† California Mission!

San Miguel:

While researching the San Miguel Mission I learned about the beautiful architecture put into the San Miguel mission, and the area in which it was built. The San Miguel mission is situated along the El Camino Real between Missions San Antonio and Mission San Luis Obispo. The inside of the mission has actually never been repainted. The coolest part of the fact that the inside of the mission has never been repainted is that the original interior painting of the mission San Miguel was done by the Native Americans in that area. Inside we can find various religious murals directed by artist, rancher and Spanish diplomat Esteban Carlos Munras and painted by the San Miguel Natives. This mission is considered the best preserved of all the California missions in the mission chain. One reason this mission may have been so well preserved is because in 1946 only eleven years after the Catholic Church had secularized the mission was sold for $600 as private property, and obviously the owner did not disturb any part of its original design.Today the mission is surrounded by modern brick and stone structures which may match the mission but are as I've stated modern and as such not part of the original San Miguel area. In fact the Native Americans were literally next door neighbors to the mission. The San Miguel Natives lived off of the land. For this reason the natives were attached to this building as an inherited part of their culture. This being so, the natives helped this mission survive throughout the years. As of today the only part of the mission structure itself that still survives is the base foundation. While researching the San Miguel mission I also learned about the day to day work done on the mission. The San Miguel mission was always vibrantly busy with farm work to do. The economy of this mission much like its counterparts is sustained by wheat and corn (the staple crops), vineyards, and farm animals such as cows and sheep. The main work done by the San Miguel mission natives was the manufacturing of roof tiles. This process thanks to the natives is considered a main reason why this mission was one of the most prosperous of them all. Also this mission was detrimental to the other missions because the Miguel missions traded their tiles with other missions and these missions because of the different weather and earthquake patterns needed these roofing materials to rebuild their structures. Mission San Miguel has the only church with paintings and decorations inside that have never been retouched by subsequent artists. The view presented to the visitor, except for the more modern bench pews. The church is exactly the same as that seen by the Indian converts. In its museum, a good amount of effort was put in to present the tools used in mission industries like, a spinning wheel and loom, a beehive oven, fish traps, branding irons, forging tools, and a tile kiln. The tile kiln is even still in operation.One of the most interesting of the exhibits is a "mission window". The reason this missing window is so interesting is because it is type used before the padres obtained glass. It is a wooden frame, over which cowhide is stretched very thinly, then shaved and greased to increase its translucence. These frames were pegged into the window openings during periods of cold or inclement weather. The long and leisurely road that formed El Camino Real, used to be a passage that travelers took across California and they’d stop in at the mission because of how close it was on their journey. Today people still use this passage to move across California because now it’s a huge highway but now many of its travelers speed past Mission San Miguel without pause. However every so often travelers are attracted to the beauty of the adobe mission and its gardens, so they stop and discover for themselves achievements of these California natives and pioneers. So this just goes to show past or present those missionaries who decided to place this mission right next to the El Camino Real were some very smart cookies because travelers from all over pass it every day.

San Inez:

While researching the San Inez mission I learned about the discovery of the land on which the mission was found. A Portuguese navigator Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo was given credit for the discovery of the Santa Barbara Channel during an exploratory voyage in October 1542. He is said to have claimed the land in the name of the Spanish king. Sixty years after Cabrillo claimed the land Sebastian Viscaino named the channel in honor of Saint Barbara as he sailed in on The Eve of the Feast of St. Barbara, December 3, 1602. Also a century after this Franciscan Missionaries joined the Spanish military in settling “Alta” or upper California with the goal of a political and spiritual conquest of the new land. While in Mi guel there was only one real form of financing the economy Inez  there are multiple forms and way of the economy making money. The natives of the area are known as the Chumash. These natives made up the bulk of the money put into the economy. They had a diversified and interdependent economy based on their many talents and craftsmanship. I learned about the people that found this area. In the early 1500’s the Portuguese navigated the area near Inez. One of the Portuguese navigators was Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo. Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo was the discoverer who found the Santa Barbara Channel. Through this channel the Spanish raveled to this area and charted the land that they would later build their mission upon. Also I learned about the specifications of the building. In 1804 the mission was just a row of buildings. These buildings were 232 feet in length and 19 feet in both height and width. This construction style reminds me of the longhouses that Native Americans sometimes lived in. The mission President Fermin Francisco de Lasuen claimed the land Inez was on for Viceroy Branciforte. Inez was the 16th mission founded. One of the main purposes of the new mission was a station during travel between Mission San Luis Obispo and San Antonio. The mission system was so devised that each mission was a day's travel from its neighbor. In my research of the Inez mission I learned about the original claiming of the land on which The San Inez Mission was founded. The Portuguese navigator Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo as I said before was the man credited for finding the Santa Barbara Channel. This discovery was supposedly during an exploratory voyage in October 1542, in which he claimed the land in the name of the Spanish king. Sixty years later a man named Sebastian Viscaino renamed the channel in honor of Saint Barbara, the ship on which he sailed in on. He started his sailing voyage December 3, 1602. It was going to be years before the Franciscans were able to launch their new Mission. The reason for this was the governor died, so approval was then needed from his successor, Jose de Arrillaga, in Baja California. Being unfamiliar to the area Governor Arrillaga wrote to Father Lasuen in April 1803. He wrote about the number of guards that would be needed for the new Mission, but then Father Lasuen died. The Capuchin Franciscan fathers were the priests who did the restorations. They began full restoration of the Mission in 1947. When men working to restore the mission removed the roof from part of the building, they discovered several rooms that had been used as living quarters in the previous century by the Mission fathers. This revealed a balcony with rooms behind it, above the arches. Many repairs were made on the roof of the church and sections of the south end of the building were actually completely remodeled, unlike the rest which is mainly still intact.

