Missions of San Diego
()
About this ebook
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.
Read more from Robert A. Bellezza
Missions of Central California Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMissions of Los Angeles Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Missions of San Francisco Bay Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Missions of San Diego
Related ebooks
Missions of Southern California Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA New Mexico Primer: For Students of All Ages Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPoint Sur Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSan Juan Capistrano Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSan Francisco, California Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Catalina Island Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSan Leandro Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCatalina A to Z: A Glossary Guide to California's Island Jewel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVentura Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHighway 101: The History of El Camino Real Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSan Francisco in World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beyond Rust: Metropolitan Pittsburgh and the Fate of Industrial America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHistory of the State of California From the Period of the Conquest by Spain to her Occupation by the United States of America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNew York & New Jersey: A Guide to the State & National Parks Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMissions of California, William Henry Hudson, 1901 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWarren Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Kingston Album: Glimpses of the Way We Were Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIndependence Hall in American Memory Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The San Jose Police Department Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsProhibition in Sacramento: Moralizers & Bootleggers in the Wettest City in the Nation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCemeteries of San Diego County Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Royal Oak Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Lost St. Louis Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCorona Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsForest Park Highlands Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCemeteries of San Diego Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Walking Tour of St. Petersburg, Florida Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBirds of Louisiana & Mississippi Field Guide Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Isle Royale Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMission Hills Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Travel For You
Zaitoun: Recipes and Stories from the Palestinian Kitchen Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got that Way Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Travel English Dialogues Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Conversational Romanian Quick and Easy: The Most Innovative Technique to Learn the Romanian Language Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNotes from a Small Island Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vogue on Location: People, Places, Portraits Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lonely Planet Istanbul Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fodor's Bucket List Europe: From the Epic to the Eccentric, 500+ Ultimate Experiences Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhere We Belong: The heart-breaking new novel from the bestselling Richard and Judy Book Club author Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Along the Road: Notes and Essays of a Tourist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fodor's Essential Japan Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBerlin Cafés: Discover the 50 Most Remarkable Cafés in the World´s Most Exciting City Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Journeys of a Lifetime, Second Edition: 500 of the World's Greatest Trips Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lonely Planet Vietnam Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5English for Restaurant Workers: Travel and Hospitality Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fodor's Essential Egypt Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsConversational Danish Quick and Easy: The Most Innovative Technique To Learn the Danish Language Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Grapes & Wines Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Emily Post's Etiquette, 19th Edition: Manners for Today Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Rough Guide to Portugal (Travel Guide eBook) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Lonely Planet Pocket Warsaw Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFodor's Essential Morocco Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInsight Guides Pocket Budapest (Travel Guide eBook) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Innocence of Objects Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rough Guide to Andalucía (Travel Guide eBook) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPocket Rough Guide Staycations Devon & Cornwall (Travel Guide eBook) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLonely Planet China Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lonely Planet Provence & Southeast France Road Trips Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Reviews for Missions of San Diego
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Missions of San Diego - Robert A. Bellezza
mainland.
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