Essay: Failing of the missions and ranchos

As Monroy discusses in the introduction of his book, Thrown Among Strangers, every history class for children in California begins with stories about the missions and the Indians. Depending on who you are or where you live that history may differ greatly; this essay will try to depict the events that occurred that led to the failing of the missions and ranchos and how it affected the lives of those who lived there.
In 1769, Gaspar de Portola accompanied by a group of Franciscans led by Junipero Serra, set of on an expedition with the goal of establishing missions in Alta California. The first Alta California mission was established in San Diego and the second in Monterey. By the end of the expedition there were 21 missions, stretching from San Diego to the San Francisco mission. The missions were founded in response to other countries, like England and Russia, trying to make claims in the New World. The Spanish Kingdom in turn, established these missions to protect its borders. The missions were also meant to convert the indigenous people to Christianity. After Mexico claimed it independence from Spain it took Alta California and the missions with it. The new government of Alta California secularized the missions after passing the Mission Secularization Act of 1833. The last governor of California, Pio Pico, completed the selling of mission property and land to the highest bidders. During this time the ranchos in Alta California began to flourish. Many of the mission lands would be transformed into ranchos. The ranchos were large land grants given by the government to soldiers and colonists. They were largely devoted to raising cattle. But all good things eventually come to an end. Why did the missions and ranchos fail? And how did it effect the people that lived there? There are many reasons that led to the failing of the missions and ranchos but there are a few reasons that stick out more than others; mistreatment of the land and the Native Americans, and revolution from first, the Mexicanos, then the Americans.
Daily life on the missions varied between different groups of people, with the priests monitoring virtually all aspects of life. All residents of the missions were required to go to church. The Indians that the priests had converted were called neophytes, some came willingly to the missions and others were brought by force. Regardless, the neophyte population was growing steadily, from 1770-1784 the neophyte population went from two thousand to almost five thousand. The men and women that lived on these missions were involved largely in agriculture and the running of the mission. The goal was to make these missions self-efficient without any need for help from the Spanish government. In order to do this the Spanish government had to implement a labor system that would allow them to take advantage of the Native American population as means for labor. Not only were the Native Americans required to convert from their religions they were also required to convert their way of life. Monroy says, “The Indian’s techniques for engaging the land to produce their substance would need to undergo profound alteration when the Europeans brought a new labor system to replace their customary ways.” This change and lack of respect towards the Indians way of life would eventually be one of the reasons for the failure of the missions. The Indians were taught how to cultivate the land, which would eventually transform the economy into an agriculture based one, but were also forced to do menial labor like crafting saddles, shoes, beds, blankets, coffins, etc. According to Barbara Reyes, if the Indians liked a certain job or showed they were good at it that would be the job they would do. But the freedom of the Native American people was so very limited that it was only a matter of time before unrest against the missions occurred. Due to the fact that every aspect of the native Americans lives were monitored as if they were children the Indians became very unhappy with life on the missions.
Allowing the Native Americans to choose different jobs or teaching them how to cultivate the land was only a vague disguise of freedom and free will when in reality the lives of the Indians was much more controlled.  The missionaries believed that “a policy of deliberately specialized regimentation was the best disciplinary strategy for curtailing and containing any attempts by the Indians to question their subordination.”  The missionaries did not see fit that the Native Americans could run their own lives even while still doing their jobs and following orders. They created a sense of dependency for the missions and destroyed the Native Americans sense of individuality and initiative. The missionaries also saw themselves as being “gente de razon” or with reason, and the Indians were “sin razon” or without reason. According to Monroy the “Indians remained resolutely, in the Californios mind, sin razon.” The missionaries would only see themselves as better than the Native American people and since they were “sin razon” it would not be unreasonable to constrict them to a life of servitude. This mentality and mistreatment of the Native American people would never allow them to fully feel like actual citizens or even like actual people so it was only a matter of time before they would revolt.
