MISSION IN COLONIAL AMERICA, I (SPANISH MISSIONS)

The Christianization of the aborigines of America and their incorporation into Western civilization was most effectively accomplished through the mission. With the support of the Iberian kings and the patronato real, religious orders developed this method of catechizing the native Americans. The system itself will be discussed first and then the application in North, Central, and South America.

Mission System

In 1573 Philip II of Spain issued a long directive on conquests and settlements that forbade the extension of the encomienda system beyond the territory in which it was then established. The directive marked the end of the encomienda-doctrina as a means of incorporating into Church or State the pagan Native Americans along the frontier. A new agency had to be developed for this task, and after an initial period of uncertainty, this was done. It is called the mission, although the word did not appear in Spanish legislation for many decades. In the mission, the Native American was to be kept in involuntary isolation from the European under the direct care of the priest and the mercenary soldier. Basically, the difference between the mission and the encomienda-doctrina system lay not in the objective, for that remained the same, but in the means. The major responsibility for the exploration of new lands, for settling the Native Americans and controlling them, building the churches and other needed buildings, maintaining the roads and ships with which to

bring in supplies, etc., now fell directly or indirectly on the priests, most of whom were not trained to cope with such tasks. Some aspects of the mission dated from experiments in the very beginning of the Spanish colonial effort in the Americas. The new agency was begun at almost the same time at the two extremes of Spanish America: northwestern New Spain and the area near Buenos Aires. In the north it was initiated by the Jesuits under Gonzalo Tapia and in the south by the Franciscans under Luis de bolaÑos. It is curious that today the Jesuits are perhaps best remembered for their missions in the Rio de la Plata area, whereas the Franciscans are possibly best known for their missions at the extreme northern border of New Spain. Although the Dominicans did much to develop the idea of the mission, they did relatively little work as missionaries, perhaps due to the inability of harmonizing the needs of the mission with commitments contracted under the doctrina. In general, the same is true of the Augustinians and Mercedarians. In the 17th century the crown sent the Capuchins of Valencia to work in eastern Venezuela. Their missions were well conducted.

The bulk of the mission work in Spanish America was carried on by the Jesuits and Franciscans. Both orders suffered a severe crisis as a result of the need to supply trained men. The Jesuits in the mid-17th century solved it in great measure by enlisting German missionaries.

The Franciscans at about the same time reached a solution in founding the Mission College. In 1767, the year of the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spanish America, it is estimated that there were about one million natives in all missions in Spanish America. Of these, the Jesuits cared for about 700,000; the Franciscans, about 250,000.

Financial Support. A mission was an expensive institution, and the crown generously offered to defray some of the expense. Royal support was of two kinds: a subsidy to each mission at the time of its foundation for the purchase of a chalice, bells, and other necessary supplies, and for the yearly salary of the missionary. The salary varied somewhat over the vast expanse of the empire, but generally it ranged from 350 to 450 pesos each year: a truly handsome sum at that time. Of course, royal financial support also gave the royal officials a means of control over the mission and the missionaries. Some, especially the Jesuits, tried to free themselves from excessive interference by securing alms. The Pious Fund, begun in 1697 for Lower California, was perhaps the most famous example of this type of financing. In 1693 the Franciscans in Peru founded a similar society called the Apostolic Administrators, but it was not nearly as successful. Usually the government gave funds for the founding of a mission, but often, with political motives, dictated where the mission was to be established. The missionaries soon recognized this, and their reports were often drawn up to stress the political aspect of their work. In Texas they stressed the danger from the French; in California, from the Russians; in Maynas (Peru), from the Portuguese slave raiders; and in Paraguay, from the Paulistas. Only too often, though, if there were no political motives, a mission would either not be founded, or, if it were, it could expect only sporadic assistance from the royal treasury.

Organization and Operation. The mission was a school of religion, civilization, and political government,

although actually the three aspects were considered inseparable in the minds of most missionaries. In effect, the task was the changing of the nomadic Native American of the frontier into a copy of the town-loving Spaniard. A prerequisite was the settlement of the nomads in or close to the mission center. Sometimes the native people themselves were willing to surrender their freedom in order to be protected from their more powerful enemies. Often the missionary was able to persuade them to do so through kindness and gifts, or friendly Native Americans who had already joined a mission would persuade them. A rancher, miner, or lay military leader might influence them. Some missionaries, few in number, are known to have used force to bring the Native American under the control of the mission. Once a native had been enrolled in a mission, the mission used every means in its power, including force, to keep him there.

To instruct the Native American in the faith, the missionary drew heavily on the methods developed by the doctrina, but generally the missionary was able to exert a much stricter control over his charges than the doctrinero. Mission life was governed by the mission bell to such an extent that the expression bajo la campana came to signify a mission Native American. Hence, the resemblance of the mission to monastic life was usually much stronger than in the doctrina, even often in the separation of the boys from the girls into separate dormitories under close supervision.

As a center of civilization, the mission was often a vast industrial school, of which the largest might number 2,000 pupils as in Upper California, or even 7,000 as in the reductions of paraguay. There would be a weaving center, blacksmith shop, tannery, sugar refinery, wine press, warehouses, vegetable gardens, and grain fields, while on the ranches there were often thousands of heads

of cattle, horses, sheep, pigs, and goats. The women were charged with cooking, spinning, weaving, and sewing. Often there would be a carpentry shop or a shop for the making of adobes or for cutting stone. This training not only helped to educate the Native Americans but also to support the mission. For his part, the missionary was accustomed to transplant to the frontier almost every conceivable domestic plant and animal of Europe. In the teaching of the manual trades, the cultivation of the land, and the care of domestic animals, the missionaries relied either on the soldiers or preferably on laymen hired by the missionaries for the purpose. These served as superintendents of the fields, of the herds of animals, and of the shops. Through their care and under the management of the missionary, but especially through the work of the Native American, many missions came to represent an enormous economic investment. In Upper California in 1834 the 31,000 mission Native Americans of 21 missions herded 396,000 cattle, 62,000 horses, 321,000 hogs, sheep, and goats, and harvested 123,000 bushels of grain. There was a corresponding abundance in the orchards, gardens, wine press, and workshops. In 1768 the Jesuit missions of Paraguay had 769,869 head of cattle, 124,619 mules and horses, 14,975 asses, and 38,141 sheep and goats. A single Capuchin mission in Venezuela, Divina Pastora, in 1755 cared for 154,000 head of cattle.

Finally, the mission was also a school of government and citizenship. For this purpose, the mission was organized into a pueblo with the same civil officials, and sometimes also the same military leaders, as the corresponding Spanish pueblo. Usually these officials were appointed the first time. Thereafter, they were elected on each January 1 by the Native Americans who were heads of a household. Special insignia were granted to the officials as well as special accommodations in the Church to add to their prestige. This Native American pueblo council had the right to administer minor punishments and also had its own jail. It could pass laws that were required

by local circumstances, and it appointed Native American overseers to superintend the community projects, such as road maintenance, bridge construction, and work in the community fields. Much of the actual controlling of the native people was thus done by the Native Americans themselves, although there always hovered in the background the figure of the missionary or the soldier of the presidio. Some authors have tended to underestimate the efficacy of the Native American council, possibly because they do not understand its purpose. It resembled closely the student government found in many colleges in the 20th century: a means of control and a step toward true self-government. It was thus one of the factors that help to explain how two missionaries could form an orderly town out of several thousand nomads.

The Mission System Re-evaluated. Recent studies have shifted their focus from the missionaries to the Native Americans who lived in the missions. These studies, inspired in part by a greater sensitivity to human rights issues and the suffering which Native Americans and African Americans experienced as a result of their encounter with Europeans from the 16th Century on, place the history of the missions in a more critical light. Although the missionaries were well-intentioned, their attempt to incorporate the Native Americans into the mission system often accelerated the spread of disease and the breakdown of native culture and traditions. Frequently, the Native Americans resisted the attempt to impose Christianity by harboring old ways under the guise of Catholic rites. Women especially found themselves subordinated to a strictly male-oriented hierarchy legitimated by the missionaries. The oldest criticism of the missions still remains the central one: did the benevolent paternalism of the missionaries inhibit the Native Americans from developing the capability to become integrated into the larger western world beyond the mission? But this is an uneven story. Other studies show that in some mission experiences, and this would be particularly true of the Jesuit missions in Mojos (Bolivia) and Paraguay, the native peoples not only cooperated with the missionaries, but were quite capable of defending and maintaining their mission way of life long after the Jesuits were expelled.

See Also: aldeiamento system in brazil; encomienda-doctrina system in spanish america.

