Catholic priests ventured out into California to create missions in the 18th century from their Spanish bases in the Bajio of Mexico. Priests accompanied soldier-explorers who themselves were trying to duplicate the earlier exploits of Cortés, the brothers Pizzaro and many others. Fame and even more importantly, riches of untold amounts tempted them to push into the desert unknowns. But even as temporal gains pushed the main efforts, the spiritual mission remained an important sub context – natives to convert and to control. Here is an example at the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel.
IBERIAN CATHOLICISM COMES TO CALIFORNIA
In Alta California – today’s state of California – the priests represented Spanish control in lieu of other agencies. Leading the Catholic push into Alta California was Junipero Serra, a priest originally from a small village in Mallorca. Serra developed eight of the eventual twenty-one missions founded between San Diego and San Francisco. From 1769 until his death 28 August 1784 at the age of 70, Serra’s efforts pushed California into an era setting the stage for ever increasing changes pushing the province and later the state into one of the truly epic stories of the New World.
Iberian Catholicism went hand-in-hand with Iberian exploration and conquest, not only in California, but wherever their ships took them – the Canary Islands, the New World, the Philippines. Priests accompanied military forces as part of the ventures. Indigenous peoples became forced to resettle into settlements known as reducciones – reductions. Congregaciones was a similar term used in colonial Mexico. These new groupings of Natives bent on evangelization and assimilation into an Iberian Christian model. The forced resettlements aided civil and religious control with the added benefit of forced labor. The concentrations also led to disease spread. For example, the population in pre-Hispanic California sits at estimates of about 300,000. By 1834, estimates of the Native populations drop to only around 20,000 with most of those living in the far north.
Here, I focus on one of the missions I recently visited – San Gabriel Arcángel – with an overview of the whole mission scene and the man who founded the system, Junípero Serra.
THE MAN JUNÍPERO SERRA
Junípero Serra originally came to the New World in 1749 with a team of 19 other Franciscan friars. From Veracruz, Serra walked all the way to Mexico City over the Camino Real with no money or guide. Along the way, his left foot swelled up, a problem which stayed with him for the rest of his life.
sierra gorda
After awhile in Mexico City at the College of San Fernando de Mexico – a training and regional headquarters for Franciscan missionaries – he headed north into the Sierra Gorda, a rugged region of mountains in eastern Queretaro and San Luis Potosí states inhabited by local natives known as the Pame. Serra gets credit for founding five missions in the area while he finished earlier efforts to bring Catholicism to the locals. While the mission building itself was accomplished by other friars, the concept of the construction both the churches and the development of the surrounding communities came from Serra. These concepts would gain further expansion when he later served in Alta California. The five missions, built between 1750 and 1760, today preserved as World Heritage Sites by UNESCO since 2003.
Serra made his mission to the Sierra Gorda more successful by learning the Pame language. He also involved the Pame in religious ceremonies. But he also helped the hunter gatherers learn agriculture and animal husbandry while the women learned spinning, knitting and sewing. Surplus products were sold with the friars’ supervision so the Pame would not be cheated by outsiders. Those Pame who accepted the lifestyle introduced by Serra gained land parcels of their own.
expulsion of the jesuits
After working a spell as the inquisitor over the Sierra Gorda, in 1758, he returned to the College of San Fernando working for nine years as an administrator while continuing his role as both a missionary and inquisitor in various provinces in Mexico. Then, in 1767, the Jesuit order was expelled from New Spain by the king. That expulsion included the Baja California peninsula where Jesuits, earlier, developed a chain of 13 missions over a period of 70 years. Serra became the leader of a group of 15 Franciscan friars to take the place of the Jesuits.
The governor of New Spain, José de Gálvez, wanted not only the old Jesuit missions be re-occupied but he also wanted to send the Franciscans further north to found missions in Alta California. The goal of the expedition had a twofold purpose: to convert natives and to prevent potential Russian incursions along the California coast from the north. In March 1768, Serra arrived at Loreto where his leg and foot infection flared up almost to the point of incapacitating him. He suggested the military leader of the expedition, Gaspar de Portolá start off with his party and Serra would follow. Portolá left Loreto 9 March. Serra followed after Holy Week on 28 March carrying “no more provisions for so long a journey than a loaf of bread and a piece of cheese.”
