Mission San Juan Capistrano

Jill's Journal: Every elementary student in California learns about the mission at San Juan Capistrano. Our kids aren’t Californians and they’re not taking California history, but goodness, we’re been in this massive state so long it almost feels that way.

We’ve been to other Spanish missions up the California Coast, all from the pre-statehood time when Alta California was a territory of Spain and Spanish missionaries worked tirelessly to convert the natives at these mission outposts. Unlike the British, who brought their own citizens to colonize the East Coast, the Spanish believed they could transform the natives into good Spanish, Christian citizens. That obviously didn’t work out so well for them, especially when Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1821 and Alta California became part of Mexico. Alta California was then ceded to the United States at the conclusion of the Mexican-American War in 1848.

The surviving missions all share a similar history, but the one at San Juan Capistrano is called the “jewel of the missions.” It is beautiful. It was the seventh of the 21 missions, each about a day’s journey apart. Founded in 1776, the same year as the United States, it is home to the oldest building in California still in use (Father Serra’s Church, shown above and built in 1782).

I remember learning about San Juan Capistrano in elementary school because of the “Return of the Swallows.” For what is said to be centuries, migratory Cliff Swallows have flown 6,000 miles each spring from Argentina to the San Juan Capistrano area to nest for the summer. Legend has it the birds were grateful when the mission was built as the eaves provided shelter for thousands. Over the last two or three decades, the birds have diminished as encroaching development has drastically cut down the insects available for them to eat. Now only a few nests are visible.

The ruins of the Great Stone Church, which was destroyed by an 1812 earthquake, are sometimes called the “American Acropolis.” Forty people died in its walls that day.