BajaNomad

Baja Missions that had name changes. Was it just to confuse us?

David K - 12-25-2018 at 10:19 AM

It seems that I have always enjoyed de-mystifying things or at least to clear up confusion or errors that were made, made perhaps innocently.

The many books and articles written over the past 120 years about the old missions in Baja California typically contained conflicting data. Facts about the number of missions, the names of the missions, the years they were missions, and even who were at the missions, was often different from one book to the next.

The most prevalent problem was when an author simply repeated information from a previous book, which isn't bad in itself except when the information was flawed.

For my book to be both unique and free of these conflicting facts I went to the letters and books written by people who were alive and at the missions whenever possible.

A mission was more than a church building. It was an enterprise, a colony, a project that included irrigation, farming, manufacturing, a hospital, a school, accommodations, sometimes barracks for soldiers, livestock, etc.

Nearly half the missions moved to new locations for reasons such as better water supply or more land for farming. When a mission moved it often adopted the new location's name as a more accurate reference point in letters. The official name usually stayed the same as it was financed in advance by an endowment for that name.

However, this was not always true! It was no surprise that when past authors saw letters about a mission, using the new location name instead of the official name, it looked like another mission existed when in fact it was the same mission at a different location! There were 25 Spanish missions in Baja California. Two more were founded by a Dominican after Mexico's independence but not all historians agree they should be called missions as well.

Let us examine some of these and what were the new names and why:

#3: San Juan Bautista de Ligüí (1705) > San Juan Bautista de Malibat

Ligüí was the Native (Monqui) name for the location. The missionaries called the mission simply "San Juan" in the beginning and later "Ligüí" in their letters. The Monqui Indians moved away and were replaced with Cochimí Indians who had their own name for the location: Malibat.

This mission was the first to fail and be abandoned by the Jesuits, in 1721. The padre in charge received new funding from a different benefactor and opened a new mission 50 miles south, at a place called locally Apaté. See #9 Los Dolores.

#7Nuestra Señora del Pilar de la Paz Airapí (1720)> Nuestra Señora del Pilar de la Paz/ Todos Santos (1748)

Pilar de la Paz is usually called simply La Paz, located near the bay of the same name and now under some modern buildings in the city of that name. The local Indian name was Airapí.

In 1748, the mission was closed at the bay and moved 50 miles south to its successful visita of Todos Santos. A younger mission was already there named Santa Rosa but the senior mission, Pilar de la Paz, replaced it in name. The mission was usually called Todos Santos after the move, especially after the Jesuits were replaced.

#9 Nuestra Señora de los Dolores (1721) > La Pasión (1741)

In 1721, the mission at Malibat (Ligüí) closed and the Jesuits, with new funding, opened the mission of Los Dolores at Apaté. Twenty years later, the mission was moved 15 miles inland to its visita of La Pasión at a place the Indians called Tañuetía or Chillá.

Jesuit letters often called the mission "Dolores del Sur" at the first location and "La Pasión" at the second location but official lists and maps still referred to it as Dolores following the move. The reason for the "del Sur" was to not have confusion with an important and older visita of Loreto named Dolores.

#17 Calamajué (1766) > Santa María de los Angeles (1767)

One Jesuit provides an official name for the 1766 mission, calling it Nuestra Señora de Columna. However, all other references use the modified local Indian name of Calamajué for this final Jesuit mission. Seven months after it was founded, the mission was moved 30 miles and given an entirely new name. One mission, two different names.

If anyone besides me finds this interesting, there are a couple more I can add!
Merry Christmas!

Edit: Here is one more...

#22 San Miguel Archángel (1787) > San Miguel la Nueva/ El Descanso (1810)

In 1809, flash floods carried off the soil from the mission's farmlands so that by 1810 Padre Tomás de Ahumada found it necessary to relocate the mission some 8 miles north at a place known as El Descanso. At some unknown date, Ahumada returned to the older San Miguel mission but he likely maintained farms or mission functions also at the newer location.

In 1830, Padre Félix Caballero built a "new" mission at El Descanso, on the north side of the valley there, opposite of the moved San Miguel mission. In 1834, Caballero abandoned both San Miguel and El Descanso and moved operations to his new mission of Guadalupe.

[Edited on 12-26-2018 by David K]

4x4abc - 12-25-2018 at 11:40 AM

Quote: Originally posted by David K  

Jesuit letters often called the mission "Dolores del Sur" at the first location and "La Pasión" at the second location but official lists and maps still referred to it as Dolores following the move. The reason for the "del Sur" was to not have confusion with an important and older visita of Loreto named Dolores.


the Dolores 2 miles south of San Javier?

David K - 12-25-2018 at 01:58 PM

No, near Loreto. I don't know a mission visita 2 miles from San Javier.

Jack Swords - 12-25-2018 at 02:37 PM

9 miles south is the Visita de la Presentación. Possibly this it?

4x4abc - 12-25-2018 at 11:40 PM

25°50'2.14"N, 111°31'31.94"W

4x4abc - 12-25-2018 at 11:56 PM

see 1849 Puerto Escondido map indicating the mountain trail to Dolores

chuckie - 12-26-2018 at 08:16 AM

In 1924 Constantinople was changed to Istanbul.....Why was that?

David K - 12-26-2018 at 09:55 AM

Harald, the Dolores trail on that map is to the Rancho Dolores at the first Mission Dolores site. This was on the coast, midway to La Paz from Loreto.

Why the sidebars here? Start a new thread for this new set of questions.

4x4abc - 12-26-2018 at 10:25 AM

Merry Christmas to you too, David!

David K - 12-26-2018 at 10:44 AM

Thank you, Harald! I hope you get some relief from pain and that you regain the use of your leg!

David K - 12-26-2018 at 04:30 PM

I added one more mission to the list.

David K - 12-27-2018 at 09:41 AM

Quote: Originally posted by 4x4abc  
25°50'2.14"N, 111°31'31.94"W


Looks like a nice modern ranch. Even the 2010 AAA map names it Los Dolores but there is no connection with the mission of Los Dolores I am detailing in this thread located far south of this ranch.