Life in New Spain - the Missions of San Antonio
Mission San Jose has an excellent video presentation of the mission system from the view of the natives. It gives visitors an intimate feeling for the people who made the mission their home. Knowledgeable Park Rangers provide an excellent overview of life in the mission, let visitors taste the Honey Locust beans growing in the mission courtyard, and help visitors understand the lasting importance of the events of those times on the growth of the Southwest of today. , Back in the 17th and 18th centuries, the major European countries all wanted a piece of the New World. England, France, Holland, and Spain were all in contention for the land and its riches, and they all had significant influence on the United States of today. The missions of the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park, give us a glimpse back into the time of the Spanish coming to the New World and the tension of the colonial rivalry. They also provide us an opportunity to better understand the complete change of life of the indigenous native Americans that the coming of the Spanish priests precipitated.
In the early 18th century, Spain sent priests into the Southwest of what would become the United States for three reasons: to secure the territory from the French, convert the local natives to Catholicism, and provide citizens for New Spain. The method of holding possession of a territory was to establish a mission with all of the services necessary to support a permanent settlement. The initial order of business of the priests in charge of these expeditions was to take care of the physical needs of the people. They first built a defendable fort-like mission with a relatively sophisticated irrigation system to grow crops. In the San Antonio area they constructed 27 miles of irrigation system, some of which are still functioning. They then established rancheros in the surrounding 1,500 acres to raise beef, sheep and goats.
Then they built churches to honor the God that had made it all possible and who had sent them to save the Indians souls. The elaborately decorated and painted chapels, several stories high with bells towers, were awe inspiring to the local natives. Finished with statuary and three-dimensional decorations, which have been carved by masons brought from Spain, the chapels were decorated with the conspicuous pomegranate motif, used to indicate the spread of catholic faith like the way a
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