Bibliography: j. axtell, "Some Thoughts on the Ethnohi-story of Missions," Ethnohistory 29:1 (1982) 35–41. h. e. bolton, "The Mission as a Frontier Institution in the Spanish American Colonies," American Historical Review 23 (1917–18) 42–61. e. dussel (ed.), Historia general de la Iglesia en América Latina 9v. (CEHILA Comisión Para Escribir la Historia de la Iglesia en América Latina, Salamanca 1981–1994). e. langer and r. h. jackson (eds.), The New Latin American Mission History (Lincoln, Nebraska 1995). d. t. reff, "Critical Introduction," a. pÉrez de ribas, History of the Triumphs of Our Faith … (Tucson, Arizona 1999) 11–46. a. s. tibesar, "The Franciscan Doctrinero versus the Franciscan Misionero in Seventeenth Century Peru," The Americas 14 (1957–58) 115–124.

[a. s. tibesar/

j. l. klaiber]

Mexico and Central America

The spread of Christianity through the missions in Spanish North America and Central America was largely the work of the Order of St. Francis and of the Society of Jesus.

Franciscan Missions. The Franciscans arrived in Santo Domingo in 1493. By 1500 they had already obtained about 3,000 converts. Organized in a province in 1505, they extended their work of evangelization to the neighboring islands as they were discovered. There is evidence of great missionary effort but not of the fruit of their labor. Missionary activity diminished as the native population decreased. From the Antilles the Franciscans penetrated the coasts of Cumaná and Tierra Firme in 1513 and reached Panama the following year. Cuba served as a base for the penetration of Florida.

Period of Mexican Occupation. The territory of colonial New Spain comprised all present Mexico, Florida, southern Georgia, the lower part of South Carolina, Texas, New Mexico, southern Colorado, Arizona, and California. From 1522 Franciscans began to evangelize the outskirts of Mexico City and of Puebla de los Angeles. They entered Michoacán in 1525 and Jalisco the following year. These centers of initial missionary expansion served as the base for new penetrations. They began the evangelization of Taftipico in 1530, of Yucatán two years later, and of Zacatecas in 1542. Each of these centers became a province or autonomous custody, with the responsibility to evangelize its own territory and to penetrate regions that were discovered later. Evangelization in the 16th century was accomplished by means of self-expansion in concentric circles. Each province established convents in the principal towns. The evangelizing radius of each convent was constantly enlarged, and when the limits touched, the region could be considered Christianized. At the close of the 16th century there were 200 convents, which attended to about 1,000 native settlements.

The apostolic zeal of the religious and the methods used brought a harvest unique in the history of the missions, for we are told that several million baptisms occurred in a few years. Outstanding among the missionaries were Pedro de Gante; the Twelve Apostles of Mexico, among whom were Martín de Valencia and Toribio de Benavente Motolonía; Juan de Zumárraga; Marcos de Niza; Bernardino de Sahagfún; Andrés de Olmos; Maturino Gilberti; Alonso de Molina; and Gerónimo de Mendieta.

Later Expansion. At the close of the 16th century a new stage opened, which lasted until independence: the penetration of territories distant from the original centers of evangelization. Zacatecas, made a province in 1603, was entered through the northeast section of the country, and missionary activity was carried on in what is now Durango, Sinaloa, Coahuila, Chichuahua, and San Luis de Potosí. It is estimated that in 1737 there were 100,000 converted native Mexicans.

The province of the Holy Gospel began the Christianization of New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado in 1598; the territory was taken over in 1616 by the custody of San Pablo. Although in 1630 they had 80,000 baptized native Mexicans, these missions were among the most difficult in America. They survived the grave crises of 1680 and 1696, and in 1700 there were 126 Franciscans in missionary work there. About 1750 there were 21 villages, with 17,500 Christians. They were placed under the administration of the secular clergy in 1756 and returned to the order in 1771. In 1787, 28 religious were evangelizing there, in charge of 48 missions. Alonso de Benavides is a well-known figure of that era.

After several earlier attempts the province of Michoacán in 1617 systematically began the Christianization of Río Verde, which became a Franciscan custody in 1621. In 1693 it had 12 Franciscans, seven missions, seven visitas, and 10,000 native Mexicans in the process of Christianization. The missions were secularized in 1712; 15 years later they were returned to the Franciscans, who in 1761 attended to 15,469 converts.

In 1670 the province of Jalisco took charge of the missions of Coahuila. A century later the region was deemed Christianized and was transferred to the secular clergy, leaving the Franciscans with seven towns and a total of 10 missions.

The Franciscan evangelization of Florida had begun in 1573, after the unsuccessful attempts of the Dominicans and Jesuits. Following many difficulties and martyrdoms, the religious succeeded in Christianizing the region to the south of Carolina. In 1634 there were 35 missionaries in charge of 44 towns, with 30,000 native Americans. The English invasion of 1704 damaged the flourishing missions, and they disappeared after the English took over the territory in 1763. The best-known missionaries there were Alonso de Reinoso, Luis Gerónimo de Oré, and Juan de Silva.

Era of the Colleges. From the second quarter of the 17th century onward, to the missionary activity of the provinces was added that of the Apostolic Colleges of Propaganda Fide. Querétaro started with the evangelization of Texas in 1714. In charge of Zacatecas after 1774, the missions succeeded in overcoming the political vicissitudes of the territory. In 1780 they had 17 Franciscans, who attended to 18 missions and two Spanish communities. Working in the missions there were Antonio Margil, Francisco Casafñas, Isidro Fé1ix de Espinosa, and Alonso Giraldo de Terreros. The Sierra Gorda, evangelized since 1690 by the College of Querétaro, was transferred in 1743 to Pachuca and Mexico City. The former attended to the needs of 3,000 Christians in 1787. Pedro Pérez de Mezquía was outstanding among the missionaries from Mexico City. All these missions were turned over to the secular clergy in 1770. Nuevo Santander was entrusted to the College of Guadalupe in 1750. It was abandoned for a short time, but 22 religious returned there in 1756. In 1782, 28 Franciscans were in charge of 31 missions.

Assumption of Former Jesuit Missions. Without giving up their own missions, both the provinces and colleges took charge of those abandoned by the Society of Jesus when it was exiled in 1767. A new era of mission prosperity began. Baja California, entrusted to the College of Mexico City, was exchanged for Alta California in 1772, and evangelization was extended to the north of San Francisco. In the 21 missions that existed until 1832, 89,900 baptisms had been administered. Junípero Serra, Francisco Palou, Fermín Lasuén, Juan Crespí, and Pablo de Mugártegui are well-known figures in the California missions. The province of Jalisco assumed charge of the missions of Nayarit. Pimería Alta (Sonora-Arizona) and Baja California went to the College of Querétaro, which in 1774 surrendered the second to Jalisco. The province of Zacatecas attended to the missions of the Laguna de Parras (Coahuila Durango), while the College of Guadalupe took charge of the missions of Taraumara. With the addition of these former Jesuit missions, the Franciscan Order in 1786 possessed 116 mission centers, 500 missionaries, and had 250,000 native people under its direction.

Central America. In Guatemala the region of Peténitza was evangelized by the province of Yucatán. The rest of the country, where the Franciscans arrived in 1540, made up the province of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, whose evangelizing activity was accomplished by means of the Mexican system of occupation. The province in 1661 possessed 24 houses, 172 religious, and 50,000 neophytes. Fray Esteban Verdelet pushed the missionary activity of the Yucatán province to Honduras. Work in Teuzgalpa, begun in 1608, had to be suspended in 1623 because of the death of the missionaries, but it resumed in 1667. The evangelization of Tologalpa was started in 1667 and intensified after 1674. Both missions had seven missionaries in 1690 and were still in existence in 1787. In 1675 the province founded the convent of Nueva Segovia for the evangelization of the coast of La Pantasma; eight religious were working there in 1787. Further, from the beginning of the 18th century the College of Guatemala maintained the missions of Lean-Mulian and Río Tinto (Comayagua), both of which were still in existence at the end of the century.

Christianity was introduced into Nicaragua and Costa Rica in 1523 and 1542 respectively. Later the province of San Jorge was formed there. In 1635 it had 17 houses distributed throughout 150 leagues of territory. In Talamanca the College of Querétaro carried on missionary activity from 1688; later the area was cared for by the College of Guatemala, assisted by the province of San Jorge. In 1787 there were five missions in the foothills, with a population of 3,000 Christian native inhabitants. Outstanding among the missionaries were Melchor López, Antonio Margil, Pablo de Rebullida, Pedro de la Concepción Urtiaga, and Francisco de San José.

From 1513 to 1519 several religious carried on missionary activity in Darién. In 1565 a custody was established in Panama. It not only evangelized the immediate territory but also in 1632 undertook the Christianization of the Gorgonas Islands. The College of Guatemala evangelized the territory of Veragua, whose five towns and 2,500 native inhabitants were transferred in 1786 to the College of Panama, assisted in the missionary work by the province of Chiriquí. In 1796 its missions had six towns, 1,834 neophytes, and 289 pagans. With independence, a totally different missionary phase began in Spanish America.

