Tumacacori — a Story of Human Endeavor

ARIZONA HIGHWAYS Old Santa CruzA Big County Proudly Presenting: Historical and Picturesque Santa Cruz County

Compared to Coconino County (11,886,720 acres) or to Mohave County (8,486,400 acres) the two giants among Arizona counties, Santa Cruz County (797,240 acres), to which our pages are devoted this month, is a small county, the smallest in the state, but don't let size mislead you. Santa Cruz County is a "big" county in many ways.

It is big in history, an area through which swirled the early tides of Spanish Conquest. The Spaniard, Mexican, Apache and early American pioneer left their irradicable footprints in the rich soil of the county.

Santa Cruz County is not only big but blessed in the bounties of geography. The county is a cool, green oasis in a sea of parched desert. Its small mountain ranges, sequestered canyons, and miles and miles of rich range lands bespeak the precious gifts of generous Nature in the form of sufficient rainfall to make the grass grow tall and to make the grass grow green.

The largest community in the county, Nogales (est. pop. 10,000), is not large as communities go, but we assure you Nogales is not just another wide spot in the road. It is important, and becoming more important each year, in its role as a major international port in trade, commerce and travel. The American Nogales and the Mexican Nogales (est. pop. 40,000), sister city just across the line, literally make up one community friendly, cosmopolitan, modern and enterprising.

Old Santa Cruz is a "big" county in many ways - "big" in terrain, climate, history, future, charm and "big" in people.

Down Nogales way, amigo, "friend" in Spanish, is more than a casual or perfunctory salutation. The word has a lot of warmth, feeling and meaning to it.... R.C.

Forty-nine miles south of Tucson and eighteen miles north of Nogales, in Southern Arizona, stands one of the most impressive historical landmarks of the Southwest. Travelers along U.S. 89 perforce are aware of the massive and weathered bulky church and remains of Mission San Jose de Tumacacori. The first view of the church is a white dome and bell tower standing in bold relief against the rolling hills of the Santa Rita Mountains. Once a magnificent structure, Tumacacori, now a National Monument, was a vital link in the chain of Spanish Missions which extended from Sonora, Mexico, across the border into Southern Arizona. Like other missions, it had its periods of growth, success and decay. The name is pronounced “too-mah-COCK-oh-ree.”

BY RICARDO TORRES-REYES TUMACACORI -a Story of Human Endeavor

Our aim in this article is not to tell the whole story of Spanish missionary efforts among Indians, but to point out and suggest rewarding highlights of a visit to the church and ruins. A leisurely self-guided walk through the church and mission grounds makes a visitor feel well repaid for his time and effort. There is certainly a lot to see for both the keen and casual observer. Glimpses of a great story of human endeavor unfold before your eyes. This story is enhanced and made more comprehensive by the existence of small wayside exhibits, museum panels and a guide book rich with historical interpretation. To make the visit more meaningful it is useful to familiarize oneself with a brief sketch of the mission history.

Tumacacori was the place name of a Pima-speaking Indian village situated in the fertile Santa Cruz Valley when the Spaniards arrived. This village, not far from the site of the present mission, entered the pages of history when a delegation of headmen from the Valley invited two Jesuit missionaries Eusebio Francisco Kino and Juan María de Salvatierra - and persuaded them to visit their village. They hoped the Fathers would establish missions among their people. Thus the first Christian service to be held in what is now Southern Arizona took place at Tumacacori in January, 1691. Kino was the pioneer guiding spirit of Spanish missionary work in that vast and untamed land known then as Pimería Alta (Land of the Upper Pimas). It included much of what is now Northern Sonora and most of Southern Arizona. In Tumacacori Kino and Salvatierra found a village of forty primitive houses and three ramadas set up for them, “one to say Mass in, one to sleep in and one to cook in.” By 1698 the village had an earth-roofed house of adobe or mud brick, fields of wheat, and herds of cattle, sheep, and goats. Tumacacori called San Cayetano by Kino waited more than a half century before it contained a permanent church, and for an even longer period was an appendage of the head mission of Guevavi, to the southeast. It became a place where the missionaries went and occasionally held services, performed baptisms, marriages and burials. All through these years the Jesuit Fathers labored fervently for the salvation of souls in spite of the scourging and shaking fever of Apache blows.

