceremonies and rites by which they had once appeased the gods and spirits. Only
if the people returned to ancient ways would they be saved from destruction.
The shamans coaxed many natives back into pagan worship. The policies of the Spanish
governors, who were wont to demand tribute and free labor from the Indians, inspired
conspiracies among the natives. In 1669, Governor Juan Francisco Trevio, discovering a
conspiracy among the Indians, seized and imprisoned its leaders. Forty-seven of these were
sentenced to be whipped and then sold into slavery, while four others were to be hanged.
But threats made by several powerful Pueblo leaders, convinced Trevio to alter the punishments. After whipping them, he released all 47 prisoners.
One of those released was Pop, a religious leader from Taos pueblo. Seething with anger
over the indignity of being whipped, Pop returned home to plot his revenge. Over the next
ten years he laid his plans. Pop knew that a single pueblo, or only a few, could not hope to
drive out the Spanish and eradicate their hated religion; but if all the pueblos combined and
acted as one, they would have a chance of ridding their land of the invader. This was no
small task, for the each pueblo had always acted independently. But by appealing to the leaders, by gathering allies in every pueblo,
Pop organized a force that could challenge Spanish power.
On August 10, 1680, a deluge of
wrath fell upon the unsuspecting
Spanish settlers and Christian natives.
Everywhere the Indians rose and
slaughtered Christian men, women,
and children, both laymen and missionaries. None was spared. Indians once
thought friends were suddenly bloodthirsty enemies. Priests and brothers
died a variety of ignominious deaths.
One priest, stripped naked, was bound
to a hogs back and paraded before
onlookers. He then was beaten by clubs
until he died. Fleeing to Santa F, settlers and natives found refuge with the
governor, Antonio de Otermn, in the
presidio. There they remained until the
insurgent Indians, discovering that they could cut off the the presidios water supply, forced
the fugitives to abandon Santa F. On August 21, a few soldiers surrounding 1,000 men,
women, and children, marched out of the presidio with little opposition. They fled 70 miles
south to the friendly Indians of Isleta Pueblo.
The rebel Indians had killed over 1,000 Spanish and Christian Indians, as well as 30 missionaries. From Isleta, Governor Otermn contemplated leading a force to recapture Santa
F; but realizing that with only 146 soldiers he could accomplish little, the governor decided
to retreat farther south, to El Paso. El Paso was 90 miles from Isleta, across parched and
burning desert. It was summer. The fugitives suffered severely on the journey they called
jornada del muerto, journey of death.
With the Spanish gone, the Indians burned churches and built bonfires to destroy missals and other documents. The pagan Indians forced Christian natives to renounce the Faith
and, after undergoing purification rituals, to worship their ancestral gods. Tribal leaders
were so thoroughgoing in their attempt to destroy all traces of Spanish civilization that
they forbade anyone to use the fruits, vegetables, and livestock the Spanish had introduced
into New Mexico. The people had to be content with what they ate before the arrival of the
Spanishcorn, beans, and squash.
After a time, many Pueblo Indians grew dissatisfied with the rule of Pop and other tribal
leaders. For one, the tribal leaders, occupying the Spanish governors palace, appointed a
governor to rule over all the pueblosa violation of their traditional independence. Then,
without the threat of Spanish arms, the Comanche, Apache, Ute, and Navajo intensified
their raids on the pueblo settlements. Discontent grew, and civil wars broke out among the
pueblos. Many Indians began to long for the prosperity and stability they had under the
Spanishand some went south to El Paso to invite them back.
By 1690, the new governor of New Mexico, Diego de Vargas, thought the time was ripe to
retake Santa F and the surrounding country. Born of a wealthy Mexican family, Vargas had
decided to invest his fortune in the cause of reconquest. In September 1691, he led a contingent of 800 soldiers, along with colonists and Christian Indians, to New Mexico and, after
a two-day battle, took Santa F. Over the next year, Vargas crossed the length and breadth
of New Mexico, and by threats and promises, obtained the peaceful surrender of most of
the pueblos. Some, however, resisted. Mesa Nueva de San Ildefonso was occupied only after
a siege of eight months. The pueblos of Portrero Viejo, Pea de San Diego de Jemez, and
coma surrendered only after Vargas routed their defenders.
With the reconquest of Santa F, New Mexico entered a period of expansion. The missions were rebuilt, and 2,000 Indian children were baptized. In 1693, Vargas returned from
Mexico with 100 more soldiers, seventy families, 18 Franciscans, 900 head of cattle, and
2,000 horses. The following year, 66 families under Fray Francisco Farfn and Fray Antonio
Moreno founded a new village, Santa Cruz, north of Santa F. The same year, Vargas commissioned Fray Juan Alpuente to explore what is now southern Colorado.
On June 14, 1696, Indians in 15 Pueblo villages again rebelled. During the three months
the rebellion raged, Indians killed five Franciscans and 21 Spaniards and pillaged and
destroyed churches and dwellings. By September, however, Vargas had crushed the revolt
and punished those responsible.