[p. borges]

Jesuit Missions. Although the royal decree authorizing the Jesuits to establish themselves in Mexico in 1572 stated specifically that they were to work among the native people, it was not until 1589 that the first Jesuits could begin their apostolate among the natives in the vicinity of San Luis de Paz. Until then the Jesuits had attended to such ministry as seemed most needed: schools for the Spaniards and Creoles in all the principal cities and elementary classes for the children of converted natives in several of the larger cities. The initial emphasis on this form of apostolate, rather than missions, derived from the previous training of the Jesuits arriving from Spain and their conviction that they were serving through schools the greatest need of the nation: an educated clergy and a select laity.

The important stable missions were all to the northwest of Mexico City, with Parras, Durango, and the Villa de Sinaloa (San Felipe) as the main centers in the early phase of missionary efforts. From 1591, when the first two missionaries, Gonzalo de Tapia and Martín Pérez, set out for Sinaloa, until 1767 and 1768, when the Jesuits were banished from the missions, their apostolic activity among the native Mexicans extended to an area equivalent to approximately two-fifths of modern Mexico; all or part of the states of Guanajuato, San Luis Potosí, Nuevo León, Jalisco, Zacatecas, Nayarit, Coahuila, Durango, Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Sonora, Lower California, and as far north as southern Arizona. All of this area has since developed into dioceses, except for the Vicariate of Lower California (established in 1854) and the Vicariate and mission of Tarahumara in Chihuahua (1958).

As the Jesuits moved northward along the Pacific coast, they converted the native inhabitants of one river area after another and established missions and schools in all the settlements. The missionary resided in the most important town (cabecera ) of the area, where he maintained a school for the native children, teaching them reading, writing, arithmetic, and singing, and attended to several dependent missions (visitas ).

The 12 main mission groups will be listed chronologically according to the years of their respective foundations.

San Luis de la Paz (1589). This was named after Luis de Velasco, a viceroy intent on converting and subduing the tribes designated by the generic term "Chichimecas." In 1594 the Jesuits established a residence and small school. This was the only isolated mission area of the Mexican Jesuits; all the others were contiguous and permitted them to use a well-founded mission as the springboard for the next mission to be established.

Sinaloa (1591). This was the first mission founded among wholly barbaric and unconverted tribes. The governor of the region, Rodrigo del Río Losa, summoned the Jesuits in the hope of facilitating and consolidating the Spanish dominion over numerous and most warlike native inhabitants. Sinaloa did not become a diocese until 1883, although the Council of the Indies inquired as early as 1638 about the feasibility of organizing the area into a bishopric.

The uprisings of the natives that led to the martyrdom of Tapia in 1594 might well have spread and continued to the extinction of the entire group of missions had Captain Diego Martínez de Hurdaide not come on the scene shortly afterward. He knew how to win over the loyalty of the natives and inspire fear in those intent on the annihilation of the Spaniards. By 1605 the numerous tribes of the Bamoas, Níos, Guazaves, Tamazulas, Ahomes, Zuaques, Tehuecos, and Sinaloas had in great part been converted. Prominent among the missionaries of the area was Michael Wadding, still more famous for his treatise on mystical theology.

The missionary effort extended ever northward, from one valley to the next, until all the tribes (Tzoes, Huites, Bacoburitos, Chicoratos, and Yecoratos) had been brought into the Church. The more general native language was Cahita; numerous other languages and dialects were spoken in the various missions. In the 1662 report to Propaganda Fide 16 missionaries were attending to 38 native settlements, administering to 21,912 native inhabitants, and conducting 16 schools for the native children. At the time of the expulsion (1767) 21 missionaries were working in approximately 50 settlements and administering to some 30,000 natives.

Parras (now Parras de la Fuente), Coahuila (1598–1652). The Jesuit missionaries had heard about the native inhabitants in the vicinity of this outpost as early as 1594 and had done some apostolic work among the natives, but the definitive foundation of this group of missions was not effected until 1598. The missions were extended rapidly during the years 1602 to 1608. Despite frequent uprisings of the natives and epidemics, the missions of the area were sufficiently developed to allow their incorporation (1652) into the already established (1623) Diocese of Durango.

Acaxees and Xiximíes (1592). These natives lived in the group of missions termed San Andrés and Topia, among the most inaccessible mountains in the upper reaches of the Piastla, San Lorenzo, and Culiacán Rivers. Whereas most of the other Jesuit missionaries received only 300 pesos annually and 35 for the school they conducted for the native children, those here were allotted an additional 50 pesos because of the hardships entailed and the exceptional difficulties in securing supplies. Two outstanding missionaries devoted their lives to the natives of this area: Hernando de Santarén, the founder of the missions and martyr of the neighboring Tepehuanes; and Pedro Gravina, his successor. According to the 1662 report 12 missionaries were working in 41 widely scattered and thinly populated settlements, conducting 12 schools for the native children and attending to 3,851 native inhabitants. At the close of 1753, 11 of the most highly developed missions were turned over to the diocesan clergy of Durango.

Tepehuanes (1596). Their homeland lay to the east of the Acaxees and Xiximíes and extended south of the Tarahumares as far as Nayarit. This relatively small area was the most difficult of all missions to establish and administer. November of 1618 witnessed the violent death of eight missionaries. This seemingly fatal blow served to inspire numerous volunteers to replace them and extend their apostolate. Guanaceví, Zape, San Ignacio, Santa Catarina, and Papasquiaro were the principal centers. The lingua franca was Tepehuana, although Nahuatl, Tarahumara, and Salinera were spoken in several of the missions. The 1662 report records only four missionaries attending to 11 settlements and four schools for the native children and administering to 2,356 native inhabitants. In 1753 the missions were considered sufficiently developed to be incorporated into the Durango diocese.

Tarahumara Baja (1607). These missions are important not only for their intrinsic significance but also because they served as the springboard for the two most extensive groups: Tarahumara Alta and Sonora. So restless and hostile were the natives that it was not until 1630 that the first permanent mission could be established among them at San Miguel Bocas. Even after the founding of several missions, the native inhabitants revolted and slew their missionaries in 1645, 1648 to 1650, and 1652. In 1662 only five missionaries were working in Chihuahua, attending to 11 settlements and five schools for the native children and administering to 3,400 native inhabitants.

The Yaquis, Mayos, Tepahues, and Conicaris (1614). These warlike tribes lived along the northern Pacific coast in the valleys of the Yaqui and Mayo Rivers, directly in the path of the northwestern movement of the Jesuit missionary apostolate. The 1740 uprising was particularly destructive to the missions and threatened to undo the work of more than a century. At the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767, the missions were not sufficiently developed to be incorporated into any diocese. With missionaries sufficient to attend to only a few of the main centers, many of the native inhabitants, especially the Yaquis, reverted to paganism and were lost to Christianity.

Sonora (1614). This was the most extensive of all the Mexican mission territories. Christianity came to it with the conversion of the Nebomes (southern and northern tribes), followed by that of numerous other nations. Of particular significance was the conversion of the Guázavas in 1646, their homeland serving as the gateway to more distant nations. In 1662 there were 17 missionaries working in 17 centers, each with its native Mexican school, attending to 40 settlements and administering to 17,790 natives. A new era for the Sonora missions began in 1687 with the coming of Eusebio Francisco Kino to the Pimería center of Dolores. Some 40 expeditions to the west along the Gulf of California, to the junction of the Gila and Colorado Rivers, and to Casa Grande in the present state of Arizona, along the San Pedro and Santa Cruz Rivers, not only awakened an interest in Christianity and repeated requests for missionaries, but also led to the founding of numerous successful centers with thriving native communities instructed in their new faith and in a better way of life economically and socially. By every norm Kino ranks as the outstanding missionary of the Mexican province; to the tragic disadvantage of the entire vast territory there was no one of his ability to replace him at his death in 1711. The 1751 revolt, launched with the assassination of Fathers Teflo and Ruhen, threatened to spread to the entire mission territory. At the time of the expulsion (1767), 29 priests were working in as many centers and attending to some 60 settlements.

Chínipas (1621). This group of missions lay to the southwest of the Tarahumares and Tepehuanes. Although the Jesuits had preached to these native inhabitants as early as 1601, no permanent mission could be founded until 1621. Two of the pioneering apostles, Julio Pascual and Manuel Martínez, were slain by the natives in 1632. In 1767, 12 missionaries were working among these native inhabitants, having added new missions to the group a few years previously, for a total of 12 centers, each with several dependent stations.

Tarahumara Alta (1673). This group of missions was a continuation of the Baja foundations. They were situated in the modern state of Chihuahua and, together with the Baja group, covered an area approximately the same as the modern Tarahumara missions. Numerous and fierce native uprisings made this one of the most difficult mission areas; particularly destructive was the 1690 rebellion, which claimed the lives of Juan Foronda and Manuel Sánchez. In 1767 (the two Tarahumara groups had previously been fused into one) 19 priests were working in 18 centers and attending to approximately 60 native settlements.

