Introduction
There are 21 Spanish missions along
the coast of California that were built between 1769 and 1823. The missions
started when the King of Spain sent four expeditions to Alta California. The
missions helped the king claim land.
Founding and Location
Mission San Gabriel Arcángel is the
4th of the 21 missions. It is located 9 miles east of central Los Angeles. It
was founded on September 8th, 1771. The site was earlier chosen by Father
Serra, and Fathers Cambon and Somera were the founders.
One fateful day, Fathers Cambon and
Somera fell terribly ill. They were not able to continue their work so Fathers
Paterna and Crusado took over. They finished building the mission and they grew
Mission San Gabriel Arcángel into one of the best. Mission San Gabriel Arcángel
had an aqueduct connected to Wilson Lake. The water was used for watering the
mission’s fruit trees and crops. There were free roaming cattle. Their candles
and soap supplied many missions and they produced lots of wine. Mission San
Gabriel Arcángel became the “Queen of the Missions” during its peak time.
Things People
Grew and Made at the Mission
The mission people needed food to
survive. As a result, they raised livestock and planted fruit trees and crops.
Some examples of what they grew were cows, chickens, pigs, corn, and grapes.
The women were taught how to make tortillas and tacos out of beef and corn
flour.
The mission people also learned how
to make lots of things from candles to wine. Men made metal products such as
nails and horseshoes. They also made leather out of cow hides, furniture, and
candles. The women weaved blankets and made clothes.
Conflict with
Indians
Some of the Indians resisted mission
life. Some of them lost trust for Mission San Gabriel Arcángel. This is because
a soldier assaulted the wife of a Tongva chief. The chief was angered. He
gathered some men and tried to kill the soldier but had himself beheaded. After
that, many Indians came to ask for the head of their chief. Later, many Indians
revolted and been punished. In addition to that, the Indians were whipped,
imprisoned, and weakened by disease that their bodies couldn’t fight off such
as cholera, dysentery, and smallpox. At Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, about
6,000 Indians were buried due to disease.
History and Present Day Use
Mission San Gabriel Arcángel was
used to claim land for Spain and teach Indians Christianity. In the early
1800s, secularization hit all missions hard. The Mexican government turned the
missions into pueblos. Many Indians were freed and most of the land was taken
by the settlers. After California became a state of the U.S.A., President
Buchanan returned the missions to the Catholic Church.
Visiting the Mission
My family and I went to visit Mission
San Gabriel Arcángel on February 12th, 2017. The tour around the mission was
peaceful and quiet.
We learned that the mission had its
water from nearby Wilson Lake which is Lacy Park in San Marino today. The
process of making wine starts from picking fresh grapes from the grapevine, then
the grape juice was squeezed out and stored into barrels underground. Making
olive oil had a similar process. Candles were made by tallow. A person would
hang ropes from a wheel above a large pot filled with tallow. He or she would
carefully pour melted tallow on the ropes. The more tallow that was poured on
the ropes, the fatter the candles would become. They would repeat this process
until candles grew into the size that they wanted them to be.
Conclusion
The missions are a very important
part of California’s history. They brought in agriculture and manufacture
skills to many different parts of Alta California. The missions are where the
Indian population nearly got wiped out and where neophytes’ lives got changed
forever.
Mission San Gabriel Arcángel taught
me a lot about the start of my own hometown in San Gabriel Valley. At mission
times, life was not easy. You would have to work harder than nowadays and the
work was truly challenging. I felt sorry for all the Indians who died of
diseases, and compassionate for the priests who taught Christianity to many
Indians. We should be thankful of the convenience we have today.
Bibliography
Boulé,
Mary. The Missions: California’s Heritage Mission San Gabriel Arcángel. Merryant Publishers Inc., 1988.
Krell, Dorothy, et
al. The
California Missions. Sunset Books,
1979.
MacMillan, Diane. Los Angeles Area Missions. Lerner
Publications Company, 2008.
McGinty, Alice. The
Missions of California Mission San Gabriel Arcángel. PowerKids Press, 2000.
Lyngheim,
Linda. The Indians and the California
Missions. Langtry Publications, 1990.