Mission San Gabriel Arcángel (by William)

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.