The missions of California stretch from San Diego in Southern California to Sonoma in Northern California. Some are State Historic Parks, while most others are still active churches; in fact, some to this day still have the Native Americans living on them that the Spaniards forced into slavery -- information that I didn't know until I researched the Internet on the subject. For years I visited the California missions on my way to or from Southern California because of my Catholic heritage, but I never truly understood why the missions were built or the history behind them.

I learned the purpose of the missions was a cost effective way for Spain to further their expansion of the Spanish Empire. The padrés received no pay, and their needs were few. Moreover, their role in the conversion of the local Indians was crucial to the plan of the empire. The padrés established colonies and through education they were to transform the local Indians into civilized Spaniards and thereby into the "colonists" of their own land. The Natives were viewed as children, lost souls who needed the sacraments of God and the benefits of European civilization. In theory, each mission was a temporary institution that held all the wealth and property in the trust of the Indians. Once the Natives were appropriately civilized, the missions were to give up their stewardship of the land and create pueblos for the Indians -- Los Angeles and San José are actually pueblos (towns) set up by the Spanish.

The Spanish court had learned to entrust their power to the padrés. Like others before them, many were driven and tireless men who had been assigned God's work, and no hardship, be it pestilence, hostile natives or famine, would stop the march to found missions and secure the domain of the Spanish Empire. The padrés were backed by a handful of armed soldiers that were supplied by the local presidio (fort). This partnership of the sword and the cross had proven very successful elsewhere in the Spanish Empire (especially South America) and served both equally; the crown wanted gold while the padrés wanted souls. The padrés, called Franciscan Friars, can still be found giving tours and conducting masses at some of the missions today.

The Indians helped fuel the material success of the padrés' enterprise. Hundreds, sometimes up to a thousand, converts would be involved with the running of a single mission. Each convert had a quota of labor to fulfill and, in return, received sacraments, food, clothing and education. Many Indians were taught the manual skills upon which the missions would thrive. The necessary skills needed for the survival of the missions were animal husbandry, tallow making, hide and leather manufacturing, adobe brick making, and tile manufacturing. The women were taught such skills as weaving and embroidery. By entering into such agreements with the missions, however, the converts gave up their previous lives forever.

Once baptized and living next to the missions in their single huts, the converts, known to the church as neophytes (literally the newly planted), belonged to the missions and their lives were totally controlled by the padrés. The padrés reluctantly released the Indians (Neophytes) even in times of near starvation. The padrés believed that releasing the Indians encouraged contact between the Neophytes and the Gentiles (the non-saved natives). If they attempted to flee, they were hunted down, and, if captured, brought back and punished. California Missions Information is an excellent site for more information on the missions and the treatment of the Indians. The site shows a sixty second movie overview of mission life with links to a detailed history of each of the twenty-one missions.

What I learned that bothered me the most about the mission system was that although the Spanish system wasn't as bad and maybe not as harsh as the English Protestant's system of slavery, it was slavery. I've learned that the mission system meant different things to different groups of people. From the Indians' point of view the introduction of the missions' system meant cultural and physical genocide. From the padrés' point of view it meant lost souls brought to God and to the Spaniards it meant cheap labor in their Imperial expansion and quest for more gold and riches. Today the missions serve as churches and meeting places for everyone -- Spanish, Indian, Anglo, Asian and Black -- to meet and worship as brothers and sisters of Jesus' family.