BajaNomad

Books about the California Missions in Baja California

David K - 10-30-2020 at 10:34 AM

I recently did a post on my Baja California Land of Missions Facebook Group page showing the cover or title page of books that are about the missions of Baja, all the missions, not just the Jesuit ones. There are many books about the Jesuit missions, only a couple about the Dominican missions, and a few about all three Orders of missions (Jesuit: 17, Franciscan: 1, Dominican: 9).

Since many of you do not read Facebook, here are the books I have that are about just the various Baja missions. If you know of one not shown, please let me know! This excludes guidebooks that mention missions, travel story books, and as I mentioned, books only about the Jesuit founded missions.



#1: 1929
The first and most detailed book on all the missions. Contains records that were destroyed in the San Francisco Quake/ Fire of 1906. This is a second edition. The first edition was in 1908.




#2: 1968
The second book in my list by date.
Almost the same name as Engelhardt's 1929 book, but much less mission detail. Still, it is a good source of history. Contains some post-mission period church details, as well.




#3: 1968
The third book is actually a trip by two young men in 1949-50 who fought in the war, seeking historic adventure in Baja! They went by Jeep, Mule, and on foot to see every mission they had read about and took photos at each, as well. Because they documented this trip so well, and offer excellent data of the mission sites, it is more than a travel story.




#4: 1973 & #5: 1975
The 4th book is small in size but wonderfully full of great writing with a mix of fact with lost mission lore, too. My favorite mission book in high school. I would meet the author 27 years later and form a friendship with her before she died (2002). This 5th book in the list by date is a revised edition of Pepper's 1973 book... and a slightly altered title.




#6: 1977
This is the well-known, Michael Mathes mission history book, with a large color photo for each mission. Included are the names of visitas for many of the missions.




#7: 1978
Tomás Robertson's book was a very popular and handy guide to all the missions. Its size was convenient to bring along on a Baja California trip, too. From the La Siesta Press (Walt Wheelock), which made several books about Baja California.




#8: 1979
This second Baja California mission book from Francis Weber details the final years of the missions and some church data after the missions were abandoned.




#9: 2002
Ed Vernon's big-beautiful, coffee table-quality book is full of color photos and lots of details. Perhaps the best-made mission history book for illustrating the missions. Most of Ed's data was good. The book was not convenient to bring along on a trip, however. Ed and I were friends and he shared photos with me of missions I hadn't been to, yet.




#10: 2003
Dave Werschkul combined mission history with a road log and GPS to every mission site. Dave wanted to give the Native Indian side to the story more weight than other books had (thus the Demons). Sadly a few historic details were not checked and the book didn't get published as it should but remains available through on-demand printing by Xlibris. It is handy in size and the mission site directions alone are worth the purchase price. I gave Dave some road guide editing help when he was writing it.




#11: 2008
More of a giant, cardboard-backed folding map of Baja California (satellite image) that shows the El Camino Real and missions, than a book. Sadly the route and the mission data is filled with errors. Impressive production but a real disappointment in accuracy.





#12: 2009
Michael Mathes' final book on the missions and history of Baja California. A nice read!



#13: 2012
A book I co-authored with Max Kurillo and his companion to correctly show how the California missions were actually founded. Brief history of each mission and many photographs from past and present (2012).



#14: 2016
After writing a series of detailed articles on all the missions and the missionaries, I wanted to make my own book with the most accurate mission history and previously unpublished details plus directions and GPS for every mission and the lost mission legends explained. Widely accepted for its contents and now in its 8th printing with updates for 2020.




#15: 2020
Once again, co-authoring with historian Max Kurillo, an updated and expanded version of our 2012 book, with a slightly different, shorter title.


Worth mentioning are Robert Jackson's books about Mission Indians and his book on all the missions of Spanish America. Dr. Jackson is 'academicanarchist' on Nomad:

1994:


2005:

David K - 10-31-2020 at 03:33 PM

I would think there would be more!

So many books were written about the Jesuits in Baja (1683-1768) and so few on the Franciscans in Baja (1768-1773) or the Dominicans (1773-1855) who were in Baja the longest.

It has a lot to do with the letters and records kept. The Jesuits were fantastic at documenting their activities and preserving letters. The Franciscans with their Alta California missions and only five years running the Baja missions have not much good to say about Baja and were happy to hand off the peninsula to the Dominicans!