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A Spanish painting
from the 18th century
depicting a mixed
race familythe man,
a Spaniard, and the
woman, an Indian
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A Spanish illustration
depicting Indians suffering from smallpox
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with blacks, from which unions came another social group, the mulattos. The zambos, or
sambos, came from intermarriages between blacks and Indians.
The frequent neglect of the Laws of the Indies in Spanish America caused King Carlos
IV to issue another decree on May 31, 1789. The king required masters to teach their slaves
the Catholic faith and give them elementary instruction in reading and mathematics. Slaves
were to be worked only from sunrise to sunset and to be free from labor on holy days. The
law said masters had to see that their slaves were properly fed, clothed, and sheltered and had
to care for the sick, infirm, and children. Slaves were now to be tried only in civil court, and
every year masters had to submit reports to the government on how their slaves were faring.
Since slaves could buy their freedom, Spanish America came to have many free blacks.
Communities of free blacks could be found in Cuba, Santo Domingo, Puerto Rico, and
Colombia. Some black slaves from English territory fled to Spanish lands. In 1687 six men,
two women, and one infant escaped from South Carolina to San Agustn in Florida. When
their masters demanded their return, the Spanish authorities refused. Having been baptized,
said the Spanish, the slaves were now free. The freed slaves married, were hired by the government, and settled in a township. In 1738, Manuel de Montiano y Sopelena, the governor
of Florida, proclaimed freedom for all slaves who fled from the Carolinas, and thus many
Carolina blacks came to Florida. When the governor settled them in their own town, called
Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose (Royal Favor of St. Teresa of Mose), the gratitude of
these former slaves expressed itself in the formation of a militia in which they pledged to
defend, to the last drop of their blood, the Crown of Spain and the holy Catholic Faith.
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Spain and, indeed, all Europe in turn benefited from American arts and agriculture.
The Spanish carried back to Europe a rich storehouse of foods from the agriculture of the
Americas. Native American farmers contributed to Europes and, indeed, the worlds cuisine
pink and Lima beans, the potato, yellow squash and acorn squash, chili pepper, maize corn
of many types, chocolate, and the tomato.
The Spanish crown strictly regulated trade between the Americas and Europe, and even
between its American realms. All colonial products for foreign markets had to be shipped
first to Spain, and from Spain to foreign ports. Similarly, foreign imports passed through
Spain to the colonies. Trade, say, between Mexico and Peru had to go by way of Spain.
These cumbersome regulations meant that colonials often resorted to illegal trade with the
English, the French, the Dutch, and later the United States. Partly to curtail this smuggling,
the king of Spain eventually relaxed some of the trading regulations.
The Spanish government laid burdensome taxes on all Spanish citizens whether in
Europe or America. In the colonies, the crown levied about 40 different taxes. Though most
of the tax money benefited America (the cost of colonization was always high for Spain), still
they were hard to bear.
(b)
(a)
(b) Metropolitan cathedral in Mexico City,
built between 1573
and 1813
(c) A portion of the
reredos and a crucifix
in the Metropolitan
cathedral, Mexico City
(c)
But this expensive settlement had a rich culture. It was a Spanish, European culture,
modified after a time by American influences. Throughout the land rose churches, cathedrals, monasteries, and palaces built in all the European stylesGothic, Renaissance, and
Baroque. Moorish influences were evident, too, in the design of doorways, windows, and
fountains. The dark churches were filled with colorful statuary and paintingsthe former
often done in a realistic style, using clothes and real human hair. Artists were wont to paint
crucifixes in an almost gruesomely realistic style. Behind many an altar rose an ornately
carved, gilded reredos, adorned with images of Our Lord, Our Lady, and the saints.
Much of the art of Spanish America was done in service of the Church. A mestizo composer named Manuel de Zumaya composed beautiful church music in the Baroque style, as
well as an opera, Partenope, in 1711. Zumayas music compares well with the music of some
of the great composers of 18th century Europe. In 1715, Zumaya
became chapel master of the cathedral in Mexico City, one of the
first native-born Americans to rise to this position, which gave
him control over all the music performed in the liturgy of the
capital. In spite of the protests of the cathedral chapel council
in Mexico City, Zumaya left the capital and followed his close
friend, Bishop Toms Montao, to Oaxaca to become chapel
master of the cathedral there. Zumaya worked in Oaxaca until
his death in December 1755.
Another great Mexican composer was Ignacio de Jersalem,
who composed in the classical style popular in mid-18th century
Europe. An Italian, Jersalem wrote music for the coliseo (theater) in Cadz, Spain, until 1746, when he was recruited for the
coliseo in Mexico City. In Mexico, Jersalem, a virtuoso violinist
as well as a composer, wrote works for the cathedral, where he
was made chapel master in 1749. He died in 1769.
Spanish America did not excel in literature, though it did produce a poet much admired today. This was Sor (sister) Juana Ins
de la Cruz. Sor Juana was born in Mexico on November 12, 1648.