Riding on a mule, Serra and two other companions caught up with Portolá at Mission Santa Maria de los Ángeles, the last of the Jesuit mission in Baja California.
MISSION SYSTEM
Iberian Catholic missions worked differently than those Catholic missions in the Pacific Northwest which I am a little more familiar with. In the Northwest, the missionaries came from Lower Canada – Quebec – or from Europe. The Spanish – and Portuguese – missionaries aimed at evangelization, but also assimilation of the Natives they found. Technically, a mission served a temporary role. With assimilation, the mission churches became parish churches and the missionaries moved on to new grounds leaving secular priests to administer to the new flocks. In practice, the friars stayed put. Father Serra and his fellow priests thought the Alta California Natives to require a longer period of acclimatization than the normal ten years. After the mission period, the common mission lands supposedly would be split among the native – now assimilated – population.
In the Northwest, Catholic missionaries behaved more along the lines of evangelists than agents of assimilation. Much like Protestant missionaries, their secondary goals became to transform their audiences into little Spaniards. They pushed the Natives to give up their hunt-gather lifestyles, introducing ideas of personal – versus communal – property.
The priests originally came from mostly Spain. A total of 146 Franciscan priests served in California between 1769 and 1845. Of those, 67 died at their posts, while the remainder returned to Europe upon the completion of their ten-year obligation or because of illness. They served as a pair at each mission, forbidden to live alone according to Franciscan mandates. Each mission had an army guard of five or six soldiers under the command of a corporal. The soldiers supposedly answered to the priests, but in many cases, acted on their own.
Neophytes
By pulling the Natives into the mission, asistencias – substations of the missions where a priest was not always on duty – and the rancherias – secular substations of the missions, the Christian message could be easier told. Working hand in hand with the Spanish government, a form of cultural imperialism became introduced on a much greater scale than that seen in French-oriented Catholic missions. Pulling the Natives closer together made it easier to “Christianize” and culturally re-imprint the Natives, but it also let diseases run rampant. By urbanizing the Natives, the missionaries offered safety from enemies. Safety equaled pacification but it also made it easier for Spanish military to operate easier.
joining the faith
After receiving a very basic instruction in Catholic faith, the Natives quickly baptized became neophytes. As a neophyte, in response for their soul’s salvation, they were expected to provide labor for the mission, whether in building the mission buildings or helping with work in the fields. A neophyte could not leave the mission without permission. Those that did were dragged back and punished. The missionaries talked about the punishments in terms of parents administering corporal punishments to their children. However, in the case of the missions, the punishments handed out were much more severe. Lashings of 20-25 times being common. Other cases included locking the offender up in stockades or chains in order to humiliate them. Offenses were not just leaving the compounds, but a whole vagary of other faults many of which dealt with sexual meanderings – premarital sex, adultery.
The padres tried to keep their neophytes busy. Bells rang out the day’s order – meal, work, and worship all attended to at the proper chime. Farming was the most important work of all missions. Cereal grains grown, dried and ground by stone into flour. Fruit seeds brought in from Europe developed orchards. Grape vineyards were planted to provide wine for sacramental and trade uses. Ranching of both sheep and cattle also developed into important industries. Olives, tobacco and citrus fruits also expanded the mission’s focus.
End of the Mission Period
None of the Alta California missions gained total self-sufficiency during the Mission Period – 1769-1833. Some amount of financial support from Spain needed to infuse the missions. Those funds disappeared with the Mexican War of Independence in 1810. With the development of the Mexican republic, the missions became secularized – disestablished – in 1834 with the missions closed. The priests returned to Mexico mostly as the churches ended religious ceremonies. The mission lands upon which farms and ranches lay became seized. The properties then were sold off to provide funds to entice settlers to emigrate to Alta and Baja California. The Natives continued on the lands providing a labor force for the newcomers who bought up massive land grants.