Baja, California (1697). Jesuits participated in several expeditions to Lower California before Juan María Salvatierra founded the first permanent settlement at Loreto in 1697. He was joined by Francisco M. Piccolo and Juan de Ugarte. Before they were expelled in 1768, the Jesuits had founded some 15 main mission centers, each with dependent stations. In 1745 the mission population was about 4,000; in 1762, nearly 8,000; and in 1768, slightly more than 7,000.

Nayarit (1716). The Jesuit mission group lay in the eastern part of the present state of Nayarit, extending from Santa Teresa in the north across the high plateau of Trinidad to Guaynarnota (San Ignacio) in the south. The almost inaccessible terrain made both the military and the spiritual conquest exceptionally difficult. At the time of the expulsion (1767), there were seven missionaries working in as many mission centers and attending to numerous dependent stations.

Modern Missions. The Jesuit Order, suppressed in 1773 by Clement XIV, was universally restored by Pius VII in 1814. A few surviving Mexican Jesuits returned to the home province in 1816 at the height of the independence movement. Although a few of the schools and churches were given back, none of the Mexican missions was returned until 1900, when the Jesuits were asked to take over the Tarahumara (Chihuahua) group. Not even the fierce persecution by Calles (1926–29) succeeded in imprisoning or exiling all of the missionaries. In 1964, one vicar apostolic, Bishop Salvador Martínez Aguirre, SJ, 22 priests, six seminarists, and 13 lay brothers were working in these missions. The main centers are: Sisoguichi, Carichí, Chínipas, Cerocahui, Batopilas, Norogachi, Guadalupe y Calvo, and Chinatfú. Schools are conducted in Sisoguichi, Creel, San Juanito, Batopilas, Carichí, Cerocahui, Chinatfú, Guadalupe y Calvo, and Norogachi. In 1959 the Mexican Jesuits of the southern province founded missions in the area near Chilón called Bachajón and in the state of Chiapas in southern Mexico. At no time have the Jesuits of Mexico administered permanent missions in Central America.

Bibliography: m. a. medina, Los dominicos en América: Presencia y actuación de los dominicos en la América colonial española de los siglos XVI–XIX (Madrid: Mapfre, 1992). j. meiers, "The Religious Orders in Latin America," in E. Dussel (ed.), The Church in Latin America, 1492–1992 (Maryknoll, New York, 1992) 375–390. Organización de los Agustinos en América Latina (OALA), Los agustinos en América Latina: Pasado y presente (Iquitos, Peru 1995). Franciscans: a. abad, Los franciscanos en América (Madrid: Mapfre 1992). k. mccarty, A Spanish Frontier in the Enlightened Age: Franciscan Beginnings in Sonora and Arizona, 1767– 1700 (Tucson 1981). f. morales, "Mexican Society and the Franciscan Order," The Americas 54:3 (Jan. 1998) 323–56. j. g. navarro, Los franciscanos en la conquista y colonización de América: Fuera de las Antillas (Madrid 1955). r. r. ricard, The Spiritual Conquest of Mexico trans. By l. b. simpson (Berkeley, Cal. 1966). Jesuits: f. j. alegre, Historia de la Provincia de la Compañía de Jesús de Nueva España, ed. by e. j. burrus and f. zubillaga, 4 v. (new ed. Rome 1956–1960). j. f. bannon, The Mission Frontier in Sonora, 1620–1687 (New York 1955). h. w. crosby, Antigua California: Mission and Colony on the Peninsular Frontier, 1697–1768 (Albuquerque 1994). g. decorme, La obra de los jesuitas mexicanos durante la época colonial, 1572–1767 2 v. (Mexico City, 1941); Historia de la Compañía de Jesús en la República Mexicana durante el siglo XIX, 3 v. (Guadalajara, Mexico, 1914–1921). s. m. deeds, "Indigenous Responses to Mission Settlement in Nueva Vizcaya," in e. langer and r. h. jackson (eds.), The New Latin American Mission History (Lincoln, Nebraska 1995) 76–108. j. a. gagliano and c. e. ronan (eds.), Jesuit Encounters in the New World (Rome, 1997). r. leÓn, Jesuitas en la Tarahumara (Ciudad Juárez, 1992). s. negro and m. marzal (eds.), Un reino en la frontera: las misiones jesuitas en la América colonial (Lima, 1999). a. santos hernÁndez, Los jesuitas en América (Madrid: Mapfre 1992).

[e. j. burrus/

j. l. klaiber]

South America

Thousands of religious of various orders worked in catechizing and civilizing the native peoples in Spanish South America through the mission system. The Mercedarians were active in the colonial period in Peru, Gran Colombia, and La Plata. The dominicans, who first lived in convents in America as they had in Spain, left their convents because of the lack of diocesan clergy and went out to the doctrinas. They learned the native languages and as early as 1548 published a Doctrina Cristiana in Spanish and Mexican for the use of their missionaries. In 1560 Domingo de Santo Tomás published a Quechua grammar. In the 17th century, when the mission system proper developed, the Dominicans established their oldest mission (1624) among the Canelos natives; it still exists as the Apostolic Prefecture of Canelos. The Dominicans in the 20th century also supervise an apostolic vicariate in Peru and missions in Colombia. However, the most active orders in the missionary work in Spanish South America, over its whole history, have been the Franciscans and the Jesuits. Among the orders that have been expanding or entering mission work in the 19th and 20th centuries are the Augustinians and the Salesians.

Franciscans. In 1505 the Franciscan province of Santa Cruz was founded on the island of Española. From there the Franciscans extended their apostolate throughout the Caribbean Islands, especially Cuba and Puerto Rico. In about 1511 they established in the recently founded Santa Maria de la Antigua, Darién, the first convent on the continent. Between 1514 and 1522, they carried out a successful missionary attempt on the coast of Cumaná, Venezuela. By way of Panama and Nicaragua, the Franciscans reached Ecuador and Peru. A Franciscan, Juan de los Santos, accompanied Pizarro on his explorations. Marcos de Niza went with Alvarado from Guatemala to Ecuador (1531–32). In 1532 the order decided to establish the Custody of Peru. In about 1553 the province of the Twelve Apostles was established permanently at Lima, and under its jurisdiction were all the Franciscans of South America until 1565 when the independent provinces of Santafé de Bogotá, San Francisco de Quito, and the Holy Trinity of Chile were created. Later the territories of Upper Peru—under the title of San Antonio de los Charcas—and Rio de la Plata were established as provinces. The province of Santa Cruz Española began to extend itself throughout Venezuela after 1575.

Many of these first activities had a missionary character, although the religious were engaged also in ministering to the conquistadors and the colonists. It is impossible to separate clearly these functions from those properly termed missionary, because at all times expeditions were made to the pagan native inhabitants. However, what were called "conversions" or living missions, as opposed to the doctrinas or parishes of native inhabitants already converted, began in the 17th century, after the period of consolidation of the conquest. Sometimes exploratory or conquering expeditions led the way; at other times the missionaries preceded the conquistadors and the colonists.

Venezuela. The province of Santa Cruz did not maintain missions in the sense mentioned, but the "Missions of Píritu," so called because the first was established in the little town of that name in the eastern part of the country, achieved true importance. They started in 1656 and were under the direct supervision of the superior general of the order. Shortly before their destruction during the war for independence, in the second decade of the 19th century, the Píritu missionaries had in their charge 65 villages and missionary posts in the territories corresponding to the modern states of Anzoátegui and Guayana.

Colombia. Although Francisco de Aragón appeared in Santa Marta in 1534, and Juan de San Filisberto visited the recently established city of Bogotá in 1540 or 1541, the order was not established in Colombia until 1550. The first superior, Jerónimo de San Miguel, was responsible for the humanitarian legislation that regulated the work of the native rowers on the Magdalena River. The first two archbishops of Bogotá were the Franciscans Juan de los Barrios and Luis Zapata. Also in the 16th century, another Franciscan, Sebastián de Ocando, occupied the See of Santa Marta. Later the Franciscans maintained missions in the Chocó region—where Matías Abad distinguished himself in the mid-17th century—and in Los Ilanos, where they ministered to eight villages in 1775. About 1678–80, they attempted to establish in Los Ilanos a missionary bishopric, with its see at Santiago de las Atalayas. Juan Doblado, who had been connected with those missions since at least 1667, was proposed as the first bishop. Not until the 19th century was the idea partially realized with the consecration as auxiliary bishop of Bogotá of the Franciscan José Antonio Chaves. He lived at Casanare, and concerned himself with the improvement of the missions. In the 18th century the College of the Propagation of the Faith at Cali and Popayán accomplished much missionary work in the region of the Putumayo and Caquetá Rivers.