La Purisima:

While researching the La Purisima mission I learned about the area that the mission was in and the date of its founding. The La Purisima mission was founded in 1787. The mission land has decreased since its active days. The Spanish who owned the mission in 1787 owned 470 square miles of land that they used for the mission and agricultural activities involved with it. Bordering the La Purisima Mission were the Santa Maria River to its North and the Gaviota coastline to its South. The Chumash people made up the bulk of the mission neophytes, or priests in training. Hours worked by the neophytes were not to exceed five hours per day. To keep them at the mission unfortunately even pregnant, nursing, and aged women, as well as children were required to perform small amounts of work. This light work was called piece work. The neophytes were taught how to deal with the soldiers and other people outside of the mission. The neophytes did not like to work for the soldiers because the soldiers over-burdened them, or deprived them of the necessities enjoyed by those at the mission.The La Purisima mission was founded by Father and Mission president Fermin de Lasuen. He founded this mission as the 11^th of the 21 California missions that were to be established. The mission was dedicated to “the Immaculate Conception of Most Holy Mary.” The mission’s rather long official name is Misión La Purisima Concepcion De Maria Santísima. The La Purisima mission was solely established to convert the Chumash Natives to Catholicism and make them subjects under the King of Spain. This mission was one of five specific missions in the area dedicated solely to the conversion of this specific native people. The idea behind this of course was labor, the Chumash Natives were a large people and to have control of them as a work force would be a huge benefit to the king. The site chosen for La Purisima Mission was known to the Spanish as the plain of Rio Santa Rosa and by the Chumash as Algsacpi. Unlike what I had expected to read in my research I discovered that for the most part the Chumash while they weren't exactly respected they were treated quite well. The Chumash neophytes, or ministers in training, actually lived on the mission grounds. While the natives were the bulk of the work force they never worked over five hours per day of course not including work considered piece work. These tasks usually only included cooking and cleaning. The padres had many ups and downs with their first few years of construction. By far the Chumash natives had to be their most favors up, while they did have to attract them to the idea of helping the padres with work the fact that they did is what made this mission venture even possible. The construction projects included the church, living quarters, workshops, storage, water systems, and clearing land for all of the above as well as an area for planting. The planting that they had to clear land for varied from crops, to orchards and even vineyards. In 1802, church structure was completed. This project heightened the Padres' fear about their lack of construction knowledge and their need for skilled craftsmen at the mission. The doorway of this structure still stands at the original mission site. This mission is now owned by the City of Lompoc. For the construction masons from other missions were brought in. There were little coin or forms of money in use in California at the time. The main items used for trading were soap, cigars, horses, cattle, hides and tallow. Obviously, there were supplies that the mission could not produce on their own. Each year, ships from San Blas, Mexico, brought china sugar, fine cloth, and other commodities and these items were exchanged for mission products. The fathers yearly received four hundred dollars worth of mission equipment. Of course as expected it started with the natives. The natives felt that the mission was a blow to their tribe’s pride. As such they left the mission life. Without the natives, the backbone and blood of the mission, the work could not be done. Without the mission prospering it fell apart and was sold.