Mission Dolores: A Pivotal Role in California’s History
The aim of this essay is to discuss the history of San Francisco de Asis or Mission Dolores which is the oldest existing structure in this city. It is the sixth religious settlement recognized as the part of the Californian chain of missions. With this particular structure, the history of the European settlement in California is revealed and the essentiality of the missionaries in spreading European culture and Christianity is also understood. This essay will be focusing on the contribution of the missionaries to make the native people of this area civilized by converting them into Christianity and making the church reputed so that the mission gets the window to enter California. At that time, very few regions gained such physical as well as a visual timeline of a nations’ growth and development. This essay will also discuss the importance of San Francisco de Asis in the lives of the native people.
The story represented by San Francisco de Asis is purely the historical facts of the missionaries who founded this site on 9th October 1776. According to the history of this place, the first European who explored this place where the Spanish explorer father Huan Crespi and Don Portola. After these Spanish explorers, the Englishmen quickly understood the natural benefits of this place and lieutenant Joaquin Moraga and Francisco Palou set the mission (Panich and Schneider 2015). This mission was named after the saint Fancis of Assisi who was the founder of Franciscan order of missionaries. However., as this place was nearer to the creek named Arroyo de los Dolores, this led the place to gain the name of Mission Dolores. According to Panich and Schneider (2015) it was built under the leadership of Father Serra a superior and Majorcan of all the Franciscan fathers. However, it was the first of the nine missions of Father Serra which he personally founded. This mission was at the beginning of twenty-one missions to form the framework of what is now the modern state. This mission was settled by a small number of settlers and soldiers but it quickly grew in size. The collective initiative and efforts had made this building culturally reputed within few years in all of the city with a huge number of visitors.
The Mission San Francisco de Asis now sits in the heart of the city San Francisco and is considered to be the oldest building in the city. This particular building, as mentioned before, reveals the deepest history of the missionary settlement in California. In this building, the first mission church had only a 50-foot long log with mud structure. Father Serra dedicated this building to Saint Francis in 1776 (Panich and Schneider 2015). This particular structure had been replaced in 1791 with an adobe chapel that can be seen still today. Most of the part of the original interior of the chapel is intact. The San Francisco Mission was settled by the Spanish explorer to colonies as well a evangelize the native people of the city. Therefore, it can be stated that the mission was established for spreading Christianity among the native people of California in one hand and colonize this place for its natural benefits. In the early 19th century, this mission grew fast and become one of the most important and largest settlements of Spanish invaders. This place bears the history of building a strong religious institution, centring which, different communities like soldiers, traders, farmers and native people started to live. This place tells the story how this mission housed more than a thousand people with thousands of livestock for using in the farms and ranching (Panich and Schneider (2015).
Building the Mission San Francisco de Asis
Mission San Francisco de Asis at the time of Father Serra remained unchallenged as the pivotal force in the history of California. The history of this place is the history of the missions’ glory of achieving the height in the early 19th century in all over California. From the artifacts and other resources restored in the mission chapel it can be seen that towards the later part of the 19th century, this mission gradually deteriorated in terms of its service. This is dues to the fact that different types of issues such as native rebellion, disease ad the problems of the Mexican government intensified. The glory of this San Francisco de Asís completely turned into ashes at the time of Gold Rush in 1848.
The history of San Francisco de Asis also includes the incidents that affected the structure. In the 1906 earthquake, this building partially survived through the entire San Francisco city was decimated. The original adobe chapel survived but most of the neighbourhood burning down. In 1913, the brick church was planned to be rebuilt as it was completely destroyed in the fire. This structure, however, was completed in 1918 from then on, the mission Dolores Basilica become a reputed symbol of the neighbourhood. The church of San Francisco de Asis was redesigned with Churrigueresque ornamentation which was inspired by the Panama-California Exposition (Ochoa et al. 2016). This transformed the Basilica into the most visually stunning building in the mission complex.
The history of San Francisco de Asís is incomplete without the effect of the native people on the development of the mission. The guilted reredos, as well as colorful wall paintings, bear the impact of early California art (Cordova 2017). The history of San Francisco de Asís is the history of the oppression against the native people of California. From the early scriptures, it has been founded that the missionaries of this church, ended the defaming slave system and converted the natives into Christianity. It also ignited the communication of the allure of new technology as well as goods to the native people of the place. This is the reason why the connection between the Franciscans and the native Californians were quite friendly. However, this also had the negative aspects that relate to the baptizing of the natives under this particular church. These natives used to be converted into Christianity without completely understanding the consequence s of this religious act (Rivera 2016). These natives thus compelled to become labourers of the church and could not leave the mission without consent. These converted natives used to be hunted as runaways if fled. The mission used physical punishment for any reason to these natives and took the heavy toll to treat the diseases unknown.
San Francisco de Asis: The Heart and Soul of the City
The history of San Francisco de Asis is represented from the perspectives of the missionaries came to the city of San Francisco but I need to have a fresh understanding of the history of that particular time. As mentioned before, Father Serra was unchallenged as a pivotal role in the early history of the country but this history has been reevaluating. The main aims of the missionaries in invading this place of California does not only have a religious connotation but this also has political and administrative institutionalization. To Howell (2016), it was the chief way to subjugate the indigenous group and their protests against their treatment by the missionaries. It was the subjugation of the native culture with the imposition of Christian culture on the indigenous people. For more than twenty-five generations, prior to the advent of the missionaries, the native Californians lived under the terms of their own culture. To Panich (2016) despite the fact they heavily encountered the diseases, violence and social forces, they used to find the solution of their own without any help from the missionaries. However, after the Spanish explorers entered their territory only to enslave these people and used them mainly for labour. The identity of these native Californians however lost and they started to be converted into Christianity. These, however, are not shown in the history of the San Francisco de Asis but needs to be incorporated (Panich et al. 2014).