Ecuador. The Franciscans were the first and the principal evangelists of the territory of Quito. In the second half of the 16th century, they had in their charge "most of the doctrinas in the native villages," according to an account sent to visitor Ovando. An incomplete list of 1646 still assigned them more than 20. From 1632 they made several attempts to reach the Amazon, which they finally achieved in 1636 or 1637. This was the prologue to a great missionary effort in the Napo River area, actually started in 1647. When at the end of the 17th century, these missions were put into the hands of the Jesuits, the Franciscans concentrated their efforts on the Putumayo and Caquetá territories, tenaciously maintained in spite of many difficulties. Around 1739 the Franciscans ministered to 21 villages there. In 1736 the Franciscans of Quito established a mission among the Jíbaro natives in the province of Macas, which did not continue then but was resumed later. Upon the expulsion of the Jesuits from the missions of Mainas in 1767, the Franciscans took charge of them. In 1774, 18 Franciscans were working there in an equal number of villages. When the territory of Mainas was added to the viceroyalty of Peru (1802), its missions were transferred to the charge of the community of Ocopa.

Peru. Ocopa was the first Missionary College of the Propagation of the Faith founded in South America (1724). Its founder, Francisco de San José, of the community of Querétaro, Mexico, had previously worked in Central America, especially among the native people of Talamanca (Costa Rica). Having gone to Peru in 1708 as assistant commissioner of the missions of Propaganda Fide, he gave new drive to the missionary activities of the Franciscans there. At his death in 1736, the missionaries of the new community had spread through the Montaña of Peru, ministering to almost 8,000 native inhabitants. Almost all of this was lost in the uprising of Santos Atahualpa (1742), which dominated those territories for more than a decade, but the Franciscans were able to bring back all those conversions, at the cost of tremendous hardships and the death of several religious. Ocopa, the main missionary center in eastern Peru during the 18th century, came to be so again in the 19th century, after a brief eclipse during the wars for independence. In the 20th century it was one of the main bases for the missions in the region of the Ucayali River. Its apostolate extended to other parts of Peru and even outside it. From it, directly or indirectly, came the founders of all the other missionary communities that existed in South America. Many of its missionaries—outstanding among them was Manuel Sobreviela—contributed, besides, in great measure to the geographic knowledge about Peru with their diaries, descriptions, and maps.

The work of the community of Ocopa was the continuation of a long history of missionary activity by the Franciscans of Peru. In 1619 Gregorio de Bolívar had undertaken the conversion of the Panatahua people on the banks of the Huallaga River; his work was continued by Felipe de Luyando and others. Beginning in 1632 from Panama, which was a dependency of Lima, an attempt was made to evangelize the Idibá of Gorgona on the coast of Colombia. Shortly thereafter (1635) were established the first missions of Cerro de la Sal, and the advance toward the Ucayali was started, an area explored by Manuel Biedma during that century. About 1686 the mission of the Cunivo was established on the upper Ucayali, where another great missionary appeared—Francisco Huerta. A noteworthy aspect of Franciscan missionary history in Peru is its relationship with far-off Oceania. Franciscans figured both in the expeditions of discovery organized in the second half of the 16th century and in those sent toward the end of the 18th (1772–76) by Viceroy Amat.

Bolivia. The missionary history of Bolivia is the same as that of Peru since it formed a part of the province of the Twelve Apostles of Peru until 1607. Among the later missionary undertakings was the expedition to the Chuncho to the northwest of La Paz by the already mentioned Gregorio de Bolívar about 1621, continued by Bernardino de Cárdenas with great heroism, although without permanent success. Bolívar made an expedition to the Motilón, by way of Chapapoyas, about 1627; having failed in this attempt also, in 1631, he penetrated from Chuquisaca (modern Sucre) into the unknown regions of the east, from which he never returned. Cárdenas, well-acquainted with the Quechua and Aymara languages, was put in charge of a campaign of popular missions among the native inhabitants who were already baptized but needed more instruction.

The expeditions of Bolívar and Cárdenas from La Paz were the antecedents of the missions of Apolobamba, which the Franciscan province of Charcas (this was its official title) organized in the second half of the 17th century. Later they were extended by the missionaries of the College of Moquegua, Peru, founded in 1775, and finally came to be a part of the Apostolic Vicariate of Beni, still under the direction of the Franciscans. The College of Moquegua in southern Bolivia was established by religious originating from the College of Tarija, which had been founded in 1755 by missionaries from the College of Ocopa. The College of Tarija worked especially among the Chiriguano people of the Chaco region, a task that the Franciscans still continue. Among the first missionaries was the lay brother Francisco del Pilar, who established some 17 reductions. In the restoration of missionary activity in Bolivia in the 19th century after the wars for independence, Andrés Herrero worked tirelessly to recruit missionaries in Spain and Italy. With the principal aim of ministering to the former Jesuit missions among the Mojo, the missionary college of Tarata was established toward the end of the 18th century, with a group of 25 Franciscans brought from Spain by Bernardo Jiménez Bejarano. His missionaries worked among the Yuracaré, Mosetén, and Guarayo. In 1930 the Austrian Franciscans of the province of St. Leopold of the Tyrol took charge of these missions.

Chile. The Franciscans reached Chile in 1553, coming from Lima. Their leader was Martín de Robleda. The order expanded so rapidly that in 1565 an independent province could have been established there, but none was until 1571. The Diocese of Santiago was governed by three Franciscans during the 16th century, among whom Diego de Medellín (1573–93) is considered to have been the true organizer of the bishopric; in the 17th century two other Franciscans occupied the episcopal see: Juan Pérez de Espinosa and Diego de Umansoro. The other bishopric of Chile, La Imperial, had as its first bishop Antonio de San Miguel, a veteran Franciscan missionary from Peru; among his successors in the 17th century was the Franciscan writer Luis Gerónimo de Oré (1620–30). The violence of the Araucanian War and other unfortunate circumstances—among them, the disastrous earthquake of 1647—made its missionary work slow. True missions were not developed until the 18th century, with the founding of apostolic colleges of Propaganda Fide. The first of them was established in Chillán in 1756 by missionaries from the College of Ocopa. They set to work with considerable success among the indomitable Araucanians, among whom they had founded five missions by 1789. Shortly thereafter, they received the missions that had belonged to the Jesuits in the Valdivia region and in the archipelago of Chiloé. The latter ones were turned over to the College of Ocopa in 1771. In Valdivia, where the Jesuits had only left two missions, the missionaries of Chillán had founded six new ones before 1789. The missions of the College of Chillán as well as those of Castro received fresh impetus in the 19th century. The Castro missions reached the Strait of Magellan, where the Franciscans had tried to establish themselves in the 16th century.

Rio de La Plata. Two great Franciscan missionaries lived in this area during the 16th and the early 17th centuries: St. Francis Solano at Tucumán and Luis de Bolaños in Paraguay. Later, the Franciscans worked among the Charrúa Indians on the Banda Oriental (Uruguay), and among the Ocloyas and Tobas of Jujuy. In 1784 the College of San Carlos was established, in the modern village of San Lorenzo, Santa Fe. It was the first founding of a college of Propaganda Fide in the area, and it was owing principally to the efforts of Juan Matud, the commissary of missions for South America, who as early as 1754 wanted to establish it at Rio Cuarto, in the center of Argentina. The new community was concerned primarily with the missions in the Chaco. In the 19th century a missionary college was finally founded at Rio Cuarto for the Indians of the pampa, where Marcos Donati distinguished himself. For the conversion of the native people of the Bermejo River in El Chaco, a missionary college was established at Salta.

[l. g. canedo]

Jesuits. The first Jesuits in Spanish South America arrived in Peru in April 1568. Seven missionaries sent by the general Francis Borgia, with Jerónimo Ruiz de Portillo as provincial, first lived in Lima. In 1569 they took charge of two doctrinas: El Cercado, a district of the capital, and the area of Huarochirí, which included 77 villages and, provisionally, Andaguaillas (Apurímac). In 1570 they founded the College of Cuzco, intending to extend their efforts to the east. In the next few years they explored the area around Lake Titicaca and established doctrinas at Juli, Potosí, and Santa Cruz de la Sierra (1586). They made sporadic entradas to the north in the area of the Maranhão River and into the sub-Andean zone. In the south they established the College of Arequipa and entered Tucumán, Argentina, in 1585.

