Missions of San Diego

By Robert A. Bellezza

California s first settlement began on a trail called El Camino Real, or The Royal Road, that was traveled by missionary pathfinders, soldiers, and conquistadors on a dramatic journey into a mysterious land. Monterey was discovered in 1603, leading to the quest. Explorers Don Gaspar de Portol and Juan Bautista de Anza, along with ambitious Franciscan missionaries, founded 21 monumental Spanish missions and several asistencias and chapels for native neophytes, travelers, and visitors to Alta California. Following the initial landing in 1769 at San Diego s seaport, Fr. Jun pero Serra founded Mission San Diego de Alcal , California s first landmark, at the original presidio site. The mission stands today exactly where it was moved, rebuilt, and completed in 1813. The native populations of California witnessed years of change from a sleepy province to the status of US statehood. The Spanish missions forged the powerful underpinnings of the Golden State s earliest settlements 80 years prior to the world s largest migration to California, the 1849 Gold Rush.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Sep 16, 2013
• ISBN: 9781439643976

Robert A. Bellezza

Author Robert A. Bellezza presents an incisive history of the missions of San Diego, premiering newly discovered glass-plate images from the 1930s and selected rare prints and vintage postcards from his collection.

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INTRODUCTION

The first encampment atop a hill high over San Diego’s harbor was established by two land and two sea expeditions and became the first Spanish mission and presidio established in Alta California. A large cross was raised in the sand by Fr. Junípero Serra, Franciscan friar and visionary mission president, who celebrated Mass and the founding of the Mission San Diego de Alcalá on July 16, 1769. Eventually, 21 Spanish missions and their adobe, brick, and stone buildings would grow to productive colonies lasting decades. In recent times, these monumental landmarks of California’s heritage have been considered an invaluable part of its history, and all mission buildings have been faithfully restored.

SPANISH GALLEONS AND COLORFUL CONQUISTADORS

The first Spanish settlers adapted the native style of traditional thatched tule reed dwellings on rudimentary earthen floors as the first missions, or they built simple ramadas, brush- and mud-encased enclosures. San Diego’s aboriginal people—the Kumeyaay, Tipai, and Ipai—were people of white sage and the eagle, who lived for millennia within the diverse microclimatic regions of the Golden State. California native tribes had developed many distinct cultures with unique languages.

In his initial voyage in 1542, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo anchored the San Salvador off Catalina and the islands of the Santa Barbara Channel on his journey to the north, naming Cape Mendocino. In San Diego, Kumeyaay people first responded to Cabrillo by wounding three of his men with arrows. Cabrillo, taking two younger natives aboard, made an effort to communicate with them before releasing the youngsters back on land with new clothing. The message was relayed that he was a peaceful man. Cabrillo had been able to befriend the Chumash, native people of the Channel Islands and Santa Barbara, and they offered food and other provisions to the seafarer.

The official founding of Monterey’s harbor in 1602 was consigned to an adventurous Spanish merchant, Don Sebastián Vizcaíno. Carefully charting the entire coast, he claimed possession for Spain, either naming or renaming most ports. The land yet unexplored, Vizcaíno declared Monterey’s northern port as ideal and the best possible capital for Alta California. Mexico City, the Spanish capital of the New World, entered a period of prosperity at the time of Vizcaíno’s early report but curiously allowed the passage of two centuries before showing interest in exploration to the north.

Privateers and seafaring plunderers under foreign flags had begun to challenge the Spanish holdings, and the voyages made by Capt. James Cook to Tahiti and Hawaii had brought attention to the New World by 1769. Spain had chosen the governor of Baja California, Don Gaspar de Portolá, to muster a first land expedition and venture into Alta California’s expansive territories to make permanent Spanish settlements. Joining legendary Fr. Junípero Serra, two mission colonies were planned, one for San Diego and another in Monterey, each following Vizcaíno’s earliest descriptions. The quest for Monterey began after Father Serra founded Mission San Diego de Alcalá in 1769 and a new land expedition had assembled, including friars, an engineer, carpenters, Spanish leather-jacket dragoons, and Baja Indian interpreters followed by a pack train of mules. The overland discovery party passed Santa Monica and Santa Barbara, extending a trail named by the friars El Camino Real, or The Royal Way, an ancient path blazed by missionaries honoring Carlos I, king of Spain until 1556. Originally, the path reached thousands of miles into the Guatemalan and Mexican jungles, and El Camino Real would now connect Mexico City to Monterey.

Portolá sent search parties out from his campsite near Monterey to discover the features of the coastline, but they were unable to identify Monterey’s great harbor. The search ventured into bitterly cold, snowy weather as they attempted to signal from Carmel’s shore to a packet lost at sea. With little hope for supplies, the Portolá expedition turned back to the San Diego settlement and the remaining eight colonists, who were also surviving with little food. Portolá ordered plans for the galleon San Antonio to return to San Diego’s harbor. Despite hardships, a second expedition led by Portolá reached Monterey by land.

Father Serra remained determined to establish his new mission, and the day after Easter in 1770, he boarded the San Antonio to embark for Monterey. Father Serra stepped confidently on shore, greeted by Governor Portolá and Fr. Juan Crespí, an early Franciscan chronicler of the overland journeys. The legendary meeting was made at the harbor’s edge beneath the Vizcaíno-Serra Oak, which survived hundreds of years after the founding mass of Vizcaíno’s party. Consecrating Mission San Carlos de Borromeo on June 3, 1770, to honor King Charles III of Spain, they established the new presidio and capital in Alta California. Jubilant ceremonies and exuberant fanfare were followed by shipboard cannon blasts ringing in concert with the festivities on shore. However, the elation of the settlement was quelled with disturbing news from San Diego of new unrest incited by the first mission neophytes at Mission San Diego de Alcalá. A revolt of nearly 900 mission Indians against the Spanish newcomers led to the loss of several settlers, including Franciscan father Luis Jayme. Previous riots had been stopped after the presidio soldiers defending the settlement killed natives with their muskets. The latest rebellion ignited all the mission buildings with flaming arrows, devastating the settlement. Upon Father Serra’s return, Mission San Diego de Alcalá would be separated from the presidio and moved to a new location with a much larger building of adobe, completed in 1780. The present-day Mission San Diego de Alcalá was completed at the site in 1813 and has been restored in modern times using portions of the foundations and remaining walls of the original.

SPAIN’S ERODING POWER

After