As a young girl, the beautiful Juana learned Latin, and at the age
of 16 entered a convent of Discalced (barefoot) Carmelite sisters.
Because the life in that convent was hard, and her health poor,
Sor Juana left the Carmelites and, a year later, in 1668, she joined
the convent of San Jernimo. There she served as doorkeeper,
secretary, and accountant. Sor Juana wrote both secular and religious poetry, novels, and
comedies. Collecting a library of about 4,000 books, she engaged in scientific and classical
literary studies, for which she was criticized by the bishop of Puebla. In 1691, she wrote a
long letter in defense of her studies. When, in 1690, Mexico was struck with famine and
plagues, Sor Juana sold all her possessions (including her library) and gave all the money
to the poor, hungry, and sick of Mexico. For the remaining years of her life, until 1695, she
cared for the sick nuns of her convent.
The Church
One cannot properly understand New Spain without understanding the social role of the
Catholic Church in Spains New World dominions. The Church influenced all of Spanish
American society. Pueblos were built around parish churches. Priests and religious worked
to civilize the Indians, teaching them how to engage in civic life and how to farm. The
Church opposed exploiting or enslaving the Indians. From the beginning, the Church
upheld the dignity and rights of the American natives, especially since 1537, when Pope
Paul III issued a bull that called the Indians real men and forbade enslaving them. As we
have noted, one of the main goals of Spanish exploration and settlement in the New World
was the conversion of the natives to the Catholic faith. Missionary work was carried out by
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religious ordersprimarily the Dominicans, the Franciscans, and the Jesuitsunder the
patronage, and control, of the Spanish king.
As in Europe, so in Americait was the Church that had the care of the poor and the
sick. Bishops, priests, and religious orders founded and staffed schools and hospitals, as
well as missions. Endowed by the crown to carry out works of charity and social justice,
the wealth of the colonial Church multiplied, making it one of the largest landholders in
America. Such wealth was not always good for the Church, as some clerics became too
enamored of money and possessions and so became corrupt.
One institution in Spain and Spanish America that folks today find hard to understand
is the Inquisition. The Inquisition was a court that tried cases having to do with heresy and
certain kinds of immorality. It was a state institution, but staffed by churchmen, mainly
Dominicans. Queen Isabel and King Fernando established this court in Spain to search
out and bring to justice former Jews who had converted (and thus called conversos) to the
Church but who secretly practiced Judaism. Backsliding conversos were thought a threat to
both Church and state in Spain. Later, the Inquisition tried heretics such as Lutherans and
Calvinists, and approved or censored books.
A just treatment of the Inquisition requires more space than we can afford, here. We
will only note that the king established a New World court of the Inquisition first in Lima,
Peru, in 1569, and another court in Mexico two years later. These courts had jurisdiction
over foreign heretics, Jews, witches, and bigamists; they had no authority over the Indians.
Condemnations and executions were relatively few; more common were autos-de-fe, public
acts of faith, in which accused heretics publicly confessed their errors.
Once more Kino turned north, this time to consult with his Jesuit superior, Padre Manuel
Gonzlez, in Sonora. Gonzlez, however, had other plans for Kino than coastal missions.
Missionaries were needed in the Pimera Alta, a region covering what is today northern
Sonora and southern Arizona. For years the Pima Indians had been asking for missionaries
and the government was now eager to send them some, for the Pimera had become economically and politically important. The Spaniards had discovered, and were exploiting, the
rich silver mines in the region; but settlers there were in danger. It had been only six years
since the Pueblo rebellion in nearby New Mexico. The Apaches were a continual menace,
and the government feared that the Pima Indians might also revolt. If they were converted,
the Pima might form an important buffer between the silver mines of Sonora and the wild
nomadic tribes of the north.
Disappointed, but obedient, Padre Kino traveled north to the Pimera. At the Indian
village of Corsari in modern Sonora, Kino established a mission, Nuestra Seora de los
Dolores (Our Lady of Sorrows)the first in a string of missions that eventually spread out
over the southern Pimera. Aided by a number of Jesuit priests, Kino, a man of untiring
energy and zeal, taught the Indians not only the Faith but the rudiments of civilization. The
Pimas were already a farming folk, but the Jesuits taught them better ways of farming and
introduced them to European crops and domesticated animals. The Pimera, an arid desert
land, became a flourishing garden through the labor of the native Pimas and Jesuit priests
and brothers. And, directing all was the untiring Padre Kino.
In 1687, Coxi, one of the most powerful Piman caciques, and his entire family accepted
baptism. This encouraged many Indians of the southwest Pimera to convert. That Coxi and
ever more Pimas were embracing the Church, however, provoked the hechiceros (medicine
men). And Spanish settlers and miners of the area were chagrined. As long as the Pimas were
unconverted, they were a cheap source of labor. Neophyte Indians were protected from all
forced labor in the mines or the fields.
