SALINAS "In the Midst of a Loneliness": The Architectural History of the Salinas Missions

MISSION TRADE (continued)

The Return To Mexico

After a period of four to six months in New Mexico, the wagon train and the Procurador-General began the trip back to Mexico City. The wagons were probably almost as heavily loaded on the return trip as they were when they arrived in New Mexico. Most of the trade goods on the wagons, however, were due to be unloaded and sold at Santa Bárbara.

Among the goods shipped by the missions to the Santa Bárbara area, or on to Mexico City, were piñon nuts, antelope hides, wheat, corn, sheep and wool, cattle, mantas, and wool stockings. Other items in which the friars probably traded were cowhides, buffalo hides, and salt, needed in quantity by the mining and refining operations of the Santa Bárbara-Parral area. [10]

With the income from trade, the missionaries bought luxury items that they could not afford using only their stipend from the Crown. These included horses, musical instruments, rich vestments for the Mass, decorations such as retablos and gold and silver implements for the interior of the church, clothing for the servants, tools for the workshops, an organ for the choir loft, and other luxuries such as chocolate and clothing for the friars. [11] For example, Tajique and Chililí each had three retablos made in Mexico, carved figures of various saints, several paintings of saints made in Mexico, and many silver and gold accessories for the Mass, all probably purchased and shipped using mission trade money. The other Salinas missions certainly had similar amenities, bought in the same way. [12]

For a mission to use its produce and other goods in order to purchase necessities and luxuries was not unusual; in fact, it was expected. The Jesuit missions of Sonora in the early eighteenth century, for example, aided in their own support and paid for the building and furnishing of new churches by means of the sale of surplus produce from the fields and herds. [13] The effort to develop the farming and industries of an Indian village to the point that it became self-supporting and able to compete within Hispanic society was always one of the goals of the mission, as explained by Robert Ricard in The Spiritual Conquest of Mexico. [14]

For Franciscans the management of trade and purchasing conducted by the pueblo was a difficult and delicate process, because they were forbidden by the precepts of their order to deal with money. They avoided the contradiction that seemed to be inherent in the idea of a Franciscan missionary buying and selling goods by doing so as the guardians of the Indians. In other words, it was the Indians who were buying and selling, and the Franciscans were only acting as advisors. Such a legalism was absolutely necessary for a mission to have any hope of success in achieving its goal of acculturation of the Indian. A good example of Franciscan financing may be found in the efforts of missionaries stationed at Tumacacori, sixty miles south of Tucson, Arizona, to build their church. In 1821 they sold 4,000 of their 5,500 cattle to a prospective cattle baron for 12,000 pesos. The contract specified that the money would be used for the completion of the church of Tumacacori. Within six months the cattleman was behind in his payments. So began a long and painful collection process, characterized by the missionary at Tumacacori riding across the countryside and badgering his debtor, sending dunning letters and threatening lawsuits, and borrowing from moneylenders to continue the construction of the mission, using the potential income from the cattle sale as security. The mission finally received the last payments in 1823, a year late. [15]

The conflict between their vows of poverty and their responsibilities continuously plagued the Franciscans. In the records of the Franciscan Missionary College of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, in Zacatecas, Mexico, a curious example of this concern illustrates the point. On November 5, 1782,

"various matters were brought up by Fr. Guardian for a better observance of our Seraphic Poverty: first, concerning the destruction or damage done the furniture, bookshelves, and the beds in the cells [of the friars]; second, about the exorbitant expenses and the superfluous amount of chocolate [consumed by the friars]; third, about the cost of leaf tobacco and snuff [used by the friars]. As to the first point, it was decided that orders should be given the carpenter [of the convento] that in no wise should he do any work for any friar without the express permission of Fr. Guardian, and that also the brother who welcomes guests should see to it that all cells of the hospice are locked. On the second point: Fr. Guardian should make it clear to all the friars that it is against his will that they give, though it be only a small piece [of chocolate], to outsiders without his express permission, and, therefore, he commands that it not be given. As for the last point of tobacco--be it snuff or leaf tobacco--the same be determined, and that for greater convenience, cigars should be on hand so that no friar need order them to be made." [16]

Apparently friars smoking cigars, eating chocolate, or having guests in the convento were all acceptable activities that did not infringe on the vows of poverty. However, running up bills by giving cigars and chocolate to visiting friends, or by allowing these visitors to damage mission property, did infringe on the vows. It may be that, beyond the additional cost, giving away chocolate or tobacco to outsiders tacitly indicated a forbidden level of ownership on the part of the Franciscan making the gift, while the simple consuming of the item did not. Ordering cigars to be made for their own use was a forbidden level of ownership, while smoking cigars already made by order of another was not. The humorous nature of these rulings makes them attractive illustrations, but the point was very serious to the Franciscan Order.

Disagreements Over Mission Trade

Mission trade eventually became one of the areas of conflict between the governor and the missionaries. Both the missionaries and the governor recognized that the wagons returning to Mexico were a source of great potential trade income. Through the seventeenth century both sides used the returning wagons to haul hides, salt, piñon nuts, wool, and woven goods to southern markets. Apparently the apportioning of the wagons between the two authorities depended on the relative strengths of the opposing factions at the time the train left. [17]

The governors, and much of the civil population of New Mexico, felt that the missionaries were becoming rich from trade using the resources of their pueblos and the support of the Franciscan supply system. While each friar had a herd of several thousand sheep and thirty or forty horses, numerous shields, swords, arquebuses and pistols, and thirty or forty Indian servants, most of the private citizens of New Mexico had only a few sheep, no horses, no arms, and no servants. [18] Several times in the seventeenth century, popular movements arose advocating that the mission herds be divided up among the poor of the province and the mission arms be placed in the hands of the governor. [19]

The governor constantly attempted to control mission exports. Governor López de Mendizábal aroused a storm of protest among the Franciscans when he imposed the requirement that no livestock could be exported from the province without a license from the governor. Mendizábal insisted that he had established this regulation because famine had severely reduced the herds of the civil populace of the province, and he was attempting to keep sufficient livestock in the province to feed everyone if necessary. The missionaries said that Mendizábal set up the laws out of hatred for the missionary effort and because he thought that the trade was for profit. [20]

The supply trains formed the principal artery for New Mexico. Along it flowed goods, personnel and information that kept not only the missions, but the province itself, alive. Almost every item or furnishing in the mission was brought to it along the roads from Mexico City. A few things, however, were made by artisans in New Mexico. Nothing like a complete discussion of the contents of mission buildings can presently be written, because of a lack of detailed information, but enough evidence is available in the documents and from archeology to gain a general idea.