Previous to the act of secularization, an earlier edict issued an emancipation proclamation allowing neophytes freedom from missionary rule. They also became eligible for Mexican citizenship. The secularization of the mission lands represented a second phase of robbery, this time by the government of Mexico in place of Spain from which the original land grants for the mission lands had come. Most of the Natives scattered and many starved.
mexiacn intermezzo and the united states
Unlike the Mission Period which lasted for about sixty years, the Mexican intermezzo proved short – 1833-1848. Things which were never good during Mexican rule would worsen dramatically after California became a state. Natives supposedly gained up to one half of the mission lands. This never happened. With American rule, California law stripped the natives of their legal title to the land. Like in other new territories and states, the federal government appointed commissioners to hammer out deals with the various tribes. Eighteen treaties were signed between the commissioners and tribes. Much like what happened in Oregon and Washington, the US Senate failed to ratify the treaties, rejecting them in closed session, not that those treaties promised the Natives much. But the rejection of the treaties led the government in the future to fail to recognize the various tribes.
The California Land Act of 1851 made it expensive and difficult in some cases for Mexican landowners to retain their large land grants. The Act gave landholders two years to submit claims. Most Natives were unaware of the Act and its requirements. As such, they missed the chance to codify title to the lands they always lived upon. The Catholic Church was a little more successful in regaining some of their former lands, though what they got was far less than what they had lost.
THE MISSIONS
Some 21 missions make up the California Mission Trail. Originally, the individual missions lay along a 600-mile section of the Camino Real leading from Mission San Diego de Alcalá in the south to Mission San Francisco Solano (Sonoma) in the north. The leader of the missions in both Alta and Baja California was known as the Father-Presidente with Junípero Serra the first. Until 1812, the Father-Presidentes came from appointments issued from the College of San Fernando de Mexico. The position became known as the Commissary Perfect after that date with appointments coming from the Commissary General of the Indies, a Franciscan living in Spain. After 1831, Alta and Baja maintained separate individuals leading their respective regions.
a day apart
About one day’s ride separated each mission – three days by foot – from each other (about 30 miles). The road was never able to move heavy freight along. For that, sea voyages were needed. Going along with God, the Spanish military joined. Eventually, the army divided Alta California into four districts. Within each district featured a garrison presidio responsible to protect the missions and other Spanish settlements in the region. During the early era of mission development, El Presidio Real de San Diego was the initial presidio. In time, the fort took responsibility for the defense of the missions of San Diego, San Luis Rey, San Juan Capistrano and San Gabriel.
After the end of the missions in 1833, with time, most of the missions remain today under Catholic ownership though in most cases the Franciscans are no longer in charge (They do continue to operate three of the missions today: Santa Barbara, San Miguel Arcángel, and San Luis Rey de Francia).
MISSION SAN GABRIEL ARCÁNGEL
Here lies the beginnings for Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States. With the approximate 30-mile distance between missions, there are four missions lying in today’s metroplex of Los Angeles – San Juan Capistrano, San Gabriel, San Fernando and Ventura (Mission San Buenventura). Within the Los Angeles basin – including the southern Channel Islands at the time of the Spanish push north, the Tongva are thought to have lived in 100 villages speaking five or more related languages. The Tongva in the vicinity of the mission here gained the name Gabrieleño by the Spanish.
The original mission dates to 8 September 1771 founded by two Franciscan priests, fathers Ángel Fernández de la Somera and Pedro Benito Cambón. Handpicked by Father Serra to open the mission, they chose a site at the Whittier Narrows along the San Gabriel River. Local Tongva natives built a mission which only lasted until a flash flood destroyed crops and the original mission in 1776. The mission then relocated five miles to the north, closer to the mountains.
early repreive
As the initial Spanish party approached along the Santa Ana River, many Tongva upset at the increased presence of Spaniards in their land decided to do something about them. Brandishing weapons, the Tongva watched as the fathers unveiled a painting of the Virgin Mary a scene described by Serra’s Franciscan hometown comrade and biographer Francisco Palou. So “conquered by that beautiful image … They threw down their bows and arrows and the two chiefs rushed forward to place at the feet of the Sovereign Queen the beads they wore around their necks to show their great esteem. They called together the Indians of the nearby villages, whence a growing number of men, women, and children came to see the Most Holy Virgin. Together they came bearing various seeds which they placed at the feet of the most Blessed Lady, thinking she would consume them as other humans did.”
