History revised and revised again at the Tumacacori ruins

History does NOT belong only to the victors at the Tumacacori National Historic Park in Tubac near the Mexican border.

There, in a small museum filled with sophisticated displays is a comprehensive overview of the roles of the Spanish Missions, missionaries, and native people in southern Arizona. The displays reveal that the history of the area included far more than Father Kino, the German mathematician, cartographer and Jesuit priest, who founded the San Jose de Tumacacori Mission as well as the better-known San Xavier del Bac Mission up the road near Tucson.

Quite honestly, I was pleased to see a more balanced view of the Missions which, more often than not, were actually Spanish military fortresses with churches inside the walls.

As a priest, Father Kino established several churches in southern Arizona and northern Mexico. At the same time on behalf of the Spanish Crown he traveled extensively and mapped much of the Southwest all the way to the Colorado River and the Sea of Cortez where he confirmed that California was not an island as some had previously thought.

He and the Jesuits who followed him worked to convert the locals and transform them into loyal citizens of the Spanish Monarchy as well as good Christians. And for a while, it worked.

What did the Apaches do?

And now on to the next room in this small museum…but not all natives agreed. The Apaches disagreed the most and attacked the missionaries more than once in an attempt to drive them out.

Images of Apache warriors from what apparently was a re-creation of an attack cover one wall. (Photography hadn’t been invented at that time so this can’t be an after-attack photo, but it is very realistic.) The Apaches had a reputation as the most war-like of the southwestern tribes and to this day the Apache reservation in Arizona is called the Apache Stronghold.

Next up in the museum: the Jesuits and the Spanish King had a falling out and all the Jesuit priests in New Spain, including the ones at Tumacacori were arrested in July 1769 and marched away from their missions which were pretty grand establishments by that point. It was a surprise arrest and the priests took only the clothing they wore as they were marched away from Tumacacori. (This photo, below, is apparently from another re-creation of the event. Photography still hadn’t been invented.)

Less than a year later the Franciscans took over and continued to expand the considerable assets of the Mission. But in the early 1800s, they too were cast out–this time by the Mexican government, which seized the valuable lands and animals then re-distributed them to favored local Mexican leaders. The same thing happened in California.

The Mission in 1912

Fast forward to the early Twentieth Century–and by then photography had been invented!–and this photo of the San Jose de Tumacori mission church in ruin in 1912, as well as how it appears today. Looking at the brick campanile (bell tower) on the right, I wonder if it was added by the Franciscans. They were big on bell towers; the is at least one bell tower on every California Mission. The Jesuits, however, like ornate ornamentation in their churches.

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Behind the Mission church is a round Mortuary chapel and a graveyard. The white grave is for the last person, a young girl, who was buried there in 1914.

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And this is a view of the area with the many restorations much more apparent. It’s come a long, long way since 1912 thanks to the U.S. Park Service which now owns and operates San Jose de Tumacacori.

And after this I drove north on the 19 Freeway and had an unfortunate encounter with the U.S. Border Patrol which I’ve already written about this in this post. Found some good french fries, though.

Stay home for now and stay safe.

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