After this first deployment, the Jesuit missionaries spread widely through Spanish South America: into the modern Peruvian departments of Huánuco, Libertad, and Ayacucho; into Bolivia, where the mission to the Moxos developed 16 reductions with 24,914 Christian native inhabitants; the mission to the Chiquitos had 11 reductions with a total of 19,981; and that to the Chiriguanos eventually ministered to 20,100. In 1574 Jesuits from Lima went into Ecuador along the Peruvian border and evangelized in the regions of Yaguarzongo, Jaén, and Quijos and on into the Amazon jungle from the Napo River to the Guallaga, Ucayale, and the mouth of the Río Negro (today in Brazil); they moved also into the area between the Tigre, Napo, and Maranhão in the modern Peruvian department of Loreto. This mission activity grew to include 18,234 Christians in 32 villages. Jesuits from Peru also went down into Chile from 1593 on and evangelized in the districts of Melipilla, Rere, Castro, Arauco, Laja, Lautaro, Traiguén, Valdivia, Chillán, and Chiloé. In Araucania they established 91 missionary stations, in Chiloé 77 for 10,478 Indians. In Colombia the society was active from 1599 spreading out from Bogotá and Quito into Urabá and Turebo, Nariño and Cauca, then into the llanos, along the banks of the Meta River and so on. Their apostolic journeys went as far as Caracas, Guiana, and Cuba. Argentina was entered by the Jesuits from Chile about 1650. They worked in Patagonia and on down to the Strait of Magellan, as well as up into the pampas area near Buenos Aires and on to Salta and Tucumán. Among the Mocobíes, the Abipones, the Vilelas, and the Lules, they had 17 reductions with a population of about 3,000. Beginning in 1614 the Jesuits entered Venezuela from Colombia and French Guiana. They established six reductions along the upper Orinoco and the Río Negro. To these should be added the enclave of reductions in Paraguay-Uruguay. Thus the Jesuit missions formed a continuous line from the Pacific shore of Colombia through Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, and down through Patagonia, extending branches out to the Guianas in the north and to Chile in the south.

Mission Methods. After the first period (1493–1556) in which the Church was established in Spanish America came an era of development (1566–1700). During this time about 75 percent of the South American Jesuit community was involved in mission work. The difficulties they encountered arose from the geography and climate, from the numerical disproportion between the size of the native population to be cared for and the number of active missionaries, from the psychology of the native peoples and their almost constant state of warfare, from the intrusions of the European settlers in moral, social, political, and economic matters, and from the intrinsic nature of the process of transculturation that was taking place. The mission system expanded to include the intelligence and the will, the imagination and the affections of the native and his whole physical being; his family, tribal, fraternal, and national community; his whole world of individual and social interests. Various means were used. To appeal to the intellect, native languages were used in catechisms, in sermons, and in the specialized schools for the sons of the caciques. Their wills were trained in the group discipline of the reductions and the villages. Teachers used visual and acoustical aids: the catechism was memorized by musical recitation; religious architecture and sculpture and painting educated the native inhabitant's artistic feeling. The missionary stressed a paternalistic attitude and a defense of the native against the white settlers to create a sympathetic bond. He also provided medical care in hospitals, hygienic arrangements in the native dwellings, and adequate food. Within the mission native inhabitants took part in the direction of activities, gaining a spirit of cooperation in schools of arts and crafts and in liturgical activities.

End of the Jesuit Missions. This Jesuit missionary activity was cut off by the royal decree of Charles III of Spain, Feb. 27, 1767, which ordered the expulsion of the Society of Jesus from Spanish territory. The Jesuits had to abandon their mission posts and embark for Europe. In general this meant the ruin of their work. There were few missionaries to take their place and many were moved into areas of which they knew nothing. Some native people used this as an excuse to reassert their own autonomy and leave the missions at a time of moral deterioration among the religious orders generally. The actions of the civil government were unwise: missions were secularized, a separation was made between the powers of the laity and the clergy, and the consequence was the demoralization of the native inhabitants and a diminution of their respect for the missionary.

[a. de egaÑa]

Augustinians. The following are the missions of the modern period.

Peru. In 1965 the Augustinians administered two mission territories. The Vicariate Apostolic of Iquitos, a territory of about 90,000 square kilometers in northeastern Peru, is an area of tropical jungle in the upper reaches of the Amazon basin. About half of the estimated 100,000 inhabitants (1963) lived in the one major town, Iquitos; the remainder were seminomadic tribesmen who were scattered along the many rivers. When Augustinians from Spain took charge of the territory in 1900, it was a prefecture about three times larger than the later vicariate. The mission was raised to a vicariate apostolic in 1921, and the boundaries were fixed in 1945, after several divisions of the original territory. Five friars, led by the first prefect apostolic, Paulino Díaz (1900–11), arrived in 1901. By 1963 there were 32 Augustinians under the jurisdiction of Angel Rodríguez Gamoneda, conducting many mission stations, five parishes, a secondary school in Iquitos, several primary schools, a radio station, and a seminary in Nauta. There were two native-born Augustinian priests. Of the total population, only about 500 were as yet unbaptized.

The prelature nullius of Chulucanas, erected in 1964, comprised the eastern half of the Diocese of Piura in northwestern Peru. This territory, about 13,000 square kilometers, had a population of almost 300,000; about 38,000 persons lived in the see city of Chulucanas. In 1964, the U.S. Augustinians, led by the prelate nullius John C. McNabb, took charge of the territory.

Bolivia. The Augustinian Order had foundations in Bolivia from the early days of the Spanish conquest. The mission at Cochabamba was established in 1569. After their disappearance in the 19th century, however, the Augustinians did not return to Bolivia until four friars came from Holland in 1930. The founder of the mission was Thomas H. Van der Vloodt (d. 1934). In the Archdiocese of La Paz, the Dutch Augustinians were assigned to South Yungas, a territory of about 3,400 square kilometers, with a population of 30,500, in which the principal town is Chulumani. In 1939 they established a large parish in La Paz. In 1950 they began in Cochabamba a secondary school, which offers scientific and technical education for 300 students.

[a. j. ennis]

Salesians. Juan Cagliero and nine Salesians arrived in Buenos Aires Dec. 14, 1875, but it was not until 1879 that they entered the missionary area of Patagonia, of which their founder, Don Bosco, had dreamed. José Fagnano became superior there in January 1880, and the missionaries traveled over the area up to the cordillera. When Cagliero was made vicar apostolic of Patagonia in 1885, Fagnano took charge of southern Patagonia in both Chilean and Argentine boundaries. Their jurisdiction covered one million square kilometers. Cagliero worked out a mission circuit and Fagnano concentrated on bringing the native inhabitants into reductions, which also brought some industrial development to the area.

In 1886 Evasio Rabagliati founded the first Salesian establishment in Chile. Though they were requested by Colombia in that year, Salesian missionaries did not go there until 1890 under the leadership of Father Unia, who worked among the lepers at Agua de Dios. In 1891 Antonio Riccardi began the apostolate in Peru. Bishop Cagliero started extending his missions into Chubut in 1892 and on to the pampas in 1896. By 1934 those missions had been organized into six dioceses. Bishop Luis Lasagna founded the Salesian missions in Matto Grosso, Brazil, and from there moved on into Paraguay. The missions of Ecuador were founded by Angel Savio, who did not live to see them flourish. Bishop Santiago Costa-magna took charge of the missions among the Jíbaros in 1895. Salesians began work in Mexico in 1892.

Bibliography: m. a. medina, Los dominicos en América: Presencia y actuación de los dominicos en la América colonial española de los siglos XVI–XIX (Madrid: Mapfre 1992). j. meier, "The Religious Orders in Latin America," in Enrique Dussel (ed.), The Church in Latin America, 1492–1992 (Maryknoll, New York 1992) 375–390. Organización de los Agustinos en América Latina (OALA), Los agustinos en América Latina: Pasado y presente (Iquitos, Peru 1995). Franciscans: a. abad, Los franciscanos en América (Madrid: Mapfre 1992). l. gÓmez canedo, "The Coming of the Franciscans to Venezuela in 1575," The Americas 18 (1961–62) 380–393. m. durÁn, Presencia franciscana en el Paraguay (Asunción 1981). a. tibesar, Franciscan Beginnings in Colonial Peru, 1532–1569 (Washington, D.C. 1953). Jesuits: Manuel Aguirre, La Compañía de Jesús en Venezuela (Bogotá, 1971). a. astrain, Historia de la Compañía de Jesús en la Asistencia de España 7 v. (Madrid 1902–25). d. block, Mission Culture on the Upper Amazon (Lincoln, Nebraska 1994). n. cushner, Lords of the Land: Sugar, Wine, and Jesuit Estates of Coastal Peru, 1600–1767 (Albany, New York 1980). r. forester, Jesuitas y mapuches, 1593–1767 (Santiago, Chile 1996). j. a. gagliano and c. e. ronan (eds.), Jesuit Encounters in the New World (Rome, 1997). e. korth, Spanish Policy in Colonial Chile: The Struggle for Social Justice, 1535–1700 (Stanford, California 1968). l. martin, The Intellectual Conquest of Peru: The Jesuit College of San Pablo, 1568–1767 (New York, 1968). n. meiklejohn, La Iglesia y los lupaqas durante la colonia (Cuzco 1988). o. merino and l. a. newson, "Jesuit Missions in Latin America: The Aftermath of the Expulsion," Yearbook: Conference of Latin American Geographers, v. 21 (1995) 133–148. m. mÖrner, The Expulsion of the Jesuits from Latin America (New York 1965). s. negro and m. marzal (eds.), Un reino en la frontera: las misiones jesuitas en la América colonial (Lima 1999). j. m. pacheco, Los jesuitas en Colombia 2 v. (Bogota 1959–62). a. santos hernÁndez, Los jesuitas en América (Madrid, Mapfre 1992).