Problems begin
Pedro Fages began the Spanish mission expedition under the command of Gaspar de Portolá. He led the soldiers on one of the ships responsible for the original founding of San Diego in 1769. Promoted to captain – commandante – in 1770, when Portolá left to return to Mexico, Fages, in charge of the Presidio of Monterey and the relatively independent lieutenant-governor of California Nueva – both Alta and Baja together. Because of distances involved, Fages ran Alta California as acting governor – he would later gain appointment in 1777 as the full Governor of the Californias. He led the initial foray to set up the mission of San Gabriel – a mule train with four muleteers, fourteen soldiers and the two padres.
With the opening of the new mission, large numbers of Tongva began to visit. Fages grew concerned with security limiting the number of Native visitors to five at any one time. After no prior restrictions placed upon them, the Tongva felt resentful at the circumstances. Then, Fages doubled down on his new strictures. No unbaptized Native could enter the Mission.
soldier’s crimes
Serra reported the aftermath – “a soldier, who, with others, went out to round up cattle, or to defend it, or get himself a woman, killed the principal chief of the gentiles, cut off his head, and brought it to the mission in triumph.” The woman seized was the wife of the chief. It was the following day when the chief led an attack on two soldiers outside of the one-month-old Mission. The chief died from a musket shot and the rest of the Natives fled after two more dropped from the gunfire. Then, the corporal of the guard ordered the chief’s head cut off and stuck up on a pike above the Mission entrance as a warning. Father Cambon wrote later comparing the chief’s head stood “in grim and gory contrast to the beautiful Lady hanging in the Church.”
Serra was upset by the soldier’s crimes. Reporting to the viceroy in Mexico City, Serra wrote, “The soldiers, clever as they are at lassoing cows and mules, would catch an Indian woman with their lassos to become prey for their unbridled lust. At times some Indian men would try to defend their wives, only to be shot down with bullets.” He went on to say, “I must confess that had I been present, even the San Gabriel Mission would have been abandoned, because I would have ordered the fathers to return to San Diego.” As to Fages’ restrictions he went on, “If we are not allowed to be in touch with these gentiles, what business have we, or what would hold us, in such a place?”
repercussions
Luckily for the Mission, other Native chiefs came to the mission the following day to sue for peace as both sides gave gifts. The two fathers, traumatized by these and other events – Cambon witnessed a soldier sodomizing a Native within the mission complex itself and was aware “Young boys coming to the mission were likewise molested by soldiers.” – requested transfers. The fathers Serra had pegged for his new mission at Buenventura, Antonio Cruzado and Antonio Paterna, replaced the priests at San Gabriel instead. Serra did manage to get the offending corporal transferred while one of his favorite soldiers came to San Gabriel to calm things down.
The New Mission
In its new site, it was not until 1794 before the main church began construction, temporary structures sufficed until them. Father Cruzado designed the new fortress like Mission Church resembling the Great Mosque of his hometown of Córdoba in Spain. The pillar buttressed walls topped with pyramidal finials of the Mission Church sitting atop with a roof by 1801, though not until 1805 before the church became consecrated.
In addition to the belltower, there was a three level espadaña – bell gable – the most numerous of any of the missions. An earthquake in 1812 caused a collapse of the bell tower at the northeast end. The walls that supported the tower still visible along the outside of the main church. Another earthquake in 1987 caused more damage, though the most catastrophic event took place in 2020 with a fire devastating the interior – luckily, the altar survived for the most part.
success
Cruzado and Paterna further saved the situation by giving the Natives leadership roles in the creation of the new church complex. Music at Mass helped, but the fields of grapes, wheat and corn also went a long way towards calming the situation. More Natives drew into the mission over time. By 1817, the mission hosted about 1,700 Natives, one of the largest mission populations. The mission became the richest of all of the missions, as well with a herd of 16,500 cattle, 1,200 horses and a vineyard giving more wine production than any other. The vegetable fields supplied enough to send to the whole chain of missions.
