Tucson, AZ
I thought I was done with visiting Spanish missions after leaving California, but I was wrong. Today I visited two missions south of Tucson, and while they were similar to the California missions and to each other, they couldn’t be more different in the way they have been preserved.
However, let me back track to the beginning of my day which started at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum adjacent to Saguaro National Park. I didn’t spend near enough time at this museum that is 85% out of doors, but tried to make the best of my time there. At the entrance I was greeted by a trainer with a Great Horned Owl who was a little skittish and easily spooked, (the owl, not the trainer) but sat still long enough for me to get a picture. Then I dashed in the gate because the Rapter Live presentation was starting. It was fabulous to be so close to these magnificent birds that you could feel the air disturbance as they flew over the crowd standing along a designated pathway. My favourite was the Red Tailed Hawk who they have trained to head out to the valley to ride the thermals and then to come back at a sign from the trainer. After meandering through the museum, which is really more like a zoo with animals, birds, plants, insects, and reptiles from the Sonoran Desert, for a couple of hours, I grabbed some lunch and then jumped in my car for my next stop.
The missions I visited today were originally founded by Jesuits in the late 1600s, early 1700’s however, when Spain banished the Jesuits in 1767, Franciscans took over the missions and continued the work on the Missions and teaching Christianity.
The first one I visited was Mission San Xavier del Bac, just south of Tucson. It is a National Historic Landmark and the oldest intact European structure in Arizona. The church in this mission continues to be a busy parish church and has been maintained and restored over time and in fact there is a Foundation continuing to raise funds to complete the current restoration. As you can see from the pictures, the inside has beautiful statues and murals which have been restored many times over. We had an excellent docent guide us through the church and you can tell how passionate he was about the church and its history. He told us that he has worked a lot with one of their expert restorers, Gloria Giffords, mother of former Arizona Congresseswoman Gabby Gifford who was injured in an assassination attempt in 2011. When the lions near the alter were stolen back in 2008, she recreated them using similar materials from sketches they had of the originals.
The next mission site I visited was Tumacacori National Historic Park. This site has not been restored as is the policy of the National Park Service, and most of it is in ruin, but some of the structures remain and you can still imagine the mission in action back in the late 1700 or early 1800s. There is a great self-directed tour of the ruins, with an explanation of all the features. The church here, was never completed, and in fact the picture of the bell tower below shows it as complete as it ever got. Poverty in the parish and the Mexican wars of Independence slowed construction and then when it was decreed that all Spanish residents had to leave the country, construction slowed and although it limped along for another 20 years, the last residents abandoned the mission in 1848 after a bad winter and Apache raids.
It was great to be back visiting missions again but then for something completely different I headed to the town of Tubac, near Tumacacori. There is some historical significance to this town (in fact the Presidio that protected Tumacacori was built here) but it’s main claim to fame are the dozens of shops designed to separate tourists from their money. It has become a major centre for art from the area and from around the world (mostly the Spanish speaking world). It’s really a lovely place if you’re a shopper, and while I’m not usually one, they managed to extract some cash from me today as I added to my “red bowl collection”.
Lois' Adventures 