The settlers began spreading nasty rumors about Kino. The Jesuits sent visitors to investigate. Traveling the round of the missions with Padre Kino, the visitors were impressed with
all they saw and returned with glowing reports. Kino became fast friends with the second
visitor, Padre Juan Mara Salvatierra. Salvatierra learned that Kino still hoped one day to go
to the poor souls of California. The prosperous farms of the Pimera, Kino told the visitor,
could support fledgling missions on the impoverished island.
Padre Explorer
In 1692, at the age of 52, Kino went on the first of the
long explorations that would occupy him almost until
his death. Kino undertook these journeys, partly to
preach and seek out sites for new missions, and partly
to discover if there were a land route from the Pimera
to California. A land route would make it easier to supply new missions. Kinos journeys took him into what
is now southern Arizona, where, near Tucson, he
established missions at Guevavi, Tumaccori, and Bac.
Bac was the largest Pima village in the region and later
would boast a fine mission churchSan Xavier del
Bac. In 1694, in what is now Arizona, Kino first saw
the ruins of a great building, surrounded by irrigation
ditches. This was Casa Grande, the remains of a once
thriving community of Indians. Kino thought it might
be the remains of one of the legendary Seven Cities of
Cibola, or, if tales were true, a monument of Aztln,
the Aztecs ancient home.
neophyte: a new
convert
Casa Grande
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Filled with wonder and speculations, Padre Kino rode homewhere he was soon to face
the near collapse of all his efforts.
ranchera: a small
rural settlement
Antonio, the Opata Indian overseer at mission San Pedro y San Pablo del Tubutama, had
cruelly beaten a Pima. The man died of his wounds. Vowing revenge, the dead mans friends
and relatives shot Antonio down with arrows as he was working in the fields. Severely
wounded, Antonio ran to Padre Janusque, a mission priest, to warn him. As he crossed the
priests threshold, Antonio fell dead. Thus warned of the coming attack, Padre Janusque
fled, seeking help.
It was Holy Week. Padre Francisco Xavier Saeta, a zealous missionary who tended the
westernmost mission in the Pimera, Nuestra Seora de la Concepcion de Caborca, was preparing to celebrate the feast of Easter. On Holy Saturday, April 25, 1695, Saeta greeted a band
of Pimas who rode up to the mission. Their angry replies were soon followed by a volley of
arrows. Struck by a poisoned arrow, Padre Saeta, clutching an image of the crucified Christ
that, only the previous day, had graced the ceremonies of Good Friday, fell to the ground
and died. The Pimas burned down the mission. Later, Padre Saetas half cremated remains
were found among the ruins.
From Caborca, the band of Pimas went on a rampage and destroyed the mission at
Oquitoa, between Tubutama and Caborca. Commanding a Spanish military unit called the
Flying Company, Lieutenant Antonio de Sols set off to hunt down the murderers. Sols,
believing that he had to match cruelty with cruelty, attacked several Piman rancheras.
Alarmed at the possible destruction of the missions of the Pimera, Padre Kino arranged a
meeting between the Pimas and Sols at a village site called El Tupo.
On June 9, Piman leaders, along with some of the Indians who had participated in the
revolt, met with Sols at El Tupo. According to an agreement, the Pimas left their arms
outside the clearing where Sols and several of his soldiers awaited them. When a cacique
brought forward one of the guilty Indians, Sols, surrounded by his armed men, drew his
saber. With one glittering stroke, the cavalry leader cut off the warriors head. The Indians
ran for their weapons; but before they could reach them, they were cut down, every man of
them, by Sols horsemen.
For the next three months, warfare raged through the Pimera. Bands of Pimas destroyed
missions and laid waste their fields. All the while, Padre Kino worked for peace; but Sols,
trusting in brute force, ranged through the country, striking terror into the natives. It soon
became apparent that such harshness only prolonged the war, and at last Sols agreed to
Kinos demands for a peace conference. Meeting at the scene of the El Tupo slaughter, Pima
caciques and Sols signed a treaty. With peace restored, the site of the peace treaty, that had
been called La Matanza (the massacre), was renamed Santa Rosa.
From 1697 to 1703, Kino went on a number of expeditions to the northwest to find the
junction of the Gila with another great river of which he had heard. He went also to discover
whether there was a land supply route to Salvatierras missions in California. By these expeditions, Kino proved once and for all that Baja California was not an island, but a peninsula.
In October of 1700, from a range of desert mountains, Padre Kino saw for the first time
the junction of the Gila with the other great river of which he had heardthe Colorado. He
met a band of Yuma Indians, who begged him to come to them and preach the Gospel. Kino
accompanied them to their village on the Colorado, where dwelt about a thousand Indians.
Hundreds of other Yumas came from distant villages to see and hear the priest. They begged
him to send them a priest when he returned to the Pimera.
Unfortunately, Kino had no priests to spare for the Yumas. Yet Kino continued to identify
locations for new missionsin preparation for the missionaries he hoped would come. But
even after his friend, Padre Salvatierra, became procurator for the
missions of the northwest, no priests were forthcoming. Padre Kinos
last few years were spent at his mission at Dolores, administering his
missions and defending the rights of the Pimas. He died on March
15, 1711.