An asistencia – submission – built up already in 1781 along the Los Angeles River to handle the overflow of Natives – Nuestra Señora la Reina de Los Angeles – from which the future city would morph out from.
With the Mexican secularization program, the Mission turned over to the civil authorities in November 1834. The cattle and the mission valuables soon disappeared. The Franciscans would return in 1843 for another decade. The sale of the final mission property halted only with the arrival of American troops. The US Congress did restore the mission buildings and some of the adjacent properties to the Catholic Church in 1862.
Self-sufficiency
Missions were supposed to be self-sufficient, and San Gabriel was no different. Gardens, orchards and a large vineyard developed. The priests taught locals their form of agriculture along with mechanical arts and animal husbandry to go along with religious education. Many rancherias developed away from the Mission and here most of the Tongva lived. To help manage these lands, sub-missions – asistencias – built as far away as San Bernardino – 1819. The first grist mill developed – 1816 – a little over a mile to the north-northwest of the mission – El Molino Viejo. The mill lasted only seven years when a New England-style mill built by an American newcomer, Joseph Chapman, located next to the mission proved significantly more efficient than the older mill.
Mission San Gabriel became the most productive of all missions in terms of produce grown. Beyond the mission, itself, excess went to supply many of the other missions not so bountiful.
Population Loss
California’s oldest cemetery serves as a final resting place for many priests but also for some of 7,000 Native believers buried on the mission grounds. Few lie marked. The fathers who served here over the years do get proper markers. There is a central monument – a crucifix – memorializing the many Tongva buried here.
Estimates of the indigenous population of California before the arrival of Europeans varies between 133,000 to over 700,000. Like in the rest of North America, lack of immunity to disease and violence dropped the population to as low as 4,500. Another 4,500 died after the annexation of California to the United States between 1849 and 1870.
Here at Mission San Gabriel, 7,854 baptisms are recorded – 2,459 children – with 1817 recording 1,701 people. Contrasted with those numbers are 5,656 deaths – 2,916 children. 1834 saw 1,320 deaths. One report from a missionary puts three out of four children at the Mission dying before the age of 2.
VISITING THE MISSION TODAY
Mission San Gabriel possesses some of the finest collection of mission relics found today. There is a series of Native paintings representing the Fourteen Stations of the Cross. Christ appears as a Native while the Roman soldiers look like Spaniards. These are among the oldest existing Native Christian art. Additionally, the painting unraveled before the Tongva at the first confrontation in 1771 is on display on the south side of the altar.
Visiting the mission is much more relaxed than other missions – San Juan Capistrano, here, comes to mind. The Mission stands across the Plaza de San Gabriel from the San Gabriel City Hall – done up in Mission Revival architecture, of course. With no swallows to witness nor amusement parks nearby, the Mission hides in plain site in the midst of today’s metroplex. Not close to a freeway, visitors have to want to seek out the Mission to explore. On the day we ventured here, only a few others shared the complex with us.
The mission today stands served by members of the Claretian Missionaries since 1908. The Claretians have focused upon ministering to Spanish-speaking communities since their founding in Spain by St. Anthony Mary Claret in 1849. Their mission rectory sits on the west end of the Mission complex. Cost of entry into the Mission is $15 for adults $12 for those over 60 years of age, while students can get in for $10. Tours are self-guided. Visitors are given a map of the complex and plenty of signs informing of the many aspects of the mission and the people who served and those who were served.
The Cemetery
Campo Santo Cemetery dates to 1778 making it the oldest consecrated cemetery in Los Angeles County. It serves as a burial ground for Claretian Missionaries and others. Thousands of neophytes lie buried along with early Fathers though many of the graves lost over the years the mission lay abandoned. Several of the Franciscan missionaries lie buried inside the church noted by a marker in front of the altar. A central crucifix stands in honor of the many neophytes buried here.
Just before walking into the Mission Church, to the left stand the pillars of the former bell tower which collapsed in the 1812 earthquake. This was the same earthquake which destroyed the mission church at San Juan Capistrano further to the south. The main cemetery lies on the north side of the Mission complex.
