[Gocamino] Re: California missions

[Grant Spangler]

For those who wish to put a backstory to the Missions in California there is 
Wikipedia, an open-source encylopedia. If you have input, you may submit an 
article to the encyclopedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_missions

The missions were not established in a linear south-to-north sequence, but 
San Diego (San Diego de Alcalá) was the first. The Carmel mission (San 
Carlos Borroméo de Carmelo) was the second, due to it's strategic position 
on Monterey Bay, San Francisco (San Francisco de Asís) was sixth, and the 
lovely Santa Barbara was tenth. Santa Barbara interestingly is the patron 
saint of Architects. Rebuilding from the 1925 earthquake transformed Santa 
Barbara to the Spanish colonial themed city we see today. Santa Barbara is 
also the only mission to remain under Franciscan control fromit's inception 
to the present. There was a Mexican secularization decree which took land 
away from the missions. Many missions were comandeered by the California 
Governor Pio Pico, selling the assets to friends and family. Alta California 
became a US teritory and Santa Barbara was mercifully spared.

An interesting point about the good padre. After landing in Vera Cruz  
Mexico, and true to his Franciscan ethic, he insisted on walking to Mexico 
City. This is no small undertaking.

Buen Camino,

Grant

Grant Spangler
GASpangler at hotmail.com
http://groups.msn.com/ElCaminoSantiago
http://community.webshots.com/user/ElCaminoSantiago