THE
MAN
FATHER JUNÍPERO SERRA, THE MAN
. . Interviews with California
historians and scholars assessing Father Junípero Serra's
role in the early history of California identify the Franciscan
missionary as a major figure in California history whose founding
of Mission San Diego de Alcala on July 16, 1769, marked the introduction
of a new civilization in California. Father Serra came to what
is now California as a 56-year-old man, asthmatic and suffering
from a chronic leg sore that troubled him for the last 15 years
of his life. Yet he walked thousands of miles, rode thousands
more on the backs of mules, and traveled thousands of miles in
sailing ships, bringing the Spanish language to California, as
well as the Roman Catholic religion and a chain of nine missions
that became the cities of today's California. He introduced agriculture
and irrigation systems, pressed for a system of law to protect
California's Native Americans against the abuses of Spanish soldiers
and created a network of roads.
. . The following excerpts of
interviews with historians and scholars, as well as a Franciscan
priest with extensive knowledge of the life of the pioneer missionary,
describe Father Serra, the man:
DR. MICHAEL MATHES, Professor of history
at the University of San Francisco:
. . "Serra was the founder
and the pioneer of California. The poor man has had no privacy
for years. Everybody has picked at every little aspect that could
be known about this man's life."
. . "Serra fought with the
military and with the governors a lot. He was unusual in that
regard. . . So we have, in a lot of correspondence of these governors,
criticism of Serra, lots of criticism. But this criticism of
Serra revolves around the fact that he was too much involved
in the care and treatment of the Indians, that he would not allow
soldiers to mingle with the Indians. He didn't want these people
(the Indians) to be tainted with any possible immoral activities
that the soldiers might be involved with.
. . "First came the Indians
in his missions. Then, if there was anything left over, the soldiers
could have it. These were the complaints of the government, of
the civil governors: that Serra was such a fanatical missionary
that he really didn't want to cooperate with the civilian government,
that his first concern was the taking care of his mission. Criticism
of Serra is really a boomerang against anybody that would say
Serra was a 'bad person ,' because the criticism of him supports
the theory that he was a dedicated missionary, He may not have
been much of a diplomat or civil servant, but he was one fine
missionary."
DR. HARRY KELSEY, curator of history at the
Los Angeles Museum of Natural History:
. . "Father Serra was certainly
a very human man. He had lots of weaknesses, I suppose, but he
had tremendous dedication and strength of purpose. He was as
old as I am before he even came to California... It's something
to think about doing when you're in your 20s and 30s, not when
you're in your 50s. Serra had been a college professor for a
long time, a fairly well known theologian, and he had lived a
pretty comfortable life. When he went to Mexico, he decided he
wanted to go to the missions, so his superiors sent him off to
the missions. When he finished his mission, he decided that wasn't
quite enough. He wanted to come here to the real frontier, so
they sent him up here. "
. . "He tended to fly off the
handle with the governors. Whether the governors could have been
treated effectively any other way, I don't know. Serra got the
missions started, though, and he was able to put them on a pretty
firm footing."
DR. DAVID HORNBECK, professor of historical
geography at California State University, Northridge:
. . "I look at him more
as a leader in a sense of his extraordinary administrative ability,
and his ability to coordinate the settlement of a whole new frontier.
He did it all by himself... If he'd done that for Kentucky, if
Father Serra had been Daniel Boone or any one of the sort of
folk heroes that we have, well, their feats are exaggerated way
beyond what they actually did. Yet, we have somebody here who
took a whole brand new frontier, didn't know anything about it,
and in four years had taken and converted it to a functioning,
organized frontier."
DR. IRIS ENGSTRAND, professor and chair of
the Department of History at the University of San Diego:
. . "We know Father Serra's
life from the time he was born, where he was trained, what he
thought and what he did. He wasn't out there saying, 'Wow, look
at all these Indians. Let's whip them into shape.' He was physically
there, he worked hard, worked 18 hours a day. He was much nicer
to the Indians, really, than even to the governors. He didn't
get along too well with some of the military people, you know.
His attitude was, 'Stay away from the Indians.' I think you really
come up with a benevolent, hard-working person who was strict
in a lot of his doctrinal leanings and things like that, but
not a person who was enslaving Indians, or beating them, ever."
. . ". . . He was a very caring
person and forgiving. Even after the burning of the mission in
San Deigo, he did not want those Indians punished. He wanted
to be sure that they were treated fairly. . . "
DR. GLORIA MlRANDA, an historian who is associate
professor and chair of the Chicano Studies Department at Los
Angeles Valley College and who is working on a book about the
pioneering family during Father Serra's time:
. . "He clearly saw the
need for stability on the frontier. He was also very zealous
in his protection of the tribes that he was working with. Often
some of the soldiers who came north were not the best role models
to imitate."
. . "He is as much a pioneer
of the West as the pioneers we cherish in U. S. history. Not
only because he introduced a faith -- he was a colonizer, an
explorer, a man of great determination. Not that many people
come around in history.
. . "His age is much more amazing.
And his illness, his physical limitations. He was a very humble
man, too. With his credentials, he could have had a very nice
cloistered life, but he chose a life of hardship, which is very
much apostolic, I think."
FATHER FRANCIS F. GUEST, O. F.M., director
of the Santa Barbara Mission Archive-Library:
. . "He was a man who was
not really interested in fame or in honor, or in being held in
high regard by the government or by the Viceroys, or by anyone.
He was simply interested in doing his spiritual work and if somebody
else got the credit for it, he was not concerned one way or the
other.
. . "To me, this was an act
of extraordinary virtue, extraordinary generosity. It might even
be called magnanimity. He was very big-hearted in his love for
the Indians, in his love for his work and his dedication to his
work. He had very pure intentions. I think that this was an act
of virtue on his part, which would merit him very high praise
from historians who studied his life from this viewpoint." |