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Spanish missions in
Mexico, New Mexico,
Arizona and California
NORTH DAKOTA
MONTANA
CH03_01.eps
IDAHO
21
20
8
14 15
12
2
13
3
16
5
11
CALIFORNIA
19
10
17
4
7
18
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
COLORADO
KANSAS
11
1
2 16
7
12
17
13
8 5 4
10
14
NEW MEXICO
15
Pacific
3
6
7
Ocean
0
Pitiquito
Caborca
Tubutama
Oquitoa
5 Cocspera
6 San Ignacio
7 Magdalena
250 miles
MEXICO
0
250 kilometers
NEBRASKA
30N
SOUTH
DAKOTA
WYOMING
110W
brothers were arrested and placed in prison to await their deportation. Many of them died
from the cruel treatment they received.
Why did the king do this?
120W
110W
100W
For a long time, all over Europe, hatred of the Jesuits for their power and influence had
been simmering. Many Jesuits had been advisers to kings and princes, and they controlled a
tremendous wealth in property, which some misused. Chiefly, though, the Jesuits had been
the main opponents of the Enlightenment, and they spread their unenlightened teachings
in their far-flung schools in Europe and America. Carlos III considered himself an enlightened monarch and wanted to establish a more modern and rational form of government over his domains. He saw the Jesuits as an obstacle to his plans; thus, they had to go.
The rational governing favored by King Charles involved changing the mission system.
The Indians, according to the new policy, were to take their place as equal subjects of the
Spanish crown. They were no longer to be administered by missionaries but incorporated
into Spanish pueblos and ruled by Spanish officials. Missionaries or, better yet, secular
priests, would serve only the Indians spiritual needs.
The mind behind both the expulsion of the Jesuits and the reform of the missions was
Count Jos de Glvez It was Glvez who decided to replace the Jesuits with Franciscans
because he thought they were not so worldly as the Jesuits; they were less likely to interfere
in politics. Among the Franciscans who arrived in the Pimera in 1768 was Fray Francisco
Hermenegildo Garcs, who took over San Xavier de Bac in Arizona. Fray Francisco flourished under the new regime, attending to purely spiritual tasks. He became an intrepid
explorer. In 177576, Fray Francisco crossed the Colorado River into Alta California (the
modern state) and pushed north into the San Joaquin Valley, the southern part of the great
Central Valley of California. From the San Joaquin, Garcs passed over the Sierra Nevada
ARKANSA
Gulf
of
Mexico
119
through the Tehachapi Pass, crossed the Mojave Desert and, turning south again, returned
to Arizona.
It soon became apparent that Glvezs system did not work. Without missionary control
over the mission lands and buildings, many churches and convents were collapsing. Finally,
the government had to relent. In 1769, total control of the missions passed once again into
the hands of the missionaries.
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Spains claim to Alta California dated back to 1542 when Juan Rodrguez Cabrillo
explored the coasts of the North Pacific. On September 28, 1542, Cabrillo reached a large,
well-sheltered bay north of the Baja California peninsula and then sailed further north to
discover Santa Catalina Island and the Santa Barbara Channel. After Cabrillo died in a
skirmish with Indians, his helmsman, Bartolom Ferrelo, directed the expedition still further north, passed Cape Mendocino, and then went as far north as the 44th parallel on the
coast of Oregon. Sixty years later, another explorer, Sebastin Vizcano, explored the same
coast, landing at the first bay Cabrillo had discovered (and naming it San Diego); he then
proceeded north to discover another, though less sheltered bay, which he called Monterey.
At Monterey, Vizcano erected a stone altar where the first Mass on the Alta California coast
was offered. Vizcainos expedition continued north to Mendocino. However, because of fog,
he missed a great bay (later called San Francisco.)
When he returned to Mexico, Vizcano encouraged the Spanish authorities to settle the
coast of what became known as Alta California. But 160 years passed before the Spanish
government, in the person of Count Glvez, began to do anything about a California settlement. Glvez conceived of colonizing California with a string of missions supported by only
a skeleton force of soldiers. The man he chose to direct this endeavor had already proven
himself an able administrator of missions. He was Fray Junpero Serra.
Junpero Serra was born on the island of Majorca off the Mediterranean coast of Spain
on November 24, 1713. At the age of 16, he decided to become a priest, and a year later he
entered the Franciscan order. For the first 19 years of his life as a Franciscan, Fray Junpero
lived in Majorca, perhaps never sailing even to Spain. For many of these years
he was a lecturer in philosophy in the tradition of the Franciscan philosopher and theologian, Duns Scotusand was once investigated by the
Inquisition. In those years he lectured on the works of his fellow
Majorcan and Franciscan, Ramn Lull, who argued for the peaceful
conversion of the Moslemsan idea most Europeans of his day
did not think practicable.
