California Gold: The Mission Santa Barbara

A somber reminder inside
the Mission.

Santa Barbara is one of the best beach communities in all of California. It has a beautiful harbor, a pleasant downtown area with a good walking score, a thriving wine scene, and it does well to keep in touch with its history, both Spanish and native. While there is a Chumash Reservation not far from the coast and old native cave paintings can be found atop the hills looking over the sea, one of the best collections of native artifacts can be found at the Santa Barbara Mission.

The Mission, sitting on a hill just north of town, was founded by Padre Fermín Lasuén in December of 1786. It is the tenth mission for the religious conversion of the indigenous local Chumash-Barbareño tribe. Many elements of the Mission's extensive water treatment system, all built by Chumash labor under the direction of the Franciscans (including aqueducts, two reservoirs, a filter house, and a hydro-powered gristmill) remain to this day, as do huts, gardening tools, textiles, and trinkets, all hand-crafted by native hands, much of it centuries ago. The reservoir, which was built in 1806 by the expedient of damming a canyon, had been a functioning component of the city's water system until 1993. The original fountain and lavadero are also intact near the entrance to the Mission.

The interior garden and courtyard.

Mission Santa Barbara's name comes from the legend of Saint Barbara, a girl who was supposedly beheaded by her father for following the Christian Faith. The early missionaries built three different chapels during the first few years, each larger than the previous one.

It was only after the great Santa Barbara Earthquake on December 21, 1812, which destroyed the existing buildings, that the construction on the current Mission was begun. It was completed and then dedicated in 1820.

Walkway around the courtyard.

Like many of the California Missions, Santa Barbara has a chapel, a garden courtyard, rooms for study and sleep. Unlike many of the other Missions, Santa Barbara has a natural beauty that even other places in California are jealous of. The flowers seem bigger, brighter. The air smells sweeter. The breeze feels more gentle.

The Mission grounds occupy a rise between the Pacific Ocean and the Santa Ynez Mountains. They were consecrated by Father Fermín Lasuén, who had taken over the presidency of the California mission chain upon the death of Mission founder Father Presidente Junípero Serra. Mission Santa Barbara is the only mission to remain under the leadership of the Franciscan Friars since its founding, and today is still a parish church of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

The Mission Santa Barbara

Walking through the exhibits and the active portions of the Mission, I thought of the sad irony that now exists. The irony that that the little we know about the native people who lived on this continent prior to European contact is due primarily to the Europeans themselves who wound up running them off.

It seems native artifacts tend to be best preserved and shared with the rest of the world in places where the native people themselves were actually subjugated. Books, movies, and Mission exhibits all give great insight to native life, but the shame is this desire to learn more about the locals arrived a bit too late.

Inside the chapel.

Santa Barbara has a lot to offer visitors coming in either for a long weekend or a long-term vacation. It can be easy to give in to the surf and wine and air of relaxation. But a stop at the Mission is not to be missed. There is a lot of history on this site and the church is a great place to see a piece of it.

The garden in bloom.

Founder Padre Fermín Lasuén

Interior garden.

Various tools used to build and maintain the Mission.

Example of some of the  beautiful artwork inside the Mission.

The front of the Mission.

The visitors' entrance to the Mission.

One last view of the interior courtyard.

California Gold: The Mission of San Juan Capistrano

The Mission Historical Placard

I am fascinated with the California Mission system. I'm captivated with the idea of non-American societies existing on land that today we can hardly think of as anything but American. Spanish Catholics building churches and compounds to house local indigenous tribes in modern day Orange County certainly fits this bill. All of this may have well been a million miles from General Washington and his Continentals who were busy with their own land battles at that same time. The Mission system history makes for a strong foundation to California's rich post-contact legacy.

The mission at San Juan Capistrano was founded in 1776 by Spanish Catholics of the Franciscan Order. It was named for Giovanni da Capistrano, a 15th-century "warrior priest" and Crusader. None of the Spaniards involved in the construction of the mission concerned themselves much about the war taking place on the eastern side of the continent. They were doing the Lord's work, training priests, converting heathens, and attempting to expand the powers of a weakening Spain. San Juan Capistrano has the distinction of being home to the oldest building in California still in use, the Serra Chapel built in 1782. It is the only extant structure where it has been documented that Junipero Serra, founder of the first nine California missions, celebrated Mass.

A part of the original cemetery used

for workers on the mission.

Interesting tidbit: The criolla grape, or "Mission grape," was first planted at San Juan Capistrano in 1779. By 1783 the first wine produced in Alta California was from the Mission's winery, a precursor to the state's future wine power.

The natives kept at the mission were the Juaneño or Acjachemen tribe, a tribe who resided throughout present-day San Diego and Orange Counties. At the mission they grew wheat and barley and tended to sheep and goats, all while saying prayers and bowing to the Mission Fathers. In the mid-1800s, the Mission entered a period of gradual and crumbling decline after Mexican government secularization. After California became a state in 1850, efforts were made to restore the Mission to its former state. To this day, restoration efforts continue. During my visit there were several support buildings surrounded by scaffolding where stone walls were being re-plastered.

Looking up through the smoke hole

inside an Indian hut.

The mission was number 7 in the chain of 21 missions created. It was originally designed in the shape of a cross similar to many Catholic churches today. The church once held seven domes and a bell tower so tall it could be seen from ten miles away. Ivy covers the broken walls today. Faded willows sway over the running fountain in the quadrangle and a bevy of flowers fill the mission gardens. Walking into the chapel, my eyes were drawn to the artwork on the walls and the gilded altarpiece before the pews.

"Each year on St. Joseph's Day, March 19," one of the local tour guides said, "the mission celebrates the return of the cliff swallows from Argentina with a traditional Mexican fiesta."

The ivy-covered exterior.

A Mexican fiesta in a Spanish Mission that was once supported by people of the Acjachemen Nation. And today it is a wealthy part of the US. History sure spins a tangled web.

Inside Serra's Chapel.

Strolling around the pleasant courtyard.

"In this Holy Place lie the bodies of those who built the Mission. May their
souls rest in peace."
The graves of the early friars.

I have my camera. And my thick socks. I'm ready to go.