Many Dominican letters and mission record books were lost in the 1906 San Francisco quake/fire, as they were stored there after Dominicans went to Baja to rescue any artifacts from the crumbling, abandoned ruins. Fortunately, many letters and records were discovered nearly fifty years later... and the answers to some mysteries were in them!

Just some of the reasons that make Baja's Mission history so interesting to me!

jhart - 11-1-2020 at 06:55 AM

Hi David,
Looks like you are maybe the resident expert on Baja Missions. I'm a winemaker making wine in So. Cal (winery in Temecula and Julian). I work with a vineyard in Temecula that has Mission grapes reported to be from original Mission rootstock, planted in the late 1800's. I'd like to get grape plant material from a Baja mission vineyard to compare DNA to the vines we work with in Temecula to see if they are genetically the same. Do you know which Baja missions (if any) have grapevines still growing? Thanks, Jim

David K - 11-1-2020 at 07:23 AM

Quote: Originally posted by jhart  
Hi David,
Looks like you are maybe the resident expert on Baja Missions. I'm a winemaker making wine in So. Cal (winery in Temecula and Julian). I work with a vineyard in Temecula that has Mission grapes reported to be from original Mission rootstock, planted in the late 1800's. I'd like to get grape plant material from a Baja mission vineyard to compare DNA to the vines we work with in Temecula to see if they are genetically the same. Do you know which Baja missions (if any) have grapevines still growing? Thanks, Jim


What an interesting question!

Of course, all the missions are abandoned with a few mission churches used today as parish churches.

Perhaps the best known "mission" wine is the Santo Tomás brand (based in Ensenada, I believe). They are claimed to have originated from the mission's grapevines.

There was a mission in the Guadalupe Valley where so many vineyards are today... Guadalupe was the mission's name... It existed for only about 5 years, however.

South of Santo Tomás, the next mission that may have old vines is San Borja. There see José, and he will show you if any ancient vines survived. The next mission south, and famous for using hollowed boulders for wine vats (as oak was not available), is Santa Gertrudis. I think Greg Niemann did a Baja Bound article about that?

Here it is: https://www.bajabound.com/bajaadventures/bajafever/thefirstc...

The next mission with grapevines is San Ignacio. There is a label for the wine produced there...


The final missions that I think might have some old grapevines include Comondú, San Javier, and La Purísima???

A recon trip would be in order! I would be happy to serve as guide. :D
PS, I live just a dozen miles from Temecula.



JJ Rousseau LABEL.jpg - 32kB


To visualize where the missions are located on the peninsula, a map from my book:


The two final missions (El Descanso, 1830 and Guadalupe del Norte, 1834) were not Spanish, but founded by a Dominican after Mexico's independence. They are just north and just east of San Miguel on this map.

In addition to the missions, it could be possible some ancient vines were planted at visitas or ranchos? Baja Nomad member 'Baja Bucko' has been riding mules on the El Camino Real and doing a DNA study of the old mountain ranch families. She would be a good one to ask about old vines surviving at these places, I think!

[Edited on 11-1-2020 by David K]

mtgoat666 - 11-1-2020 at 07:55 AM

Your list of books provides a distorted Pro-church view. Why don’t you include these books to tell the rest of the story?

A Cross of Thorns: The Enslavement of California’s Indians by the Spanish Missions. Elias Castillo. 2015.

Archibald, Robert. Indian Labor at the California Missions: Slavery Or Salvation?







David K - 11-1-2020 at 08:30 AM

You are free to make your own post about Indians in Alta California missions, although that is off topic. My post is about BAJA MISSION BOOKS that include all the Baja California missions. Note that I included Dr. Jackson's book on the subject, Indian Population Decline !

mtgoat666 - 11-1-2020 at 08:37 AM

Here is another book to provide a more balanced perspective:

Converting California: Indians and Franciscans in the Missions,
by Professor James A. Sandos

David K - 11-1-2020 at 09:04 AM

Again, you are talking about Alta California missions. The Franciscans were running the Baja California missions for only 5 years.
The Jesuits were there for 70 years and the Dominicans for 80 years.
I am asking if anyone knows of any other books about all the Baja California missions.

There is this one of illustrations of many of the missions, from 1984:


A couple of samples:






[Edited on 11-1-2020 by David K]

mtgoat666 - 11-1-2020 at 09:14 AM

Quote: Originally posted by David K  
You are free to make your own post about Indians in Alta California missions, although that is off topic. My post is about BAJA MISSION BOOKS that include all the Baja California missions. Note that I included Dr. Jackson's book on the subject, Indian Population Decline !