In 1749, at the age of 36, Fray Junpero volunteered for the
missions in Mexico. What moved him to this? I have had
no other motive, he wrote years later, but to revive in my
soul those intense longings which I have had since my novitiate when I read the lives of the saints. These longings had
become deadened because of the preoccupation I had with
studies.
Accompanied by his friend, Fray Francisco Palu (who
later wrote a biography of Serra), Fray Junpero sailed for
America on August 30, 1749, arriving at Veracruz in December.
Though offered horses (provided at the expense of the king of
Spain) for the 270-mile journey from Veracruz to Mexico City,
Serra and another friar who accompanied him refused. Instead,
faithful to the ideals of the Rule of St. Francis, the two friars journeyed on foot to Mexico City. In the high mountains that over 200
years earlier Corts had crossed, Fray Junpero injured his leg. With
fatigue, wrote Palu, the feet of the Venerable Father Junpero began to
swell, so that when he arrived at an hacienda he could not stand. This swelling
was attributed to mosquito bites because of the great itching he felt. Having rested there a
day, unconsciously he rubbed the one leg too much while he was sleeping. In the morning it
appeared all bloody so that a wound resulted which . . . lasted during all his life.
After arriving at the missionary College of San Fernando in Mexico City, Fray Junpero
was sent to the missions among the pagan Pame Indians of the Sierra Gorda, a mountainous region 175 miles north of Mexico City. For eight years, he worked among the Pame and
learned their language, in which he composed a catechism.
The Sierra Gorda missions were set up as large farms. The Indians were not forced onto
the missions, but invited; once they came and were baptized, however, they were under
the authority of the missionaries and were forbidden to leave. The missionaries taught the
natives not only the Catholic faith but various crafts, as well as the arts of farming, and
cattle raising. The missionaries treated the Indians as children, with the aim of educating
and training them so that the mission pueblo and farms could eventually be turned over to
them, and the missionaries replaced with secular priests.
Mission Indians lived a highly regimented life. Bells, rung three times a day, summoned
the Indians from the fields and workshops to receive their allotments of food. The missionaries provided a special living quarters for girls older than 11 years and unmarried women.
The religious life of the missions was very colorful, with processions, images, plain chant,
polyphony, and Pame hymns. So beautiful and reverent was the mission liturgy that many
Spaniards were drawn to the missions to celebrate holy days.
In 1758, Fray Junpero was recalled to the College of San Fernando. He spent the next
nine years as choir master (he had a beautiful voice for song), novice master, and home missionary. A home missionary was a priest who traveled from parish to parish preaching missions to inspire Catholics to a deeper understanding of their faith and dedication to Christ.
Fray Junpero was a zealous preacher, often going to what today we might judge extreme
lengths to move his hearers to repentance. From the pulpit, he pounded his chest, scourged
himself, and even once applied a lighted candle to his breast. Far from repelling his hearers,
Fray Junperos style drew many to his missions. His sermons, though long, were in great
demand. Certainly the colorful and theatrical appealed to his audiences.
The year 1767 marked a new epoch in Serras life. With the Jesuits expelled from the
Spanish domains, their missions in Baja California fell to the Franciscans. At the College
of San Fernando, Fray Junpero learned that he would be made padre presidente, or head, of
the Baja California missions. He remained in Baja California, however, for only about a year
before Count Glvez chose him to found a new missionary enterprise in Alta California.
Longing to go amongst pagans who had never heard the Gospel, Fray Junpero eagerly
took up his new task. At the age of 65, Fray Junpero set out on the mission for which his
entire life had prepared him.
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After a 650-mile journey across the barren desert wastes of Baja California, Portols
forces reached the bay of San Diego on July 1, 1769. Leaving Serra with 40 soldiers at San
Diego, Portol with 70 men continued north to find Monterey. Not only did Portol find the
bay so highly praised by Vizcano, but further to the north he discovered the an even greater
and more important baythe bay of San Francisco.
Meanwhile, in San Diego, the colonists had erected some wood structures and a wooden
palisade for defense. But supplies were running low; the last supply ship, the San Jos, had
not arrived even by the time Portol returned in January 1770. Fray Junpero was discouraged, for as yet he had made no converts. The natives were not merely unfriendly, they were
hostile. They stole what they could from the Spanish campthey were even bold enough to
try to cut strips off the sails of the ships in the harbor. Finally, when the Spaniards resisted,
the Indians attacked. Volleys of arrows fell among the weakened settlers with deadly accuracy. One pierced the neck of a young boy who, running into Fray Junperos tent, begged
absolution before falling dead at the friars feet. But when the Spaniards began to fire off
their guns, the bellicose natives withdrew.
When Portol saw the dismal condition of the settlement, he decided to abandon San
Diego and return to Mexico. Fray Junpero, who longed to remain and preach the Gospel
to the natives, convinced Portol to wait until all had prayed a novena to St. Joseph, whose
feast day, March 19, was swiftly approaching. Portol agreed but stipulated that if no supply
ship arrived by that date, the expedition must return to Mexico.