[r. a. entraigas/

j. l. klaiber]

Borderlands

Spanish missionary activity in the so-called Borderlands dates from the 1540s. (The Borderlands may be defined as that southerly strip of territory of the United States comprising Florida-Georgia and extending along the Gulf Coast into Texas, across the Southwestern states, and finally up the Pacific Coast to include California.)

Early Expeditions. Dominican friars were with the De Soto expedition in 1539, but they were along as chaplains rather than as apostles of the gospel. In that same year (1539) Fray Marcos de Niza was in Arizona, maybe even in New Mexico, but this Franciscan was on a reconnaissance tour to the Seven Golden Cities, or Cíbola, on orders from New Spain's Viceroy, Don Antonio de Mendoza. When Fray Marcos and several Franciscan companions went north in the following year with the Coronado party, they too were serving as chaplains. One of the Franciscans, Fray Juan de Padilla, remained behind when the Coronado group returned to Mexico. He is really the first missionary in the Borderlands, for he went back to Quivira (central Kansas) in order to bring the faith to the Native Americans whom he had met there. At their hands he met his death, probably in 1544, and to him goes the distinction of being the first "martyr" on the soil of the future United States.

Florida. The Floridas had defied conquest by Juan Ponce de León, by Pánfilo Narváez, and by Hernando de Soto before Fray Luis Cancer and several Dominican companions tried (1549) by peaceful means to subdue the area's native inhabitants. They died in the attempt to emulate the methods and successes of their famous confrere Fray Bartolomé de las casas. In 1566 the Spaniards under Don Pedro Menéndez de Avilés took possession of the peninsula at St. Augustine in order to prevent this strategic area along the homeward route of the silver galleons from falling into enemy hands (the French had attempted to hold and colonize it earlier in that decade). Once in control, Menéndez in characteristic Spanish fashion prepared to introduce missionaries. In 1565 three Jesuits arrived to inaugurate missionary activity. Their leader, Padre Pedro Martinez, was killed along the Georgia coast. His two companions withdrew to St. Augustine to serve the needs of the Spaniards until replacements arrived. Ten Jesuits reached there in 1568 and opened mission stations along the coast as far as South Carolina. Two years later, under Padre Juan Baptista Segura, a band went northward to the future Virginia; but six in the party were murdered. In 1572 the two survivors were withdrawn and sent to Mexico, where the Jesuits were opening their apostolate.

In 1573 a band of Franciscans arrived, but, meeting with fierce hostility from the natives, they decided to withdraw until such time as the military could establish better order in the province. In the mid-1580s, with Fray Alonso de Reynoso as the great proponent of missionary activity in Florida, the Franciscans returned, remaining until the English occupation of 1763. By about 1650 the Franciscans had more than 50 missionaries in the Floridas, serving approximately 30 doctrinas (mission centers). After 1670, however, the arrival of the English in the Carolinas signaled the beginning of the end, even before James Oglethorpe and his colonists settled in Georgia in the 1730s. Constant border fighting pushed back the mission frontier and destroyed the Christian villages. When the British gained possession of the peninsula by the Peace of Paris (1763), most of the missions had been destroyed or were abandoned. Florida has a few mission reminders of Spanish days.

Louisiana. Disregarding strict chronological sequence, brief mention should be made of the area of the lower Mississippi basin. This was French territory in more senses than that of political dominion. At the end of the 17th century the French had penetrated the great valley, including both the Louisiana and the Illinois country. P. Le M. d'Iberville's expedition arrived on the Gulf Coast in 1699. The French settled first at Biloxi, then moved over to Mobile, and in 1718 shifted their capital to New Orleans. Missionary activity opened almost immediately. The Jesuits worked with the Native Americans, and the Capuchins served the settlers.

In 1762 France, badly beaten in the French and Indian War, by a secret treaty ceded the western half of her Louisiana claims to Spain before going to the peace table at Paris. Spain remained in control of Louisiana, thus abbreviated, until 1800. During the years of Spanish possession there was little, if any, concerted missionary effort expended in the former French area. The French Jesuits had been expelled by royal decree in 1763, stripping the missions of their pastors. No replacements arrived from either France or Canada, and Spain had few to send. During this time the Capuchins and the Spanish priests could barely care for the needs of the settlers. Some little attention was given to the Native Americans in the Illinois country by Canadian and later by French refugee priests; but none of this rose to the status of real missionary effort. Thus the Spaniards in Louisiana left no Christianizing mark on the Indians of the Mississippi Valley proper.

New Mexico. In the area to the west, more commonly designated as the Spanish Borderlands, the Spanish mission enterprise was more extensive, thorough, and successful. The impetus out of New Spain (Mexico) into this region resulted in the late 18th century in the organization of the administrative unit of the Provincias Internas. The mission activity was integral to the three-pronged Spanish advance to the north: the center reached into New Mexico and looked beyond to the Great Plains; the right, or east, flank moved toward and across the lower Rio Grande into Texas; the left flank edged up the so-called West Corridor, along the Gulf of California, and ultimately reached the Golden Gate.

By mid-16th century the Age of the Conquistadores in North America had ended, and the slower, more prosaic but more enduring type of frontier expansion got underway, as the Spaniards moved into and began to exploit the rich silver belt of north central and northern Mexico. The Franciscans were with the first miner-settler waves that went northward. At the end of the century, when they accepted the call to form the spiritual arm of the thrust into the Pueblo country, the Jesuits began founding missions along both slopes of the Sierra Madre Occidental. The Franciscans continued to staff the missions on the more easterly flank of the northward advance. By the first years of the 18th century the sons of St. Francis were on the lower Rio Grande, as well as along its New Mexican reaches, while the Jesuits were inching into the future Arizona.

In 1598, when Don Juan de Oñate went north to lay foundations of the outpost province of Nuevo México, Franciscans were in his company. Within the next years, after the Spaniards had established control through the country, the friars fanned out to the pueblos and began the work of Christianization. Early in the 17th century they pushed westward and likewise established themselves in the mesa towns of the Hopi. Things went rather well until 1680; there were successes and setbacks, but the number of converts climbed high into five figures. Then in 1680 came the devastating Pueblo revolt, which temporarily put an end to all Spanish activity in the province. The Franciscans lost a score of men, and more than 400 Spanish settlers were massacred. The rest managed to escape southward and found protection at Paso del Norte. Missions were established in the neighborhood for the Christian Native Americans who were refugees from the pueblos that were located up the river. The reconquest of New Mexico was effected in the 1690s by Don Diego de Vargas, and most of the old mission sites among the Pueblo Indians were reopened. However, neither the Franciscans nor the Jesuits, probing from the south in the next century, were able to bring the Hopi missions back into existence. The work of the Franciscans went on through the 18th century, leaving a Christian imprint on the Pueblos and their neighbors who survived the days of decline in the early 19th century, as well as the influx of Anglo-Americans at mid-century. Brown-robed friars later replaced their blue-robed brethren of earlier times and carry on the mission traditions.

Texas. Spanish interest in Texas was minimal until the 1680s, when reports were received that R. C. de La Salle had sailed to the Gulf Coast. Fearing the presence of French rivals in a position from which they might threaten the rich silver provinces of northern Mexico, the Spaniards bestirred themselves and set out to look for La Salle. Although they learned that his attempt at settlement had ended in disaster, the Crown decided that Texas should be occupied by at least a token force. In 1690 soldiers and Franciscan missionaries moved east from the Rio Grande and set up on the Rio Neches, in east Texas. But, when there were no signs of a French follow-up expedition, the posts and missions were recalled.

By the second decade of the 18th century, however, Spanish officials recognized that the French threat had by no means passed. In 1714 L. J. de Saint-Denis and his trader band appeared on the Rio Grande, at San Juan Bautista. Two years later the decision was made to turn Texas into a buffer province, and in 1718 a party was laying the foundations of San Antonio. As usual, missions and missionaries figured in the Spanish plans for subduing and holding this new frontier. The Franciscans took up the work that D. Massanet and F. Hidalgo had been forced to interrupt about 20 years before. One of the important figures in this new missionary effort was Fray Antonio Margil de Jesús. Missions soon dotted the lower course of a number of the Texas rivers; and there was even an unrewarding attempt to domesticate the wild Apache from the inland station of San Sabá. Here, as elsewhere in the Borderlands, the foundations of Christianity were laid among the American natives, and some of the early historic monuments of Texas were constructed. These were not always appreciated by the Anglo-intruders of a later date who appropriated the province, arrogated the name for themselves, and worked to obliterate the vestiges of the Spanish background.

