The History of Father Junipero Serra Bl. Junipero Serra: Glance at the Vineyard

Mar 23, 2015

Editor's note: This is part 10 of a series on the life of Bl. Junipero Serra in anticipation of his canonization. To read other articles in the series, click here.

IN the mid 18th century, Baja California was described as a land fit for three types of people: missionaries who, for the love of God and charity toward their neighbor, left the cultural ties of their homeland and elected to live in isolation and discomfort on a cheerless frontier to accomplish some spiritual good; Spaniards born in America who could make a living nowhere else and were useful there as cowboys and muleteers; the native Indians who knew no better and apparently were perfectly satisfied to be left alone.

The Jesuits had built some sort of a road connecting most of the missions but even they would not have boasted of its quality. It barely served the riders and the zealous missionaries of the time.

The natives of Baja California were at a primitive cultural level, for they lived solely by hunting, fishing and seed gathering and had neither letters, agriculture nor architecture. Anthropologists called such people lower nomads or marginal peoples. They were forced by circumstances to roam about within restricted areas to obtain their food.

Their menu included such things as roots, grasses and seeds, birds, horses, burros, mules, dogs, cats, rats, mice, snakes and bats; walnut leaves and certain types of edible wood; leather cured and uncured; the bones of birds, sheep, goats and calves. Fish and meat already putrid were eaten without discrimination.

The men went about completely naked, while the women wore clothing made of fibers and skins. Girls were taught how to make these coverings and children were expected to shift for themselves as soon as possible.
No basic education was given to the children; for the most part they were allowed to do as they pleased. The boys learned how to make the bow and arrow, for the Indians, even in the mission period, always carried these arms, more valuable to them than a knife and fork in so sterile a country. The shortage of water was a problem; urine was used to wash the face where water was lacking.

The Indians were well-proportioned people, of good presence, agile and fearless. Some were quick to learn, others hopelessly slow at acquiring new skills. They were great conversationalists with a sense of humor and a fund of jokes. A variety of dialects was found among them. The languages lacked expressions for Christian ideas and abstract concepts. It took no little ingenuity on the part of the missionaries to compose even the Lord's Prayer in the local dialects.

There was always an economic problem at the missions, despite the great efforts of the Jesuits to impart and apply European agricultural method to the stubborn New World soil. There was never enough food to go around; so the Indians were permitted to hunt on their own to supplement the mission produce. The lack of food made it impossible to gather all the Indians into the mission settlements and this factor retarded their effective culturalization.

Though Christianity had been propagated for over sixty years in the peninsula, there was still much to be done. Most of the Indians south of Santa Maria de los Angeles had come under Christian influences.
To this land and to these people came Fray Junípero Serra and his companions. When José de Galvez arrived, soon thereafter, he expected to find a miniature paradise on the peninsula. In his attempts to make over the area, he simply complicated the burdens of the missionaries.