Chapter 1 Daily Duties at the Mission The bells rang out as the first streaks of sunlight appeared on the horizon This was the sound that began the day at a California mission In the early nineteenth century most of present-day California was wild and rugged land The Spanish mission was a walled-in town rising out of the desert As the day wore on and the sun climbed higher in the sky the walls of the mission turned golden brown They were made of adobe bricks molded from mud and straw Several feet thick these adobe walls helped control who could enter and exit the mission Bells and cross of the Mission San Miguel California 4
Jutting above the walls was an impressive stone church The church was far more beautiful than the other buildings In the slanted morning light the wooden cross on top of the building cast a long shadow The cross announced the mission’s purpose to spread Christianity throughout the region Different buildings served other important aspects of the mission Buildings for making leather cloth soap and candles for forging metal and for preparing food would soon be buzzing with the sounds of workers Outside the mission walls fields of wheat barley and other crops were ready to be tended Farther out hundreds sometimes thousands of cattle grazed on the land Three main groups of people lived in the mission hundreds of Native Americans two or three Catholic priests or padres as they were called and six or so Spanish soldiers The Native Americans were the reason for the mission The padres wanted them to give up their religion and culture As much as possible they were to become Christians with European ways and manners The Native Americans were also the mission’s workers 5
The sound of the bell called the Native Americans to morning prayers They headed from their cramped quarters to the church After prayers was a full day of work meals more prayers and religious instruction Each event in their daily schedule would be announced by tolling bells A CHILD’S LIFE AT A MISSION Children played a special role in mission life In the eyes of the padres children represented the future success of the missions Unlike their parents they easily picked up the Spanish language and customs At some missions the padres tried to keep parents from teaching Native American ways to their children The children were forced to live in separate buildings from their adult relatives Children spent much of the day at church and learning the Spanish language and crafts Girls were taught to weave sew cook and make pottery Boys learned skills such as preparing leather from cowhide blacksmithing carpentry and painting Children were also made to work They could chase hungry birds away from the crops They helped pick vegetables and fruits A boy might also assist in the ringing of the bells At Mission San Juan Capistrano in California boys helped turn the stone mill that crushed olives for making oil Older boys stomped on grapes with their bare feet to make wine 6
A magazine illustration from 1877 shows Native Americans on a California mission weaving baskets and rope There yet remains the ruins of an immense church which was destroyed by an earthquake in 1812 when many Native Americans were buried in its fall It still bears the appearance of having been one of the best finished structures in the country Alfred Robinson a New England trader who visited California in the 1830s and 1840s describing the San Juan Capistrano Mission in his book Life in California 7