However, this historical site can improve the way of telling its history. With the change of time, the understanding of the viewers has changed so also their matters of attractions. This is the reason why San Francisco de Asis needs to implement some changes in the preservation method of the building. As mentioned before, this particular historical site of San Francisco de Asis has represented its importance to the local community, therefore, applies less to the national as well as international tourists or visitors (Panich 2016). By following some very important methods this historical site can refer to the perspectives of the local people also.
In order to change the perspectives of the decision makers and to tell the story of San Francisco de Asis differently, the states and municipality historic preservation officers need to take initiative. The storytelling capacity will be increased when the local residents get a scope of introducing themselves in this process of restoring the site. By forming a volunteer group from there residents who will gather the information from the local communities about the history of sixth mission in San Francisco de Asis will be helpful to incorporate different points of view about this particular historical site (Panich 2016). The historic preservation officers will be employing local planning agency staffs who along with these communities will be educating about the importance of this century-old resources and encourage the local training program. This will contribute into the flourishment of the businesses in this site that include a print shop and several saloons.
The History of San Francisco de Asis and The Native Californians
The storytelling process will be more effective when the site will be included in the process of national tourism authority. As tours are the truest method of building a community’s support for the historic resources as well as the significant architecture. This can be also done through the creation of the website and proper usage of technological help. This particular mission’s building does not have any personal websites through which it can convey information to the visitors (Schneider 2015). This method will be helping the researchers of the historic places around the world in one hand, attract the historical place lovers one the other. This San Francisco de Asis is undoubtedly having attractive features but more tourists must know about its historical importance in the history of the spread of Christian and this will be served through the online promotion of the suite. This will also attract the business as well as government to invest more for its restoration.
Another method of increasing attraction of the visitors and researchers in the community workshops and seminars. The main process of storytelling will be done through these seminars and these programs will amalgamate the different points of views of the San Francisco de Asis describing both what is written in this historical structure as well as the responses of the local people when the missionaries approached them first (Hull and Voss 2016). These methods are important as San Francisco de Asis presents the tangible past having both cultural and practical value of the old buildings in California and preserving this is beneficial for both the culture of the community as well as the growth of local economy.
Therefore, it can be concluded that the San Francisco de Asis or Mission Dolores is the oldest existing structure in the city of San Francisco which is one of the most important historical places attracting researchers and tourists from the national and global places. The story represented by San Francisco de Asis is purely the historical facts of the missionaries which tells little about the other factors except for Christianity and its positive effect on the people in this place. The Mission San Francisco de Asis is, however, having a different history which shows the incidents from the perspectives of the native people converted forcibly into Christianity and suffered hugely due to this invasion in their place. Their culture, religions and their identity had been submerged in the powerful dominance of the Franciscan fathers and their lives changed into free people to slaves or labours working under the church. In order to show this story also the government need to invest in the creation of the website and proper usage of technological help so that more people can know the history of this place and interpret the story properly.
References:
Cordova, Cary. The Heart of the Mission: Latino Art and Politics in San Francisco. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017.
Howell, Ocean. Making the mission: planning and ethnicity in San Francisco. University of Chicago Press, 2015.
Hull, Kathleen L., and Barbara L. Voss. “Native Californians at the Presidio of San Francisco: analysis of lithic specimens from El Polin spring.” International Journal of Historical Archaeology 20, no. 2 (2016): 264-288.
Ochoa, María Yolanda Rodríguez, María de Lourdes López Palacios, and María de los Dolores Zamora Fernández. “Management of religious heritage: a proposal of a poblano former Franciscan convents of New Spain era tour guide.” International Journal of Scientific Management and Tourism 2, no. 4 (2016): 227-270.
Panich, Lee M. “After Saint Serra: Unearthing indigenous histories at the California missions.” Journal of Social Archaeology 16, no. 2 (2016): 238-258.
Panich, Lee M. “Beyond the colonial curtain: Investigating indigenous use of obsidian in Spanish California through the pXRF analysis of artifacts from Mission Santa Clara.” Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 5 (2016): 521-530.
Panich, Lee M., and Tsim D. Schneider. “Expanding mission archaeology: A landscape approach to indigenous autonomy in colonial California.” Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 40 (2015): 48-58.
Panich, Lee M., Helga Afaghani, and Nicole Mathwich. “Assessing the diversity of mission populations through the comparison of Native American residences at Mission Santa Clara de Asís.” International Journal of Historical Archaeology18, no. 3 (2014): 467-488. Panich, L.M., Afaghani, H. and Mathwich, N., 2014
Rivera, José A. “The Roots of Community in the Historic Rio Arriba: Mutualism, Cultural Endurance and Resilience.” (2016).
Schneider, Tsim D. “Placing refuge and the archaeology of indigenous hinterlands in colonial California.” American Antiquity 80, no. 4 (2015): 695-713. Schneider, T.D., 2015
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