Originally posted by Bajatripper
A fellow Nomad has contacted me to tell me she objected to my strong statement over the posting of May 11th as the founding day of the San Javier
Mission. While my reaction may have been unusually strong, given the apparent innocence of the thread (as I noted in the post itself), there was a
clue as to the background to it.
Last year about this same time a similar post was made, probably by the same person. Since I’ve been attending the Fiestas de San Javier held in the
first week of December off and on since 1964 and was aware of Spanish Explorers’ tradition of naming many places after the day on the Spanish calendar
that the discovery was made, I assumed (yeah, I know) that the founding days were being celebrated in December. I posted on that thread, questioning
the correctness of the day of celebration. The thread was immediately “disappeared.” Since there wasn’t a correction offered, my conclusion was that
it must have been a joke. So when I saw the same “joke” appear a second time, around the same time of year, my reaction was “bullchit” (as a lifer
sailor, you’ll have to trust me that, for me, “bullchit” is almost a polite term).
As this thread’s originator explained, I was wrong on my assumption and December is nothing more than a celebration of the village’s saint’s day.
Raices went on to say that the actual foundation day of the village is May 11th. Of course, I took notice and verified what was being said. I did find
out I WAS TOTALLY WRONG about the December-foundation tie-in. If the deal had ended there, a HUGE apology would have been in order on my behalf.
But I didn’t just find out that I was wrong about the foundation day of San Javier, I also found out that Raices was wrong about the day,
too. From anything I can find out, it appears the people of San Javier actually consider March 10th as their foundation day.
I was further informed by my sister Nomad that this whole village celebration is for a good cause, to raise money, etc. etc. I’m all for good causes
and support them as much as I’m able to. I would never interfere with such causes and apologize if my comment was taken as out of line by the majority
of my fellow readers. But I suspect that Raices, papafox and my letter-writer are the same person, so we really don’t have much of a consensus yet.
I visited the website you recommended (livingrootsbaja.org) and, by all appearances, it seems like a worthwhile enterprise and I think it’s great that
they’ve decided to help preserve the ranchero culture of Baja California (for a good history on this, visit the Casa de la Cultura on 16th of
September and Belizario Dominguez). They were the true “forjadores” of the peninsula. Bu--if it turns out that San Javier’s foundation day is March
10th--then there must be some accountability on your behalf for misrepresenting the truth (that was the whole point of the La Paz article).
Or does the truth only matter when “the other side” misuses it?
But I totally support your mission statement on the website. |
In southern Baja there are lots of Groovy/Save the Baja and free Yoga and Timeshares? Somehow San Javier and Comondu may better
benefit from support and non interference?! Simply spoken just go and visit. Let's go visit, Tripper.
And then we'll go down to Auggies. Sale, Tio