Spanish missions in the Sonoran Desert
The Spanish Missions of the Sonoran Desert (more simply referred to as the "Kino Missions") comprise a series of religious outposts established by Spanish Catholic Jesuits to spread the Christian doctrine among the local Native Americans, but with the added benefit of giving Spain a toehold in the frontier land.
Since 1493, the Kingdom of Spain had maintained a number of missions throughout Nueva España (New Spain, consisting of Mexico and portions of what today are the Southwestern United States) in order to facilitate colonization of these lands.
In the Spring of 1867, a Jesuit missionary named Father Eusebio Francisco Kino lived and worked with the native Americans in the area called the "Pimería Alta," or "Upper Pima Country," which presently is located in the areas between the Mexican state of Sonora and the the state of Arizona in the United States. During Father Eusebio Kino's stay in the Pimeria Alta he founded over twenty missions in eight mission districts.
It was rumored that the Jesuit priests had amassed a fortune on the peninsula and were becoming very powerful. On February 3, 1768 King Carlos III ordered the Jesuits forcibly expelled from "New Spain" and returned to the home country.
The missions
- Mission Nuestra Señora de los Dolores - founded on March 13, 1687. This was the first mission founded by Father Kino. By 1744, the mission was abandoned. The cemetery remans on the site of the Tumacácori National Historical Park in Southern Arizona.
- Nuestra Señora de los Remedios was founded in 1687 and was abandoned by 1730. Nothing remains of this mission.
- San Ignacio de Caborica was founded in 1687 and is located in Sonora, Mexico.
- San Pedro y San Pablo del Tubutama was founded in 1687
- Santa Theresa de Atil was founded in 1687
- Santa Maria Magdalena was founded in 1687
- San Jose de Imuris was founded in 1687
- Nuestra Señora del Pilar y Santiago de Cocóspera was founded in 1689
- San Antonio Paduano del Oquitoa was founded in 1689
- San Diego del Pitiquito was founded in 1689
- San Luis Bacoancos was founded in 1691
- San Cayetano de Tumacácori Mission was built in 1732, but construction stopped in 1822 due to lack of funds. The farming land around the mission was sold at auction in 1834 and the mission was abandoned by 1840. It is now a National Monument in Tumacácori National Historical Park in Southern Arizona.
- Los Santos Angeles de Guevavi was founded in 1691
- San Lazaro was founded in 1691
- San Xavier del Bac (O'odham [Papago]: Va:k), now in Tuscon, Arizona, founded in 1692, the present building dates from 1785. The interior is richly decorated with ornaments showing a mixture of New Spain and Native American artistic motifs. It is still used by Tohono O'odham and Yaqui tribal members.
- San Cosme y Damian de Tucson - 1692
- La Purísima Concepción de Nuestra Señora de Caborca - 1693
- Santa Maria Suamca - 1693
- San Valentine de Busanic - 1693
- Nuestra Señora de Loreto y San Marcelo de Sonoyta - 1693
- Nuestra Señora de la Ascencion de Opodepe (1704)
- Los Santos Reyes de Sonoita - (1692)
See also
- Spanish missions in Arizona
- Alamo Mission in San Antonio
- Spanish colonization of the Americas
- Spanish missions in Mexico
- Spanish missions in Trinidad
- Spanish missions in Texas
External links