Spanish missions in Baja California
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The Spanish missions in Baja California were a large number of
All missions in Mexico were secularized by the Mexican secularization act of 1833 by 1834 and the last of the missionaries departed in 1840. Under secularization, native mission congregations lost their communal rights to the lands which they had farmed since baptism. Some of the mission churches survive and are still in use.[1]
Background
In addition to the
Between 1683 and 1685, Eusebio Kino established a mission at San Bruno, but he did not have enough political or financial support to sustain the community, and returned to the mainland where he established Mission Dolores on the opposite side of the Gulf of California among the Pima. In 1696, the Pious Fund for the Californias was founded at Jesuit headquarters in Mexico City, the idea being that this endowment could produce enough revenue every year to give the critical financial support to a second missionary effort, which was undertaken by Juan Maria Salvatierra in 1697 starting with Mission Loreto. For every 10,000 Spanish dollars donated to the fund by wealthy merchants, the Jesuit living an austere life in the Peninsula would receive 500 Spanish dollars which was used to support himself, but also to import tools and cloth for native congregants and decorations for the church. Aside from this 500 Spanish dollar annual income, each frontier mission aimed to be self-supporting.[2] Supplies came at times from the mainland, either from sister missions in Sonora via Guaymas or from merchants in Tepic near the port of Matanchel, which the Jesuits used. The Manila galleon stopped regularly at Cabo San Lucas 1734 to 1767, and was a more inexpensive source of supply. Ignacio Tirsch, a Jesuit friar of the 1760s, drew a picture of such a Manila galleon trading at Mission San Jose del Cabo.[1]
To sustain a mission, the padres needed
Construction of the iglesia (church) constituted the focus of the settlement, and created the center of the community. The majority of mission sanctuaries were oriented on a roughly east–west axis to take the best advantage of the sun's position for interior illumination. The workshops, kitchens, living quarters, storerooms, and other ancillary chambers were usually grouped in the form of a quadrangle, inside which religious celebrations and other events often took place.
The Native Americans
Indian peoples encountered by the Spanish missionaries in Baja California (from north to south) were the
In a policy followed throughout much of Latin America called reductions, the missionaries concentrated the Indians at or near the mission for religious instruction and training to become sedentary farmers and stock herders. Their goal was to create a self-sufficient theocracy in which the missionary, usually supported by Spanish soldiers and laymen, attempted to rule over every facet of the Indian's religious and secular lives.[6] The Indigenous peoples were housed often by gender, forcibly converted to Catholicism and acculturated to the Spanish Empire within the confines of the mission. Recalcitrant indigenous peoples often ran away or revolted, and many missions maintained a precarious existence during the colonial era. Use of firearms, corporal punishment in the form of whippings and religious ritual and psychological punishments were all methods employed by the missionaries to maintain and expand control.[7] There were instances of armed resistance by the Indians against the missions, notably the Pericue revolt of 1734-1737, and Indians at the missions frequently ran away to escape the religious and labor regime forced on them by the missionaries or sabotaged the missionary's efforts by passive resistance.[8]
At the time of first contact with the Spanish, the Native Americans living in Baja California may have numbered as many as 60,000. By 1762, their numbers had fallen to 21,000 and by 1800 to 5,900. The primary reason for the decline was recurrent epidemics of European diseases, primarily smallpox, measles, and typhus. The spread of disease was facilitated by the missionary's practice of congregating the population near the mission. Endemic Syphilis resulted in higher child mortality and a reduced birth rate. By the early 19th century, the tribes of Baja California were culturally extinct, except for the Kumeyaay, Cocopah, and Pai Pai.[9]
Missions in Baja California
The Jesuit priest
Unlike the mainland settlements that were designed to be self-sustaining enterprises, the remote and harsh conditions on the peninsula made it all but impossible to build and maintain these missions without ongoing assistance from the mainland. Supply lines from across the Gulf of California, including from the missions and ranches of Padre Eusebio Kino on the mainland to the Port of Guaymas, played a crucial role in keeping the Baja California mission system intact.
During the sixty years that the Jesuits were permitted to work among the natives of California, 56 members of the
The Franciscans, under the leadership of Fray
Governor Portolà was put in command of an
Representatives of the
Mission administration
System Father-Presidentes
- Father Junípero Serra (1769–1784)
- Father Francisco Palóu (acting) (1784–1785)
- Father Fermín Francisco de Lasuén(1785–1803)
- Father Pedro Estévan Tápis(1803–1812)
- Father José Francisco de Paula Señan (1812–1815)
- Father Mariano Payeras(1815–1820)
- Father José Francisco de Paula Señan (1820–1823)
- Father Vicente Francisco de Sarría (1823–1824)
- Father Narciso Durán (1824–1827)
- Father José Bernardo Sánchez (1827–1830)
- Father García Diego (1831–1835)
- Father José María González Rubio (1835–1843)
- Father José Anzar (1843–?)