On the following nine days, Fray Junpero climbed a hill that looms over San Diego harbor and looked out to sea for a ship. Every day he was disappointed. On March 19, the feast
of St. Joseph, the last day of the novena, he again climbed the hill to discovernothing. Fog
had settled over the ocean, and nothing could be seen. But when the fog burned off in the
afternoon, a ship under full sail appeared on the horizon; it was the San Antonio, returning from San Blas, laden with supplies. Saint Joseph had heard Fray Junpero.
The California settlement was saved.
On to Monterey
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The natives lived by gathering acorns, pine nuts, and wild grains. They hunted, sneaking quietly up on their prey to shoot it at close range with bow and arrow. Their weapons,
though accurate, were tipped only with stone, bone, or obsidian. Their houses were small,
made from reeds and branches of willow, though they did construct tight wood structures
called sweat lodges. Native California arts, too, were primitive: for instance, they used stone
mortars and metates to grind acorns and nuts. On the other hand the coastal tribes, such
as the Chumash, chiseled out great urns from soft stone and built long boats in which they
braved the seas, paddling out on expeditions to the Santa Barbara Channel Islands, about 15
miles offshore. Everywhere, too, the California Indians crafted exquisitely beautiful baskets
with intricate designs and so tightly woven that they held water. When the Indians needed
hot water, they heated stones in a fire until they grew quite hot and then cast them into the
water-filled baskets.
Fray Junpero held the Alta California
Indians in high esteem. Comparing the missions of Alta and Baja California, Serra wrote:
The missions to be founded in these parts
will enjoy many advantages over the old
ones [in Baja California], as the land is much
better and the water supply is much more
plentiful. The Indians especially of the west
coast seem to me much more gifted; they are
well set up, and the Governor looks upon
most of them as likely Grenadier Guards
because they are such stoutly built and tall
fellows.
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Clara de Ass; and, in 1782, San Buenaventura. By 1823, Serras successors had established
12 more missions. Generally, the California missions prospered, and in time they became
self-supporting. By the late 18th century, the nine California missions boasted 5,384 head of
cattle, 5,629 sheep, and 4,294 goats. In the 1820s, San Gabriel mission alone claimed 16,500
head of cattle.
California Martyrdom
In California as in Florida and other Spanish colonies, questions of jurisdiction sparked tensions between the friars and the royal governors. Fray Junpero clashed with the second governor, Pedro Fages, over the question of who commanded the soldiers at the missions. Every
mission had four soldiers to guard it; and in some of the missions, soldiers were becoming
a problem. Having left their wives behind in Mexico, the soldiers went
after Indian women. The soldiers could be cruel. Once some soldiers
hanged and mutilated a band of Indians for stealing horses.
When Fages ignored his complaints, Fray Junpero decided to appeal
to Mexico City. He undertook the long journey by sea to the capital in
1773 and there met with the viceroy, Fray Don Antonio Mara Bucareli y
Ursua, a member of the lay Order of St. John of Jerusalem (the Knights
of Malta). The viceroy listened sympathetically to Serra and asked him
to write down his recommendations for California. Bucareli adopted
almost all of Fray Junperos recommendations in the regulations for
California he promulgated shortly after Serras return in 1774.
But Fray Junperos difficulties were not over. Isolated as it was among
the warlike Indians of the region, all was not well at Mission San Diego.
Moreover, the mission stood some four miles from the presidio, too far
for a quick response in case of attack; there had not been enough water
to support both fortress and mission in the same location. In the autumn
of 1775, two Christian IndiansCarlos, the chief of the mission Indian
village, and his brother, Franciscorobbed some old pagan women of
their seed and fish. Fearing punishment from the friars for their crime,
Carlos and Francisco fled to the pagan villages. With six others, Carlos
went from village to village, stirring up revolt. Then on November 4,
about 600 natives surrounded the mission and attacked it, setting fire
to several buildings. Awakened by the crackling of flames and the smell
of smoke, Fray Vicente Fuster and others ran to the guardhouse. The
missions carpenter, Urcelino, grabbed a musket but was struck with an
arrow. Ha, Indian, you have killed me, he cried. God forgive you.
The other missionary, Fray Luis Jayme, did not run to the guardhouse.
Instead, he approached the attackers, with the customary greeting, Amar a Dios, hijos (Love
God, children). The Indians seized Fray Luis and took him to the arroyo outside the mission compound. There they stripped him of his robes, shot him full of arrows, and pounded
his head and face with stones and hunting sticks until he was unrecognizable. The war party
continued their assault until daybreak, when they withdrew.
Serra rejoiced when he heard of Jaymes triumph. Thanks be to God, said the padre
presidente, now indeed that land has been watered [with blood]; certainly now the conversion of the San Diego Indians will be achieved.
