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The Humanity of Junipero Serra

In recent years, our humble namesake has been accused of inhumane treatment of California Indians. Historian Thomas Davis proves that Fr. Serra was a timeless champion of the civil rights of his beloved Indians. 

When Columbus sailed into the West under the banner of Isabella and Ferdinand, so sailed Spain into an era of exploration and conquest. Spain's encounter with the New World brought wealth and created an empire of which Caesar could have only dreamed. For almost 350 years, the Imperial Spanish Eagle dominated the Americas. One by one, each new territory or province the Spanish Exploration Machine came into contact with was claimed for their God and country. But the Spanish Exploration Machine was not just a military adventure to gobble up new lands and treasures for the Spanish Crown. It was also a religious and cultural conquest to bring the cross of Christ and the salvation of His Church to the unchurched of the New World. 

In 1768, the Spanish Crown, acting on rumors circulating within the Russian Imperial Court about English and Russian interest in our present West Coast, decided to send a "Sacred Expedition" (a title given by Visitor General of New Spain Jose de Galvez of that era) to the unsettled territory of Northwestern New Spain, then known as Alta California. Spain wanted to secure its claim by establishing both military and missionary settlements along the California coast. 

The colonization of Alta California had several goals. First was to establish Spain's legal claim to its northwest frontier. Second was to found two presidios, or fortresses (Monterey, just south of present San Francisco, and San Diego in the south), in order to have military presence to protect future missions and to guarantee "safe harbors" for the Manila galleons on their way to Acapulco from the Philippines.1 Third was to found a string of coastal missions in California. The initial plan called for the establishment of a third mission site midway along the Santa Barbara Channel. 

The conquest of California was to be Spain's last attempt to colonize in the New World. The plans for the "Sacred Expedition" were well thought out. Based on past experience, the powers that be did not want to repeat errors that had been made over the previous 250 years of missionization. Jose de Galvez, the King's visitor general for New Spain, approved plans which describe how both the military and the friars would approach this assignment. Alta California was to be Galvez's pet project. It was also Galvez who personally asked for Fray Junípero Serra to lead the friars, and Lt. Gaspar Portola to command the military expedition. 

The California experience was to be unique in many ways. The approach of the soldiers and padres had changed from the early days of the conquest of the Americas. California's "conquerors" would shed very little blood and effect no forced conversions to Catholicism. Junípero Serra's approach to the untouched souls of the Indians was to view them not as pagans, but as "gentiles," a Biblical term for the unchurched.2 He saw the native Californians as "adult children" needing guidance. Indeed, Serra, according to Franciscan historian Fr. Francis Guest, viewed the Indians in a very positive light. In one letter Serra writes, "They came - men, women and children of all ages - with such a display of cleverness in everything they did . . . a people clever, sociable, and friendly." Francisco Palóu, Serra's student, friend, fellow Franciscan, and biographer, wrote how Serra approached his work in California with a "child's enthusiasm."3 Serra wrote to the viceroy in Mexico City, Don Antonio Maria Bucareli, that "they (the Indians) have stolen my heart away." 

But it was not through the eyes of a child that Serra saw the recurring mistreatment and abuse of the Indians by the military. He was a zealous padre who fought against the military governors, who forced the Indians to work for the military without proper pay. These were violations not only against the sense of morality and ethics held by Serra personally; these interferences into mission activities were a violation against the Laws of the Indies. 

First promulgated in 1542, the Laws of the Indies reflected the work of Bishop Bartolome De Las Casas O.P., a Dominican Friar who wrote about the mistreatment of the American Indians during the first 50 years of Spain's colonizing the New World. At that early date, others also argued that the Indians were both rational and fully human, worthy of baptism and being incorporated into the Church and Spanish society. They saw the abuses being made against the Indians and appealed to the Spanish Crown for justice and protection. After considerable debate over the issue, De Las Casas' views were codified into Spanish Law. He was named the first cleric to have the official royal title, "Protector of the Indians." 

Junípero Serra was fully aware of De Las Casas and his writings, as well as the Laws of the Indies and their development. The Mallorcan friar saw the natives as human beings, God's special children. He saw himself as a protector of their God-given rights, as well as the rights given to them under Spanish Law.4 Serra also held the title "Protector of the Indians" given to him as president of the Sierra Gorda Missions in Mexico.5 

According to Don DeNevi and Noel Francis Moholy, Serra saw the military as "a mere police force to guard and, when possible, assist the padres in their overall objective."6 In Serra's view the objective of the occupation of California was to colonize the country through the conversion of natives to Christianity. To him, anything that impeded that goal was counter-productive as well as being one step above treason. 

Prior to baptism, all Indians were free to come and go as they pleased. According to Church Law, the spiritually adult Spaniard or Indian went through a minimum period of instruction in the teachings of the Catholic Church (a minimum of two years, unless the person was in danger of death) before she or he could be baptized. Once an Indian was baptized, he was not only obligated to the Laws of the Church, but he became a full Spanish citizen with all the rights and obligations. If a Christian, Indian or Spaniard, were to reject his faith, it was viewed as rejecting God, thus resulting in loss of eternal salvation. The friars were taught in their theological training that since they, the friars, were the spiritual fathers to the neophyte, they could spiritually be held accountable.