The "Father-Presidente" was the head of the Catholic missions in Alta and Baja California. He was appointed by the College of San Fernando de Mexico until 1812, when the position became known as the "Commissary Prefect" who was appointed by the Commissary General of the Indies (a Franciscan residing in Spain). Beginning in 1831, separate individuals were elected to oversee Upper and Lower California.[16]
Mission headquarters
- Mission San Diego de Alcalá (1769–1771)
- Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo (1771–1815)
- Mission La Purísima Concepción*(1815–1819)
- Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo (1819–1824)
- Mission San José*(1824–1827)
- Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo (1827–1830)
- Mission San José*(1830–1833)
- Mission Santa Barbara (1833–1846)
† The Rev. Payeras and the Rev. Durán remained at their resident missions during their terms as Father-Presidente, therefore those settlements became the de facto headquarters (until 1833, when all mission records were permanently relocated to Santa Barbara).[17][notes 1][18]
Mission locations
There were 30
Visita locations
Visitas were branch missions that allowed the priests to extend their reach into the native population at a modest cost.
In chronological order
Jesuit Establishments (1684–1767)
- Misión San Bruno, founded in 1684
- Misión de Nuestra Señora de Loreto Conchó, founded in 1697
- Visita de San Juan Bautista Londó, founded in 1699
- Misión San Francisco Javier de Viggé-Biaundó, founded in 1699
- Misión San Juan Bautista Malibat (Misión Liguí), founded in 1705
- Misión Santa Rosalía de Mulegé, founded in 1705
- Misión San Jose de Comondúfounded in 1709
- Misión La Purísima Concepción de Cadegomó founded in 1720
- Misión de Nuestra Señora del Pilar de La Paz Airapí founded in 1720
- Misión Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Huasinapi founded in 1720
- Misión Santiago de Los Coras founded in 1721
- Misión Nuestra Señora de los Dolores del Sur Apaté, founded in 1721
- Visita de Angel de la Guarda (El Zalato), founded in 1721
- Misión Santiago el Apóstol Aiñiní (Las Coras), founded in 1724
- Misión San Ignacio Kadakaamán, founded in 1728
- Misión Estero de las Palmas de San José del Cabo Añuití, founded in 1730
- Misión Santa Rosa de las Palmas (Misión Todos Santos), founded in 1733
- Misión San Luis Gonzaga Chiriyaqui, founded in 1740
- Misión Nuestra Señora de los Dolores del Sur Chillá (Misión La Pasión), founded in 1741
- Misión Nuestra Señora del Pilar de la Paz, founded in 1748
- Misión Santa Gertrudis, founded in 1752
- Misión San Francisco Borja de Adac, founded in 1762
- Visita de Calamajué (Visita de Calamyget), founded in 1766
- Misión Santa María de los Ángeles, founded in 1767
Franciscan Establishments (1768–1773)
- Misión San Fernando Rey de España de Velicatá, founded in 1769
- Visita de San Juan de Dios, founded in 1769
- Visita de la Presentación, founded in 1769
Dominican Establishments (1774–1834)
- Misión Nuestra Señora del Santísimo Rosario de Viñadaco, founded in 1774
- Visita de San José de Magdalena, founded in 1774
- Misión Santo Domingo de la Frontera, founded in 1775
- Misión San Vicente Ferrer, founded in 1780
- Misión San Miguel Arcángel de la Frontera, founded in 1787
- Misión Santo Tomás de Aquino, founded in 1791
- Misión San Pedro Mártir de Verona, founded in 1794
- Misión Santa Catarina Virgen y Mártir, founded in 1797
- Visita de San Telmo, founded in 1798
- Misión El Descanso (Misión San Miguel la Nueva), founded in 1810
- Misión de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe del Norte, founded in 1834
See also
On Spanish Missions in neighboring regions:
On general missionary history:
- Catholic Church and the Age of Discovery
- List of the oldest churches in Mexico
On colonial Spanish American history:
Notes
- ^ In 1833 Figueroa replaced the padres at all of the settlements north of Mission San Antonio de Padua with Mexican-born Franciscan priests from the College of Guadalupe de Zacatecas. In response, Father-Presidente Narciso Durán transferred the headquarters of the Alta California Mission System to Mission Santa Bárbara, where they remained until 1846.
References
- Project MUSE.
- ^ Duggan, M.C. (2023) "Redes de comercio de contrabando en el golfo de California entre 1665 y 1701 como motor de la expansión jesuita" in Guillermina del Valle Pavon, ed., Contrabando y Redes de Negocios: Hispanoamerica en el comercio globa, 1610-1814. Mexico City: Instituto Jose Luis Mora, pp. 75-126.Duggan Redes
- ^ Winter, Werner. 1967. "The Identity of the Paipai (Akwa'ala)." In Studies in Southwestern Ethnolinguistics: Meaning and History in the Language of the American Southwest, edited by Dell H. Hymes and William E. Bittle, pp. 371–378. Mouton, The Hague.