Arizona. By the beginning of the 18th century northward progress up the West Coast corridor had carried the Spanish frontier into the future United States. The Jesuits had been advancing up the west coast of Mexico, valley by valley, since 1591, from Sinaloa into Sonora. Late in the 17th century there came to Pimería Alta a remarkable Tyrolese Italian, Padre Eusebio Francisco kino, one of the first of a line of non-Spaniards who contributed another chapter of the Borderlands story. Early in the new century Kino was dotting the upper Pimería and the Papaguería with stations that later had an Arizona address—Tumacacori, Guebavi, Bac.

After Kino's death (1711) there was a lull in activity on the Arizona frontier. Since the last years of the 17th century most of the Jesuits had been diverted to the new foundations on the California peninsula, where J. M. Salvatierra, F. M. Piccolo, J. de Ugarte, and their coworkers were opening up a new mission frontier. In the 1730s, however, the Sonota-Arizona region again began to hum with activity. Many northern European Jesuits were available to the Mexican superiors for assignment, and quite a few of them were detailed to the north. Strange names, by Spanish standards, appear in the story, such as Jacobo Sedelmayr, Ignatz Keller, Philipp Segesser, Caspar Stiger, Adam Gilg, Heinrich Ruhen, Gottfried Middendorff, Ignatz Pfefferkorn, and Joseph Och, to mention only a few. Missions spread up the San Pedro Valley and were set along the upper waters of the Gila as new tribes to the north and west were drawn into the mission circle.

As the third quarter of the 18th century moved past its midpoint, all seemed in readiness for the next big forward thrust, which Kino and Salvatierra had planned many years before—the Baja California chain and the Sonora-Arizona line were to be joined and moved in conjunction toward the "great harbor of Monterey." The Spaniards had long dreamed of occupying Alta California, but the royal budget could never quite provide for this expansion. Mission expenses were not always quite so prodigious, especially since the Jesuits had managed to enlist much nonroyal financial support, such as the moneys that started and nourished the famous Pious Fund. Then in 1767 the plan seemed to evaporate into thin air, as Charles III of Spain, following the pattern of the monarchs of Portugal and France, decreed the expulsion of the Jesuits from all his dominions, at home and overseas. The West Coast corridor missions were deprived of their pastors. Other religious orders were asked to fill the places; but most of them had little enough personnel to man the missions already assigned to them.

The Franciscans accepted the burden and the challenge. Their missionary seminary at Querétaro sent men into the Pimería; and the missionary Colegio de San Fernando, in the viceregal capital, offered replacements for the peninsular missions. Fray Francisco Garcés went to San Xavier del Bac in 1768 to begin a career as missionary and explorer; this kept the plan to occupy Monterey from dying. And to the peninsula, as presidente, came the man whose name is so importantly linked with the occupation and Christianization of the "last Borderland," Fray Junípero serra. Furthermore, when the Franciscans moved up to Alta California, Dominicans helped to staff the missions in the peninsula.

California. In addition to promulgating the decree expelling the Jesuits, Don José de Gálvez, the visitator general to New Spain in the 1760s, was instructed to investigate the soundness of the reports that the Russians were extending their trading enterprise southward from Alaska toward the California coast. In view of the trade that the Spaniards had built up with the East through the Manila galleons, they could ill afford to have California in the hands of a rival power. Gálvez carried out his commission and made arrangements for the occupation of Alta California.

In 1769 the expedition, divided into a sea and a land arm, set forth. Serra went with G. de Portolá and the main land party; Fray Juan Crespi went on ahead with the smaller advance party under Capt. F. Rivera. In that year the southern anchor of the future chain of California missions had been established at San Diego de Alcalá. In the next year San Carlos Borromeo was founded at Monterey. In 1776 Capt. Juan Bautista de Anza, commandant in Sonora, led the settler band to the Golden Gate and there laid the foundations of the San Francisco complex, presidio-pueblo-mission. Anza's close associate in the explorations that made possible this overland trek of settlers had been Garcés, who soon after (1780) met his death, along with two Franciscan brethren, at the hands of rebellious Yumas at the missions located near the junction of the Gila with the Colorado River.

The links of the California mission chain were gradually filled in during the last quarter of the century. The number of converts mounted; the province became moderately prosperous. After Serra's death (1784) others, such as F. F. de Lasuén carried on the work. Twelve years before the missions were secularized and the Pious Fund appropriated by the impecunious Mexican government, the friars pushed beyond the Golden Gate and built two last missions, at San Rafael and San Francisco de Solano, increasing the total to more than 20. Many of these are still preserved, and some are still in use as parish churches. Californians are much prouder of their mission heritage than are the Anglo-successors to the Spaniards in other parts of the Borderlands.

Missionaries Honored. Two of the Borderlands missionaries have been named to the National Statuary Hall in the Capitol, Washington, D.C., by the states in which they labored; California named Serra (1931), and Arizona accorded this distinction to Kino (1965).

Borderlands Revisited. Recent literature tends to criticize older studies of the borderlands missions, which in turn were highly influenced by Herbert Bolton's pioneering works. The anti-Boltonian school centers on Bolton's eurocentric approach which uncritically praised the civilizing efforts of the missionaries, but which paid little attention to the suffering which the Native Americans underwent in order to become "civilized." In fact, the Native Americans did not always submit peaceably to the new system. There were numerous rebellions against Spanish rule and the presence of the missionaries, one of the most notable being the Pueblo revolt of 1680. Furthermore, the methods used by the missionaries, which included coercion, have been held up to a more critical light. Junípero Serra, the Franciscan founder of the California missions, has been particularly singled out in this regard. When all is said and done, however, the missions undoubtedly did more good than harm and left an indelible imprint on the native peoples in the borderlands.

Bibliography: j. f. bannon, Bolton and the Spanish Borderlands (Norman, Oklahoma 1964). h. e. bolton, "The Mission as a Frontier Institution in the Spanish-American Colonies," American Historical Review 23 (1917–18) 42–61; Rim of Christendom: A Biography of Eusebio Francisco Kino (New York 1936; repr.1960). c. e. castaÑeda, Our Catholic Heritage in Texas, 1519–1936 7 v. (Austin 1936–58). v. h. cummins, "Building on Bolton: The Spanish Borderlands Seventy-Five Years Later," Latin American Research Review 35:2 (2000) 230–43. d. denevi and n. f. moholy, Junípero Serra: The Illustrated Story of the Franciscan Founder of California's Missions (New York 1975). p. m. dunne, Black Robes in Lower California (Berkeley 1952). j.t. ellis, Catholics in Colonial America (Baltimore 1956). z. engelhardt, The Mission and Missionaries of California 4 v. (2nd ed. San Francisco 1929). c. f. figuero y del campo, Franciscan Missions in Florida (Madrid 1994). m. j. geiger, The Franciscan Conquest of Florida, 1573–1618 (Washington 1937); The Life and Times of Fray Junípero Serra 2 v. (Washington 1959). r. h. jackson and e. castillo, Indians, Franciscans, and Spanish Colonization (Albuquerque 1995). j. l. kessel, Friars, Soldiers, and Reformers: Hispanic Arizona and the Sonora Mission Frontier, 1767–1856 (Tucson 1976). p. h. kocher, California's Old Missions: The Story of the Founding of the 21 Franciscan Missions in Spanish Alta California, 1769–1823 (Chicago 1976). a. l. knaut, The Pueblo Revolt of 1680 (Norman, Oklahoma 1995). c. m. lewis and a. j. loomie, The Spanish Jesuit Missions in Virginia, 1570–1572 (Chapel Hill, North Carolina 1953). j. t. lanning, The Spanish Missions of Georgia (Chapel Hill 1935). h. m. mason, Missions of Texas (Birmingham, Alabama 1974). j. norris, "The Franciscans in New Mexico, 1692–1754: Toward a New Assessment," The Americas 51:2 (October 1994) 151–171. f. b. parsons, Early 17th Century Missions of the Southwest (Tucson 1975). j. a. sandos, "Junípero Serra's Canonization and the Historical Record," American Historical Review 93:5 (1988) 1253–69. f. j. smith, Father Kino in Arizona (Phoenix, Arizona 1966). d. sweet, "The Ibero-American Frontier Mission in Native American History," in e. langer and r. h. jackson (eds.), The New Latin American Mission History (Lincoln, Nebraska 1995) 1–48. f. zubillaga, La Florida. La misión jesuítica (1566–1572) (Rome 1941).

[j. f. bannon/

j. l. klaiber]