With 21 missions developed in Alta California in the 18th century, San Diego de Alcalá was the first. Being first doesn’t mean best or most successful. There were major birthing problems here because of conflicts between the incoming Spaniards and their specific goals and those of the indigenous peoples, the Kumeyaay.
KEEPING CALIFORNIA FOR SPAIN
With 21 missions developed in Alta California in the 18th century, San Diego was the first. Being first doesn’t mean best or most successful. There were major birthing problems here because of conflicts between the incoming Spaniards and their specific goals and those of the indigenous peoples, the Kumeyaay.
Being the furthest to the south, this makes sense as the expedition of Gaspar de Portolà and Junípero Serra made their way north from Baja California. The aim of their trip was threefold: the first and foremost, was to give meaning to the discoveries along the Pacific Coast made by seaborne sailors such as Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo in 1542 and Sebastián Vizcaíno is 1602 especially in light of other European expeditions making landfalls along the same coastline; the second aimed at colonization with conversion the first act; and the third aim was the expulsion of Jesuit priest already on the scene in Baja California.
By the time the Spanish finally got around to dispatching Portolà – newly appointed Spanish governor of Las Californios – and Serra – president of the missions of Baja California – on the work of Spanish expansion it was already late 1768. Their trip initiated on behalf of New Spain’s inspector general – Visitador – José de Gálvez. The expedition hoped to place both missions and presidios at both San Diego and Monterrey thus bringing the sword and the cross forward to cement the idea of Spanish suzerainty over the vast new lands.
FATHER SERRA LEADS THE WAY
Serra, a Franciscan priest, had come to the New World in 1749 from a teaching position in a missionary college on Majorca. With a team of fellow Franciscan missionaries, they made their way to Mexico City. Along the way, Father Serra developed a sore on his left foot as he walked the Camino Real. His injury would cause problems for the rest of his life.
He became involved in missionary work with the Pames people of the Sierra Gorda, a rugged region in the northern area of today’s state of Queretaro. Upon his request that an inquisitor become appointed to the Sierra Gorda, he himself was appointed not only as Inquisitor for those mountains, but all of New Spain where he cared to spread his missionary mantle where there was no regular inquisitor already in place. Based at the College of San Fernando de Mexico, he made trips from 1758 until his California venture to Puebla, Oaxaca, Valladolid and Guadalajara.
JESUIT EXPULSION OPENS THE DOOR TO FRANCISCANS
In 1767, King Charles III of Spain ordered the expulsion of the Jesuit order from all Spain and her colonies. The Jesuits had led missionary work in Baja California since the 1690s. Their work evangelizing the natives on the frontiers of New Spain was one thing, but the act of educating the criollo – American-born Spaniards – was seen to threaten the political world of the Spanish New World. Overnight, the Jesuits became replaced by the Franciscans. The expulsion of the Jesuit order was one of the main orders carried out by Visitador general Gálvez.
EXPEDITION BEGINS
Gálvez’s efforts in exaggerating the threat of other European powers edging in on Spanish desires on the Pacific proved successful in gaining the go-ahead from Charles to send out his expedition beyond the present settlements in Baja California. The expedition consisted of three ships sailing separately out from La Paz with supplies and a land group heads by Portolà, the governor of las Californios. The first ship got underway 9 January 1769 blessed by Father Serra and given a send off by Gálvez, himself. A second ship followed on 15 February. The third ship disappeared later, on its way to San Diego.
By land, an advance party led by Captain Fernando Rivera y Moncada came north first traveling from La Paz to Velicatá – then the norther border of Spanish settlement located about halfway north in today’s State of Baja California – requisitioning horses and mules from the existing 19 missions in Baja California along the way. In Velicatá, they were joined by Friar Juan Crespí who made his own his 400-mile journey from Mission la Purísima. He would serve as chaplain and diarist for the Rivera party.
From Velicatá, it was another 300 miles north to San Diego which the party reached on 14 May after 50 days. The two ships had landed in the bay in mid and late April. Many men on the ships arrived ill, especially suffering from scurvy. Some 25 men healthy enough established a camp on the beach after finding a water source – the San Diego River – a few miles to the northeast. Heat, illness culled the sea group from over 90 to only 16 by early May.
SAN DIEGO REDISCOVERED
With Rivera’s arrival, the camp moved inland to be near the river – the site is where Old Town is today. A cannon was installed inside a stockade, becoming later the Presidio. Meanwhile, a second land-based party – the main party, arrived in San Diego on 1 July. They had set out led by Portolá with José de Gálvez leading the Franciscan missionary team with Serra staying behind trying to get his left leg which had flared up, into better condition. With many more men, a supply train and food animals, the party moved slower. Serra joined the group on the back of a mule on 5 May near Velicatá.
