Junípero Serra: California’s Founding Father

Junípero Serra: California’s Founding Father

 

Junípero Serra: California’s Founding Father, By Stephen W. Hackle.
New York: Hill and Wang, a division Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013. xv+ 325 pp. 30 halftones, maps, notes, further reading, acknowledgements, index. $27.00 cloth, ISBN 978-0-8090-9531-5.

 

The effort to declare Father Junípero Serra (nee Miguel Jose) a Catholic saint went into high gear in 1987 when Pope John Paul II visited California. Later this year Pope Francis will be coming to the United States to formally declare Father Serra a saint of the Catholic Church. The Pope may have neglected the fact that the founding president of the California missions has become a deeply controversial and divisive figure in California history as well as among contemporary Californians. The call for the canonization of the founding president of the California missions opened up a controversy on whether he merited sainthood. Both proponents and opponents have compelling stories. Professor Steven W. Hackle’s biography of Father Serra, which consists of eleven chapters and an epilogue, is both unique and refreshing. He considers Father Junipero Serra a product of his time and the Mallorca environment, and, a person who possessed a complex albeit, for many, an eccentric personality.

Unlike other writers who prefer to examine Serra’s actions as a missionary, historian Hackel concerns himself with exploring the mindset behind them. Hence, Hackel believes being born in the island of Mallorca influenced Serra’s decision to becoming a missionary. Historically, the island had been home to Christians, a large number of Jews, and to Moors who occupied it for a long time. With the Spanish Christians reconquest of Mallorca in the late 1200s, its residents chose to live more devoted to God and, hence, families expected that at least one child become a priest. Hackel notes that some of the priests would make it their lives’ mission to travel to distant lands either to defend Catholicism or to win new converts. Among the great Franciscan missionaries from Mallorca, Father Ramon Llull travelled to North Africa and the Palestine to convert Jews and Muslims while Saint Francisco de Solano would seek to convert the native peoples of Peru. In 1749, Serra sought to emulate Llull and Solano by journeying to New Spain. Hackel claims Serra was also inspired by a nun, Sor María de Agrada, who believed that Native Americans craved religious conversion so much that they would do so upon first sight of the Franciscans.

Hackel also notes that Serra was fascinated with saving souls by atoning for sins through self-mortification, a characteristic of the Franciscans at that time. While a novice he began to flog himself, sleeping little, and fasting on a daily basis; at times he would resort to harsher forms of physical punishment. After reaching the port of Veracruz, Hackel says that Serra insisted on walking to Mexico City as a way to of doing penance; along the way he was bitten by a mosquito on one of his legs and refused to treat it. The leg became ulcerated and yet despite intense pain, Serra insisted on walking to his different missionary assignments throughout New Spain. He would endure the intense physical pain as a way earning the salvation of his soul. Hackel also notes Serra had a strong faith in divine intervention. On the same journey to Mexico City, Serra and his group reached a rapidly rising river by nightfall and were assisted by a “Christian” who showed them where to cross it safely and also provided them with food and shelter. Hackel mentions quite a few situations when Serra felt divine intervention in times of grave danger or great need.

Before going on to establish the Alta California missions, Hackel observes that Serra would spend eight years at the Sierra Gorda, several years conducting popular missions in Central Mexico, and a few years in the former Jesuit missions of Baja California. Yet, Hackel notes that Serra repeatedly witnessed the lackluster enthusiasm that native peoples displayed towards Catholicism or the Franciscans. In the end, Serra did not have an impressive record of achievements for all his years in New Spain. When given the opportunity to serve as its founding president, Serra gladly left to establish the missions of Alta California. Professor Hackel mentions that Father Serra, now much older, insisted on being a part of the expedition that would trek up to Alta California. After reaching San Diego in 1769, Hackel observes that Serra committed himself to building a “ladder” of missions in the new territory. In the process, Serra felt that his efforts to transform native people into devout Christians were stymied by the intervention of military. In 1772, Serra travelled to Mexico City to convince Viceroy Bucareli to give the Franciscan missionaries almost complete authority over the native peoples. Yet, again, native peoples were simply not rushing to become Christianized as Sor María de Agrada had envisioned. Serra and his Franciscan brethren only achieved unremarkable numbers of conversions and the missions never evolved beyond primitive structures, a far cry from the prosperous and productive missions of the early 1800s.

Professor Hackel must be commended for his incisive and highly readable revisionist book. He considers Father Serra a product of La Reconquista and the Counter Reformation and as such he portrays him as a zealous missionary who was driven more by his desire to save the souls of his flock rather than to taking care of their earthly needs. From this perspective, it will be difficult to see Father Junipero Serra as a saintly figure for the 21st century.

 

Dr. Gregorio Mora-Torres teaches at San Jose State University’s Mexican American Studies Program. He is currently working on a two volume history of Mexicans in the Santa Clara Valley during the 19th and 20th centuries.