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Mission San Juan Bautista: Facts & Vital Statistics
By Professor Ruben G. Mendoza (1998)
Popeloutchem: Pre-existing Ohlone Mutsun village located on present site of San Juan.
Costanoan culture: villages consisting of reed structures grouped about central dance courts and hearths; material culture includes tule reed housing and watercraft, ground stone mortars and pestles, bone, stone, and antler tools, elaborate utilitarian and ceremonial basketry and design, bows and arrows, obsidian and chert projectile points, shell beads and stone ornaments, petroglyphs and pictographic rock art, body paint and tattoos, feather-work headgear and clothing, woodcraft, musical instruments including flutes, drums, and rattles, carved bone and wooden stick games, and a variety of stick-ball and hoop sports and related activities.
San Pascual Bailon: Original Spanish name for region named by Father Juan Crespi upon his arrival in the San Juan Valley on March 22nd, 1772.
Rancherias: Mutsun Indian villages of San Juan area; 15 original dialects; 28 villages documented.
St. John the Baptist: Patron Saint and namesake of Mission San Juan whose Feast Day is June 24th.
Fr. Fermin Francisco de Lasuen: Father Presidente of the California missions and founder of Old Mission San Juan on June 24th, 1797.
Fr. Joseph Manuel de Martiarena: First Parish Pastor of San Juan.
Fr. Felipe Arroyo de la Cuesta: Prepared first glossaries of Ohlone Mutsun language. Second longest serving minister at San Juan Bautista after Rev. Valentine Closa (Two terms as minister: 1809-1812; 1825-1833; and assistant pastor under Fray Tapis, 1812-1825).
Fr. Esteban Tapis: Buried in main altar platform on November 3rd, 1825; Father Presidente of California Missions for nine years, and creator of Mission’s choir hymnals and music programs.
Reverend Valentin Closa: Mission pastor who initiated the yearly San Juan Fiesta and Pageant in an effort to repair damages caused by the earthquake of 1906. Longest serving pastor of San Juan (1875-1909).
Old Mission: Located adjacent San Andreas Fault and San Benito Creek at latitude 36 degrees, 58 minutes; 15th California Mission; only three aisle mission in Alta California, largest mission church. Central nave of the church was originally built to measure 58 varas (159 feet, 6 inches) in length by 10 varas (27 feet, 6 inches) in width; excluding the side-aisles.
Convento Building: The Old Convento contains 19 rooms separated by adobe walls, of which 11 rooms face onto courtyard veranda, while another 7 rooms face onto the plaza-oriented arcade. The 19th room is situated above the music room adjacent the baptistery. The east half of the building was constructed between 1797 and 1800; whereas, the west or veranda oriented side of the building was constructed in 1812. The plaza-oriented arcade was constructed in about 1816. Original floors consisted of tamped clay and fired tile that were covered with massive redwood planks in about the 1870’s. Building measures 44 feet, 4 inches in width, and 224 feet, 11 inches in length.
Mission
Bells: Originally nine; three remain; cast from bronze in Mexico.
Mission
Music: Hand-painted choir hymnals and alabados, music and prayer cards,
music stands, pump organs, drums, base fiddles, violins and fiddles, chimes,
bells, flutes, rattles, and horns.
Building Materials: Adobe bricks, fired clay roof and floor tiles, silt stone foundations, lime plaster, redwood vigas or roofing timbers, leather tie-downs, tamped clay and tiled floors.
Church Paintings: Oil on gesso-coated canvas paintings created in Mexico, and dating to before 1820.
Santos of Main Altar: San Antonio de Padua, San Domingo, San Francisco de Asis, San Isidoro, San Juan Bautista, and San Pascual Bailon.
Mission Agriculture: cattle, oxen, horses (mares, colts, and tame), mules, burros, donkeys, sheep, swine, goats, chickens, wheat, barley, maize, kidney beans, horse beans, chickpeas, peas, beans, cotton, chile, tomatoes, grapes, pears, apples, and indigenous and Hispanic medicinal herbs.
Mission Cemetery: Created in 1805, and divided into upper and lower areas, the Mission cemetery is thought to contain 4300 Mutsune Indians, and early Spanish, Mexican, and American colonists.
Friars: Original Franciscan friars trained at the Apostolic College of San Fernando, Mexico; Zacatecan friars installed during Secularization; Diocesan pastors since 1840.
Spanish Soldiers: “Leather jackets” and horse-mounted “lancers” stationed at cuartel or barracks that underlies present location of Plaza Hotel.
Vaqueros: Early Spanish and Mexican period cowboys and mission ranch hands; Mutsune converts comprised the majority of the vaqueros of Old Mission San Juan in the early days. Originators of the rodeo (roundup), lariat (riata), riding boots, chaps, and related gear.
Early Mission Crafts: Wood, gesso and clay sculpture (santos), ornamental metal and tin works (retablos, tools, sheathing), fresco seco (dry fresco murals), gold leaf (burnished metallic paints on wood), canvas painting (religious motifs and portraits), tannery (hides, jackets, vests, boots, and related leather works), candle and soap making (tallow), furniture craft (chairs, trunks, tables), spinning and weaving (cotton and wool blankets, clothing, and mantillas or shawls), rope manufacture (agave & hemp), saddlery (leather saddles & accessories), book binding & manufacture (painting and assembly of sheep skin alabados, hymnals, and leather-bound books), ceramics (clay pottery vessels, figurines, and porcelain), basketry (reed and grass vessels), stone masonry (religious sculpture, metates or basalt grinding slabs, mortars, pestles), glass works (blown glass bottles, stoppers, and window panes), cobblers (shoe manufacture), blacksmiths (horseshoes, stirrups, bridles, cannon balls, musket balls, carpentry tools, spikes, nails, and related hardware), bead work (Spanish colored glass trade and Mutsun shell beads).
Spanish Units of Measure: legua (5,000 varas, 2.6 miles), cordel (10 varas, 9.15 yards), vara (3 pies or 4 palmos, 32.99 inches), pie (12 pulgadas, 10.97 inches), fanega (12 almudes, 2.58 bushels), almud (6.88 quarts, dry measure), bota (leather container for tallow weighing 200 pounds), real (1/8 of a peso or one bit).
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For
further information regarding Old Mission San Juan Bautista, please contact
Professor Mendoza at ruben_mendoza@monterey.edu.
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