Yet, Fray Junpero feared for Carlos, who had led the assault on the mission. The new
governor, Don Fernando Rivera y Moncada, had seized the chieftain in the church at San
Diego, where he had sought sanctuary. This was a violation of the sacred right of sanctuary, or so Fray Junpero affirmeda crime that, under Church law, brought on automatic
excommunication. Serra sought mercy for Carlos, but, he knew, the governor would not
heed one who had declared him excommunicated. Fray Junpero therefore, appealed to the
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viceroy, Antonio Mara Bucareli y Ursua. As to the murderer, Serra wrote Bucareli, let
him live, in order that he should be savedwhich is the very purpose of our coming here. . . .
Give him to understand, after a moderate amount of punishment, that he is being pardoned
in accordance with our law which commands us to forgive injuries; and let us prepare him,
not for death, but for eternal life.
Carlos was not executed. Four years later, he and other Christian natives joined a larger
number of pagans and attacked an Indian ranchera, killing 12 of the inhabitants. For this
crime, the governor, despite Fray Junperos pleas for mercy, banished Carlos to San Blas for
six years.
this
time with Spanish settlers. On October 23,
1775, Anza with 38 families, ten soldiers,
and hundreds of horses, pack mules, and
beef cattle left for California. Following the route of the previous year, the party reached San
Gabriel on January 4, 1776 and thence proceeded north to San Francisco Bay. There in June
the settlers established a mission and presidio.
Fray Junpero was pleased with the new Spanish settlement of San Francisco, but not with
certain political developments affecting the missions. Under King Carlos III, New Mexico,
California, and Sonora were joined into one political unit, called the Provincias Internas.
This regions first military intendant, Teodoro de Croix, wanted to apply to it the rational
principles of government favored by the king. The new governor of California, Felipe de
California, as it
appeared in a map of
the Provincias Internas,
1817
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Neve, shared the intendants ideas. Both wanted to remove all political and economic control of the missions from the friars. The missions would become pueblos, with the Indians
electing their own alcalde and regidores (members of the ruling council in a pueblo), while
the friars (reduced to one per church) would care only for spiritual needs. This was the same
system that had been put in place in the Pimera with resounding failure.
It was never tried in California, for tragedy intervened.
Intendant Croix had never been in California and New Mexico; still he thought he
knew enough about the regions to plan a Spanish pueblo along the banks of the Colorado.
This was not what the Yuma cacique, Salvador Palma, had asked from Viceroy Bucareli.
Palma had wanted a mission like those Serra had founded in California; he certainly did
not want a pueblo filled with Spanish settlers. But by 1781 Bucareli was dead, and Croix
had other plans.
Soon, Spanish settlers from New Mexico were arriving in the Yuma lands. They did not
give the customary presents the Yuma thought necessary to conclude a treaty. They began
pushing the Yuma off their own land, without payment. In the oppressive heat of July,
the Yuma rose in rebellion. They killed Captain Fernando Rivera from California and all
the males of the Spanish settlement. They enslaved the women and children. Nor did the
Franciscans escape; the Yumas cut down the priests Francisco Garcs, Juan Barreneche,
and Jos Moreno. Though in subsequent months three military expeditions recovered 75
captives and 1,000 horses, the hostile Yumas stood athwart the trail linking New Mexico to
California. No supplies would cross this trail to Serras missions.
The Yuma massacre convinced Croix to abandon his rational and enlightened plans
for the Provincias Internas. The California missions would continue under the secular and
spiritual control of the friars. This was welcome news for Fray Junpero. Now the friars could
continue the work they thought most beneficial to the Indians.
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Chapter 7 Review
Summary
On August 10, 1680, an Indian religious leader by
the name of Pop started a large-scale rebellion in
New Mexico. The Spaniards were forced to flee.
In 1691 Diego Vargas retook Santa F and the
surrounding countryside. With the Reconquest
of Santa F, New Mexico entered a period of
expansion.
In the 17th and 18th centuries the Spanish crown
tried to reform the encomienda system. In 1720 the
Bourbon king, Felipe V, finally abolished the whole
system in law though it continued to exist in
practice.
To address the continuing existence of the encomienda system, King Carlos III placed an official
called the alcalde mayor over the Indians. This new
system was abolished in 1786.
Beginning in the late 1680s, the Jesuit priest,
Eusebio Kino, began establishing missions in the
Pimera Alta.
In 1695 the Pima Indians rose in revolt. Lieutenant
Antonio de Sols set off to crush the rebellion. Padre
Eusabio Kino desired to keep peace, so he called the
Indians to sign a treaty.
Through a number of expeditions to the northwest to find a land supply route to missions in
California, Kino proved once and for all that Baja
California is not an island, but a peninsula.
After Kinos death in 1711 and another revolt, the
Pimera suffered from becoming a military camp.
Division spread amongst the Pimas. The expulsion
of the Jesuits from the the Spanish empire brought
further suffering to the Pimera and other regions
of the empire.
As part of the Spanish kings reform of the missions, Count Jos de Glvez brought in the
Franciscans to attend to purely spiritual affairs. The
reform did not work, however, and in 1769 the control of the missions was once again in the hands of
the missionaries.
In 1769 Fray Junpero Serra arrived at San Diego
and began his work of converting the Indians and
building missions all over California. He was made
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