The Mission Church
Entering into the Mission Church, note the church has endured earthquakes and a recent fire in 2020, but stands restored today. The church is built from cut stone, baked adobe bricks and mortar. The pulpit stands on the right – north – side of the chapel dating back to before the church completion in 1801. Behind the pulpit, a baptistry leads off the same side. The copper font, hand-hammered, came from Spain as a gift from Carlos III. The walls, windows, ceilings and baptistry are all original.
reredos
Retables and reredos – the two terms are distinctly different in definition but are commonly confused or used as synonyms in real life. A reredos normally rise from the ground level behind an altar while a retable is smaller, standing behind the altar or on a pedestal. Both terms are used in the Mission Church. The term reredos in the visitor guide refers to the whole structure standing behind the altar. Hand-carved in Mexico, the reredos, commissioned by the Franciscan order, houses hand-carved statues noted as retablos on the information tablet next to the altar. The altarpiece arrived at the Mission in 1819 shipped north in 20 boxes. It was designed to house the six sculptures and a tabernacle which came north in the 1790s.
The altar and the retablo suffered damage in the 1812 earthquake. Repaired the following year, they retablo was not reinstalled until 1828. Everything again suffered damage from the 2020 fire. Restoration completed afterwards in 2023.
A room behind the altar is the sacristy where the priests prepared the Mass. It remains structurally intact with an original barrel vault ceiling. Next to the sacristy is a staircase leading to the bell campanile. With the collapse of the bell tower in 1812, the current three-level campanario represents the last major change to the architecture of the Mission dating to 1828.
Museum
Today serving as a museum, the building to the west of the church formerly housed several functions – sleeping quarters, workshops, granaries, and weaving rooms. The exhibits inside show the history of the Mission with the series of fourteen Native paintings of the Stations of the Crucifixion. There are some exhibits alluding to the impacts the missions had on Native life, though several would probably concur that the explanations do not go far enough. Still, the museum marks a fine starting point in trying to understand the missions, both here and the rest of California, and for whom they affected.
Courtyard and Grapevine
Outside of museum is a courtyard. There are two olive trees here dating to the early 1800s and a grapevine, which still produces grapes for angelica wine – a sweet, fortified wine. The basic recipe calls for three parts Mission grape must plus one part brandy. Next to the old grapevine sits a cylindrical cistern used to supply water for the Mission kitchen and other areas.
Other areas
Beyond the courtyard is an exhibit of Tongva huts with a covered area – most Native life took place outdoors. Ruins of vats stand where soap and candles became produced from the tallow – fatty tissue – of herd animals. Next to that you find vats where animal hides were cleaned and stretched. The hides then used at the Mission or as barter items for traders.
CHAPMAN’S MILL AND MILLRACE MARKER
The first grist mill at Mission San Gabriel – El Molino Viejo – proved a failure. Built in 1816, the mill simply lay too far from the grain fields – the mill is currently a park about two miles northwest of the Mission – with an inefficient design. Joseph Chapman – born in Massachusetts – arrived as a prisoner of a pirate raid on Santa Barbara. Released and asked to construct a mill at Mission Santa Inés in 1821, the Governor of Alta California, Pablo Vicente de Solá ordered him to build a new mill for San Gabriel.
Built by Tongva Natives under Chapman’s directions, the mill finished in 1825. The original location of the mill lay about 200 feet south of the Mission Church – now asphalt of Mission Road. The mill used waterpower of a series of springs found to the north of the Mission. Earthen and tile-lined ditches lead the water to the mill. Built in a New England style with a vertical water wheel, it further contributed to successes of Alta California’s most prosperous missions. After the secularization of 1834, the mill fell into disrepair and its ruins bulldozed in 1941. The last remaining section of the millrace moved here in the plaza park between City Hall of San Gabriel and the Mission Church.
REFERENCES
Two fairly recent books go into the era of Father Junípero Serra and his missions in Alta California: first there is Steven Hackel’s Junípero Serra, California’s Founding Father – 2013; second is Journey to the Sun: Junípero Serra’s Dream and the Founding of California by Gregory Orfalea – 2014; then for a completely alternative view, there is Native Alienation: Spiritual Conquest and the Violence of California Missions by Charles Sepulveda – 2024.