After two weeks rest, Portolá moved north with 74 men to find the harbor of Monterrey. Serra stayed behind founding the mission of San Diego de Alcala two days later. He would find the San Francisco Bay but missed Monterrey though they planted a large cross on a hill. The hill actually turned out to overlook the Monterrey harbor described earlier by Vizcaíno. The mistake became cleared up a year later by another group.
MISSION BEGINS
The site of the Presidio of San Diego is today’ below the Junipero Serra Musuem. The Mission San Diego de Alcalá also was founded here on Presidio Hill in a simple shelter. Tensions arose between the local native Kumeyaay and the Spanish. Those tensions led, on 15 August, to an attack by over twenty natives with bows and arrows. Returned fire from the soldier, a blacksmith and carpenter left the Kumeyaay with several dead and wounded. Three on the Spanish side suffered wounds and Serra’s servant died from an arrow wound to the neck.
Serra would continue north on 16 April 1770 taking six weeks to make it to Monterrey where he founded the second of the nine missions which formed during his stint as mission president.
MISSION MOVES UPRIVER
With the goal of the Franciscans to convert the heathen, the location of the mission moved six miles in 1774 to its present site upriver closer to the Kumeyaay villages. The site proved good for farming and gave a reliable water source. An adobe church now stood in place of the older simple shelter in Old Town.
ATTACK AND REBIRTH
The new mission site, however, did not mean any more success in converting the Kumeyaay than before. Rules and regulations brought in by the friars increased local dissent to another attack on the mission, on 4 November 1775, this time by hundreds. The mission building suffered damage while the Franciscan in charge, Luis Jayme died in the attack, along with the blacksmith and the carpenter.
Serra was back in 1776 to oversee the beginning of rebuilding of a larger church, this time protected by a perimeter wall. Water was a problem until a dam and flume system was built in 1803. Before then, crops were difficult to grow so the mission concentrated on horse and mule breeding. They provided the other missions in both Californias with an average of 16 animals every year.
FATHER LASUÉN MAKES HIS MARK
Father Fermin Lasuén served as head missionary here from 1777 until 1785 when he succeeded Serra as the Mission system president. Lasuén, a Basque, proved a capable administrator establishing another nine missions bringing the total at the time of his death in 1803 to 18 eventually the total numbered 21. While Lausén never had the charisma of Serra – nor the eventual sainthood – it was his leadership which especially consolidated Spain’s control over Alta California. The missions were not mere spiritual outposts but complexes implanting European agriculture, business, trade and mores over an indigenous population changing them forever. Standing in the shadow of Serra, Lausén is remembered by the moniker of the Forgotten Friar.
MISSION PEAKs
The mission also slowly saw spiritual results with an increasing number of both baptisms and Natives who lived on the compound as neophytes. Two more churches went up in 1780 and then later in 1813 in response to the growth of the church and to give strength to ward off earthquakes. By 1797, the number of converts rose to 1405 when 565 received baptism that year. Land for the mission grew to encompass 55,000 acres with 20,000 sheep, 10.000 cattle and 1250 horses.
RANCHOS, US ARMY AND FINALLY RESTORATION
Spanish rule lapsed into Mexican rule in 1821. Spanish friars became replaced with Mexicans. The 1833 Decree of Confiscation issued by Governor José Figueroa offered the mission lands for sale to those neophytes who lived at the mission. Not able to pay the money, the lands became broken up and sold as ranchos to ex-officers who fought against Spain. On 8 June 1846, Santiago Argüello gained the mission for services rendered – he already owned the Rancho Tia Juana, basis of today’s second-largest city in Mexico.
The mission served to garrison US Army soldiers posted here from 1846 until 1862 when ownership of the Mission itself finally became restored to the Catholic Church by Abraham Lincoln. The church was in ruins by then. Restoration began in 1891 by Father Antonio Ubach, but with his death in 1907, the work lapsed until 1931. The mission complex dates mostly from the 20th century due to the ruined state from the mid-late 19th.
MISSION NAMESAKE
Saint Didacus – San Diego de Alcalá – became the name given to the area by Vizcaíno where he arrived in 1602. The name given because Didacus’ feast day was closest to the day of discovery. Didacus was born in 1400 in a town in Andalusia. He became a member of the Franciscan Order of Airizafa near Córdoba. Serving in the Canary Islands, he made enemies causing his recall to Spain after defending the actions of invading Spaniards against the local indigenous peoples. From Spain, he went to Rome where he served for three months caring for the sick when an epidemic broke out. Miraculous cures led to his eventual sainthood in 1558. His feast day celebration falls on 13 November, Vizcaíno landed in San Diego on 10 November.
SELF-GUIDED TOUR
A nice self-guided tour gives you an overview of the mission grounds. Remember, that the mission, like most others, remains a viable parish church today. You start off in the gift shop paying your entrance fee – $8 for adults $5 for senior over 55 and military and children $3.