- ^ Meigs, Peveril, "The Kiliwa Indians of Lower California". Iberoamerica No. 15. University of California, Berkeley.
- ^ Schmal, John P., Indigenous Baja, http://www.houstonculture.org/mexico/baja.html, accessed 1 Apr 2016
- Project MUSE.
- ^ Jackson, Robert H., 1981, Epidemic Disease and Population Decline in the Baja California Missions, 1697-1834. Southern California Quarterly 63:308-346. Downloaded from JSTOR.
- ^ Jackson, Robert H. (1986), "Patterns of Demographic Change in the Missions of Southern Baja California", Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology, Vol. 8, NO. 2, pp. 173-279. Downloaded from JSTOR.
- ^ Jackson, Robert H. (1981), "Epidemic Disease and Population Decline in the Baja California Missions, 1697-1834", Southern California Quarterly, Vol. 63, No. 4, pp 308-341. Downloaded from JSTOR.
- ^ Burckhalter et al, p. 17; Bolton, 1936
- ^ Crosby, Harry W. (1994), Antigua California, Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, pp. 20-26, p.179
- ^ Robert Michael Van Handel, "The Jesuit and Franciscan Missions in Baja California." M.A. thesis. University of California, Santa Barbara, 1991.
- ^ Engelhardt, pp. 275-77
- ^ Robert Michael Van Handel, "The Jesuit and Franciscan Missions in Baja California." M.A. thesis. University of California, Santa Barbara, 1991.
- ^ Engelhardt, pp. 3-18
- ^ Ruscin, p. 196
- ^ Yenne, pp. 18–19
- ^ Yenne, p. 186
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "The Spanish Missions of Baja California, Part 2: The Franciscan and Dominican Missions 1769-1849". Viva Baja. 2022. Retrieved 2022-05-03.
- ^ "MISSIONS". Retrieved 2022-05-10.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u "The Spanish Missions of Baja California, Part 1: The Jesuit Missions 1697-1767 – Viva Baja". vivabaja.com. Retrieved 2022-05-03.
- ^ http://vivabaja.com/missions4/ (Guadalupe) accessed Jan 2017
- ^ http://vivabaja.com/missions4/ (La Purísima) accessed Jan 2017
- ^ a b "The Spanish Missions on the California Peninsula: #9, Nuestra Señora de los Dolores (1721-1741 at Apaté, 1741-1768 at La Pasión de Chillá)". Discover Baja Travel Club. 2014-08-10. Retrieved 2022-05-02.
- ^ http://vivabaja.com/missions4/ (San Luis Gonzaga) accessed Jan 2017)
- ^ http://www.visitmexico.com/es/cultura-e-historia-en-el-corazon-de-la-paz (Cathedral built on Jesuit mission site) accessed Jan 2017
- ^ http://vivabaja.com/missions4/ (Santa Rosa de las Palmas) accessed Jan 2017
- ^ "San Juan de Dios". www.elvigia.net (in Spanish). Retrieved 2022-05-10.
- ^ a b c d e f g "The Spanish Missions of Baja California, Part 3: Mission Visitas". Viva Baja. 2022. Retrieved 2020-05-03.
Further reading
- Bolton, Herbert Eugene. 1936. Rim of Christendom. Macmillan, New York.
- Burrus, Ernest J. 1954. Kino Reports to Headquarters: Correspondence of Eusebio F. Kino, S.J., from New Spain with Rome. Instituto Historicum S.J., Rome.
- Burrus, Ernest J. 1965. Kino Writes to the Duchess. Jesuit Historical Institute, Rome.
- Mathes, W. Michael. 1969. First from the Gulf to the Pacific: The Diary of the Kino-Atondo Peninsular Expedition, December 14, 1684-January 13, 1685. Dawson's Book Shop, Los Angeles.
- Engelhardt, Zephyrin, O.F.M. Missions and Missionaries, Volume One|San Francisco: The James H. Barry Co., 1908.
- Jackson, Robert H. "Epidemic Disease and Population Decline in the Baja California Missions, 1697-1834" Southern California Quarterly 63:308-346|
- Mathes, W. Michael. 1974. Californiana III: documentos para la historia de la transformación colonizadora de California, 1679-1686. José Porrúa Turanzas, Madrid.
- Van Handel, Robert Michael. "The Jesuit and Franciscan Missions in Baja California." M.A. thesis. University of California, Santa Barbara, 1991.
- Vernon, Edward W. 2002. Las Misiones Antiguas: The Spanish Missions of Baja California, 1683-1855. Viejo Press, Santa Barbara, California.
External links
- www.ca-missions.org — The official website of the California Mission Studies Association, a good source of accurate, peer-reviewed information on Mission Era history with an extensive links page.
- California Missions article at The Catholic Encyclopedia
- Missions of Baja California and Baja California Sur
- Google earth map of the Baja missions
- Reseña histórica de las misiones de Baja California by Dr. W. Michael Mathes (in Spanish)