But the tides of the time were running against old Tumacacori village and the Jesuit missionary work. In 1751 the Pima Indians staged a bloody revolt that spread like fire through Pimería land. Two Fathers suffered martyrdom, peaceful Indians and Spaniards were slain and missions and settlements were put to the torch. Tumacacori's fate during the revolt is still veiled in the shadow of mystery. Some time after the uprising, however, the village was moved to the present site, the first permanent church was built and a presidio was established nearby (Tubac) to assure some protection for the mission and settlements. With the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767, the Franciscans took over and continued their missionary work. Tumacacori received the new name of San José. Its future brightened after 1769. Guevavi, the head mission, was destroyed by the Apaches and early in the 1770's San José became the main mission of the district. There is little information about the building history of the present church and adjacent structures. It was begun early in 1800 under the direction and supervision of Father Narciso

Gutiérrez, and was in use by 1822 when the cemetery behind the church was blessed by Fray Ramon Liberós, Gutiérrez' successor and the last resident Franciscan missionary of Tumacacori. Apparently, the bell tower and the mortuary chapel of the cemetery were never completed.

Death came suddenly to the mission after Mexico declared its independence from Spain in 1821 and the existing mission churches were gradually or totally abandoned. Father Liberós was recalled in 1825, and the church and the mission buildings, without the spiritual guidance of a priest, slowly began to fall into ruins. For a number of years the Pima Indians clung to the mission lands and clustered about the church. Until the end of 1848 all the images, pictures and figures of the church remained unmolested and carefully guarded by them. Next year they abandoned the place forever and carried some of the church statues to Mission San Xavier, near Tucson, where they were preserved for posterity.

Then followed a long period of neglect, abandonment and vandalism which is still deeply etched in the walls of the church and buildings. When the area was declared a National Monument in 1908, the mission presented a melancholy spectacle of ruin and desolation. To prevent its crumbling into a shapeless and meaningless mass of debris, emergency repairs were carried out by the National Park Service.

Visitors, starting a tour of the Monument now, will find that a brief stroll in the Spanish patio garden sets the mood for the pastoral atmosphere retained in the mission. This patio garden is typical of the surroundings most likely used by the missionaries as a means of adding charm to the church court-yard. Flowers and shrubs of aromatic quality and shady trees line the short walks of the garden. Some of the shrubs and trees native and others introduced by the Fathers had medicinal and nutritional value for the Indians.

In the Spanish mission system the Fathers sought to Christiantianize the Indians and teach them a new way of life by organizing them into self-sufficient communities. Similar to many other missions, the Indian community of Tumacacori centered around the church. Archeological excavations have determined the location and foundations of various Indian dwellings. They are under the earth mound west of the trail leading to the southern or main entrance of the church. This mound is marked and the houses illustrated by a trail exhibit. Built of large adobe bricks, a construction technique taught by the missionaries, the houses formed a plaza or square in front of the church. Rather small, the community numbered about one hundred persons. Not far from this earth mound is the church. Almost all its construction is of adobe bricks, fashioned by the Indians, and laid up into thick walls. It was not only the intention of the builders to have the walls stand for a long time, but to withstand the Apache threat. At intervals, the Apaches swept down out of the nearby mountains to kill, pillage and burn. For protection against hostile Indians the village had a defensive wall around it.

Beautifully proportioned, the church front was carefully executed with a massively plain bell tower to the east. Its facade, partially reconstructed, is of simple design, decorated with columns, lintels, mouldings and statue niches. - continued

It is almost with a feeling of intrusion and sadness that one crosses the arched threshold leading to the cool and dim interior of the nave. Deep-set and narrow, the high windows sift the sunlight to softer tones, lending the naked and scarred walls an atmosphere of gloom. Time and vandalism have long since subdued the colors of the original interior decorations. Paintings, crucifixes, statues and wall decorations helped make the doctrine of Christianity understandable to the simple Indians. But the numerous remaining structural and decorative details along the walls made possible a modern pictorial reconstruction of the nave in the form of exhibits conveniently placed. They show the whitewashed interior of the nave lavishly adorned with images and statues.

Long, narrow and high, the church structure had a flat timbered roof with thick, short columns supporting a railed balcony or choir loft above the vestibule. There were no pews or benches and the devotees knelt upon the bare floor. On four side altars in the nave were statues of different manifestations of the Virgin and of patron saints. High on the walls are twelve oval depressions commonly considered as the sites for the Stations of the Cross.

To the right of the doorway, as one comes into the vestibule, a tunnel-like passage connects to the baptistry an important and sacred part of the church. It contained the font where converts, and especially children, were baptized as attested by the church registers. There is only one small window, yet its light, expanding through an arched embrasure, fills the once white-washed room. Here the walls have an average thickness of nine feet since its small domed ceiling supported the three-tiered bell tower. A stairway, with dark, shallow steps, rises steeply into an arched narrow tunnel. At present closed for safety reasons, this stairway leads to the now fallen choir loft and the bell tower.

Because of its elevation, the tower was a vantage point from which the approach of an enemy could be sighted; the belfry served not only to call the Indians to worship, but to warn them that the Apaches were raiding the ranches in the Santa Cruz Valley.