One such revolt was documented from a first hand account told by Doña Angustias de la Guerra. The Indian uprising that she depicts took place in 1824 at the Missions La Purísima, Santa Inés, and Santa Bárbara. She tells a tale of the Native Americans rebelling against the missions and threatening to kill the “gente de razon.” One Friar was apparently so heartbroken that he wept when he was told that troops were leaving to kill the rebels because he claimed them as his children and didn’t not want anything to happen to them even after their revolt. Although this may seem like compassion between the Native Americans and the Friars perhaps the Native Americans did not want to be seen as children to a foreign god that had invaded their land. They would have much rather been seen as the original inhabitants of the land and to be respected as such. After the news of the revolt spread troops were assembled to go and fight off the Native Americans that had sworn to kill the “gente de razon” and destroy the missions. Battles took place between the Indians and the presidio troops, some were killed on both sides, one mission was set on fire and other Indians had fled to the mountains. Later, troops went after the Indians that had fled and engaged in a quick battle with them and gave them an offer that the government had authorized that allowed them to return back to the missions without further punishment. That ended the revolt and returned things back to the way they were but it was described as a “revolt that threatened to destroy all the progress that had been made for the sake of religion.” The Native Americans helped keep the missions running and could have easily brought about the end of the missions right then and there but luckily for the missionaries that was not the case. The revolts just prove the unhappiness of the Native Americans living on the missions and their desire to be free from them. It also goes to show the hatred for the “gente de razon” that the Native Americans had for being treated as a people without any reason and only fit for servitude for so long.
After many years of Mexico striving for its independence it was finally achieved in 1821. The new Mexican government however had little interest in supplying and funding the missions however. In order to promote migration into the new found country of Mexico the government began giving more and more land grants to settlers. In 1833 the Mexican government passed a bill secularized, and allowed for the disestablishment of the missions. Under the order of the last Alta California governor, Pio Pico, the mission land and livestock were sold of one by one to the highest bidders. This ended the power of the Catholic Church and the time of the missions for good and brought in the golden age of the ranchos. The owners of these ranchos become the social and political leaders of Alta California and they enjoyed a time of great wealth and pleasure.
Josefa Carillo was one of these individual who was able to experience this lifestyle and then exemplify what happened at the end of the rancho period. In 1841 Josefa’s husband received a land grant for a rancho called, Rancho Satiyomi, and in 1846 Josefa received amother land grant between Tijuana and Ensenada. She was also running a store and renting out a house at the time but nevertheless by 1850 she was struggling. She attempted to move her family back north to Rancho Satiyomi but was distressed to find squatters on parts of her land. She “was forced into the same strategy that plagued many California families after the gold rush.” This onset of settlers or “squatters” on rancho land can be explain by a newspaper from the time called Daily Alta California. The newspaper discusses how the San Francisco had been very lowly populated in 1840 but in 1848 the discovery of the gold mines drastically changed the area into “an enchanted or magical city.” According to the newspaper the population went from very insignificant amount to almost forty thousand in a span of about two years. All of these people migrating to Alta California required places to live in their search for gold, and like with the case of Josefa Carillo, many would take up residence on the rancho lands either because they didn’t know the land was owned or they simple did not care.
The missions would fall due to unrest by the Native Americans due to their treatment as people “sin razon” and as mere sheep following a shepherd. For the missions the Mexican search for independence and secularization of the mission lands for money would eventually deliver the final blow on there establishment and give rise to the ranchos. But unfortunately for the ranchos those years would come to an end as well. They simple could not keep up with the American settlement as they pursued gold and claimed the land as their own in the name of manifest destiny. The missions and ranchos certainly played a very crucial role in the settlement of California, and the lives of some of the Indians may have been impacted in a positive way through their newfound knowledge of the Spanish culture and way of life, but all of their goals could not be achieved exactly as planned. Just like the new Mexican government could not wait for the missions to finish what they had set out to accomplish the Americans could not wait either as the Mexicans tried to claim the rights of their rancho lands; thus ending the mission and rancho periods.