You don’t seem to recognize the total disappearance of the indigenous peoples and culture in Baja was a tragedy, a genocide.
You continuallly portray the mission expansion as a jolly adventure of jovial padres exploring trails in the desert, building quaint missions, planting grapes and palms, and being kind to puppies and kittens.
The truth is that It was a deliberate genocide, a deliberate effort to exterminate indigenous culture and religion, and force people from their lands to provide a Forced labor force for Spanish settlers. It was naked imperialism by the church and state acting in concert, and the imperialists were bigots that thought the indigenous people were simple savages to be converted, forcibly moved to where labor was needed, and forced into labor.


[Edited on 11-1-2020 by mtgoat666]

mtgoat666 - 11-1-2020 at 09:29 AM

There are Unmarked mass graves at many of the Alta and Baja California missions. As you walk around the old mission site, marveling at the pleasant environs, you may be trampling over the dead, the victims of the mission system.

David K - 11-1-2020 at 11:37 AM

No doubt that most graves no longer are marked.
The post is about books... Specifically, Baja mission books.

pacificobob - 11-1-2020 at 02:02 PM

Quote: Originally posted by mtgoat666  
Your list of books provides a distorted Pro-church view. Why don’t you include these books to tell the rest of the story?

A Cross of Thorns: The Enslavement of California’s Indians by the Spanish Missions. Elias Castillo. 2015.

Archibald, Robert. Indian Labor at the California Missions: Slavery Or Salvation?









i believe the only picture the books that david mentioned want to paint is one of the "kindly 'ol padres" bringing the enlightenment of jebus to the otherwise filthy pagans. thus, sparing them from a bumbling life of ignorant sin..
that is certainly the version i was fed as a kid in California schools.

David K - 11-1-2020 at 05:14 PM

I was a kid in California, and both my kids built mission models for the fourth grade project.

I can tell you for all of us, religion was not the slightest influence. It was purely a lesson in developing a colony on the Spanish frontier and what it took to build, grow food, and develop the land for it's residents and future settlers. The church was the center of a 1700s community, so we understood why it was the centerpiece of the model.

I think the missions are artifacts of history. Many Nomads are interested in seeing history. These books allow one to find history in Baja, even without leaving home. I made this post hoping to learn of more books, and to show ones I know about.

mtgoat666 - 11-1-2020 at 06:48 PM

Quote: Originally posted by David K  

The post is about books... Specifically, Baja mission books.


Sounds like you only want fairy tale books about missions. Why don’t you want to know about books that tell the real story about the missions?

The initial missions were built by slaves, indigenous peoples. The laborers died off from diseases at alarming rates. The building of the churches was part of a genocide, a tragedy.

Are the missions churches or mass graves?

jhart - 11-3-2020 at 06:28 AM

A road trip for sure!

pacificobob - 11-3-2020 at 07:04 AM

whats next? auschwitz was a summer camp like the ones impotus provides at the border for immigrant children? one doesn't have to dig deep to know what type of operation the 'ol padres were running....same goes for the early mining operators....slavery...its just that simple. you are entitled to your own opinions...but not your own facts.

David K - 11-3-2020 at 09:14 AM

Because we like to see old buildings or the endeavours of people hundreds of years ago, does not give a stamp of approval to any government or religion.

The Jesuits operated in Peninsular California far differently than the Franciscans or Dominicans. When there was ugly behavior, it came after the Jesuits were removed and the Spanish government took over control.

Conquest happens and people get displaced. Is your answer to just pretend things didn't happen and somehow the history will change or say that what happened was an evil thing and we shouldn't read about it?

These books are mainly a study of the artifacts, the building of churches, roads, canals, and reservoirs in a most difficult land. The books also tell about how and who made the moves to occupy California. These are things we today can see and why they have so much interest. If not the Spanish, than another world power would have "invaded" and brought disease, etc. These events happened so let's learn about it and not hide it. Dr. Jackson (academicanachist) wrote a book about the Indian population decline (see above). Dave Werschkul highlighted the Native plight more, as well, in his book, pictured above.

Read these books... If you are really interested, THAT is why I am sharing them here!

I was asking if there are any more Baja California mission books for us to study.

David K - 11-3-2020 at 09:16 AM

Quote: Originally posted by jhart  
A road trip for sure!


Feel free to contact me off of Nomad.

wilderone - 11-3-2020 at 10:40 AM

Re: "Mission grapes reported to be from original Mission rootstock"
I believe the grape vines at Mission San Borja are original to mission era.