What would therefore follow would be the loss of their own salvation if their converts committed moral faults that were intrinsically wrong, if one of their spiritual children were lost by reverting back to their pagan ways. In Spanish Law, the same principal applied: parents could be held responsible for the unacceptable behavior of their children, especially if the parents or legal guardians were to tolerate their child's unacceptable behavior.7 

Fr. Serra's zeal to protect the native Californians can be seen in his dramatic appeal to the viceroy in 1773. According to Father Palóu, Serra traveled from Carmel to Mexico City, bringing his cause against the military and the governor to Viceroy Bucareli. Only a few months before, Bucareli had informed the King that the discord between the military and the friar manifests "a deplorable situation and the proximate ruin of the establishments in California."8 

Now, impressed with Fr. Serra's zeal and obvious knowledge of affairs, Bucareli asked Serra to put all his concerns and requests in writing and present them formally to the Court for consideration. Serra responded with what was called the Representación, completed and signed by him on March 13, 1773. His Representación formed the basis of the first significant legislation for California, in effect a "bill of rights" for the Indians. This document would affect the military, post office officials, friars, colonists, the Apostolic College, and even the Council of the Indies in Spain.9 

Most of Fr. Junípero Serra's requests to Spanish Viceroy Bucareli were approved and granted, a few postponed, and in a few cases conditions were attached. Serra felt he accomplished everything he had hoped for. He was especially pleased with the viceroy's decree that "the government, control, and education of the baptized Indians should belong exclusively to the missionaries. The friars were to watch over and serve the Indians."10 Bucareli directed the mission padres to be like loving parents who care for and train their children so that they will grow up and take their rightful place in society, as Fr. Maynard Geiger tells us. 

Contrary to recent interpretation of Serra and the missions by present-day defamers, Fr. Serra's intentions for the population was of the highest order. He endeavored to share the love he felt for his God with all humanity. His actions were dictated by what he held to be the truth and the love in his heart for the Indians. 

To be sure, life is characterized by cultural change. On the eve of European contact, the California Indian was changing and if not touched by the Spanish Missions, would have continued evolving into something different than what he was. Would the native Californian have been dealt a better hand under the English or Russians? Would he have been better prepared for his encounter with the American white settlers? Would he have been ignored by the extending hand of the United States and its expansion policy of Manifest Destiny? Serra wrote his superiors after the burning of San Diego Mission by the non-mission Indians and the death of Fray Francisco Jayme: 

"If I should die a martyr's death at the hands of the Native peoples, I ask that no revenge or retaliation for my death be taken. What would be gained for our cause by such an action? Instead, show them and teach them the love and forgiveness of our Lord Jesus Christ…"11 If Serra were the mad priest who hated the Indians, saw them as less than human, who wanted to enslave or eradicate the Indian population, why would he travel over 4,000 miles, mostly on foot with an ulcerated leg, twice near death, to petition the viceroy for reform? Why would Serra seek the end to military abuse of the Indians and the removal of a governor? If Serra were as brutal as his defamers claim, then wouldn't it have been a lot easier and more expedient to sit back and let the military and civil authorities have their way? 

Fr. Serra made mistakes, and was far from perfect. Yet his critics have not proven their case against him. He was the not the grand architect of a system that fostered the genocide of thousands of California Indians. He was not the master of, or promoter of, a plan of enslavement theology. He was a hard-working man of prayer who demanded more from himself than others. Serra was fulfilling a boyhood dream to be like his heroes, the great missionaries St. Francis Xavier and St. Francis Solano, in coming to the New World and bringing the Gospel and working with the native Californians who had "stolen his heart." 

I am sure that for years to come the controversy over what is the truth about Fr. Serra, will continue to be debated. I believe the answers are to be found in Junípero Serra's own words. His writings hold the key to unlock the truth. 

Endnotes 
1The Manila galleon was a large merchant ship which brought cargo from Manila, Philippines, to Acapulco, Mexico, annually from 1571 to 1815. The "safe harbors" were needed as possible stops for fresh water, to hunt, and sites to make any needed repairs. 
2Antonine Tibesar, O.F.M., (ed.), The Writings of Junípero Serra II (4 vols.; Washington D.C., Academy of Franciscan History, 1955-1956). 
3Maynard Geiger (trans. and ed.) Palóu's Life of Fray Junípero Serra, (Washington D.C., The Academy of Franciscan History, 1955). 
4Tibesar, The Writings of Junípero Serra III. 
5Geiger. 
6Don DeNevi and Noel Francis Moholy, Junípero Serra, (San Francisco, Harper and Row, 1985). 
7Francis F. Guest, "Serra and His Approach to the Indians," HSSC - Southern California Quarterly, XLVII, Fall 1985. 
8Geiger. 
9Ibid. 
10 DeNevi and Moholy. 
11Tibesar, The Writings of Serra II. 

Thomas Davis is a professor of History at College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, Calif. He specializes in the Spanish colonial period of California and Latin America and is a board member of the Center of Spanish Colonial Research. He worked with former Vice-Postulator Fr. Noel Moholy to promote the cause of Fr. Serra from 1978 to 1998.

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