Author: Sealtiel Enciso Pérez
The dusty roads of the Californian desert witnessed the efforts and concerns of the Jesuit Missionaries who, from the end of the 17th century until just over half of the 18th century, dedicated themselves to bringing the Faith and European culture to ancestral California. One of these outstanding priests was the Italian Francisco María Píccolo, who would be the second member of the Company to arrive in these lands (in the Jesuit phase), only preceded by the Apostle of the Californias Juan María de Salvatierra.
Píccolo (baptized with the name of Francesco Maria Piccolo or Francisco Picolo) was born on March 25, 1654, in the Sicilian town of Palermo, Italy, which at that time was part of the kingdom of Spain. At the age of 19, he felt the call of religion and decided to join the seminary of the Society of Jesus (1673). As he progressed in his studies, his restless spirit, and above all, imbued with the missionary charisma of the Order, motivated him to request from his superiors to be transferred to a Mission in New Spain. Once authorization was obtained, he traveled to the new continent in 1684. Like many of his brothers, upon arriving in Mexico City, he was assigned to the Missions of the Tarahumara Sierra, in the north of the viceroyalty, with its headquarters in the town of Carichí. For 13 years, Father Píccolo traveled the mountains and canyons of those places, trying to convert as many Tarahumaras as possible, but this was not an easy task. In one of his accounts of his wanderings through these lands, he mentions that on one occasion, while riding along a road in the mountains, he suddenly came across a ravine hundreds of meters deep, which made him throw himself off the horse, horrified, and took a long time to recover from the scare. In 1689, at the age of 35, he professed his final priestly vow in the Society to be anointed with the complete sacrament.
It is important to mention that during his stay in the Tarahumara, he most likely met Father Juan María de Salvatierra, who surely presented him with the evangelization project they were planning along with one of the first Jesuit Missionaries who had traveled to the California peninsula, Eusebio Francisco Kino. After learning the details, Píccolo must have accepted to join the expedition and support in whatever way possible to achieve the success of this great step that was being forged. In 1697, once authorization was granted by Viceroy José Sarmiento y Valladares for the priests Salvatierra and Kino to begin their Missionary activity in California, this great epic began. Unfortunately, the main promoter, Eusebio Francisco Kino, did not accompany them, however, fate had destined him for another mission, perhaps much more important, which was to provide support with provisions to the first Missions founded in California.
A few days after the establishment of the imprint of the Royal Presidio of Loreto, on November 23rd, the priest Píccolo arrived at the port and immediately began studying the language of the Laimones (a group of natives of the Cochimí branch who inhabited the Bay of San Dionisio). By the end of December 1698, once he was sufficiently prepared in the knowledge of the language and customs of the inhabitants of those latitudes, he organized a plan with Father Salvatierra to explore the rancherías that were in the irreducible Sierra de La Giganta and to explore, if possible, the Pacific coast (Sea of the South) to locate a port of welcome for the Manila galleon. This first exploration was carried out accompanied by the captain of the Loreto presidio, Don Luis de Torres y Tortolero, as well as a small group of baptized Californians. They reached what was known as Puerto Danzantes (now Puerto Escondido), but unfortunately they could not locate a site to cross the high hills of the Giganta. Upon returning to Loreto, he began the reconnaissance of a place that had already been visited in 1685 by the priest Eusebio Fco. Kino during the frustrated exploration led by Isidro de Atondo and Antillón, this site was called by the Californians as "Londó". Upon arriving, a large number of Californians who still remembered Father Kino came to receive him, and due to the excellent disposition of the inhabitants and being a suitable place to found a mission, he noted it as one of the sites where they would establish later when more brothers of the Company came to help.
On March 10th, 1699, he made a second trip to venture into the Sierra La Giganta. A young man from those places had been baptized a few months ago and was given the name Francisco Javier. He and his companions reported that it was a very well-placed site to establish a mission, with plenty of water, land to cultivate, and a large number of Gentiles who would be quickly converted. It was an extremely difficult and accident-prone journey due to the ruggedness of the mountain range. His only companions were some baptized Californians as well as a small group of Yaquis. When they reached the place known in Cochimí language as "Vigge Biaundó", he was amazed to be able to confirm Francisco Javier's statement. He immediately began the construction of a small chapel, and on May 11th, 1699, the Mission was formally declared founded, and it was named San Francisco Javier. At the same time, Father Píccolo led a group of Californians who were opening a road between this site and Loreto so that they could be better connected and, above all, accessible to horses and mules in order to carry the necessary provisions. This stretch of road was completed in June 1699.
During the time he spent at the site, he gathered information from the locals about the best route to reach the West Coast. The reports he received indicated that the best option was to continue along the course of the "Las Parras" creek, the same route he had taken to reach the site. He returned to Loreto where he prepared all the materials, horses, and people that would accompany him on this adventure, and on October 7, 1699, he began his journey to the Western coasts. He was accompanied by a group of locals and Yaquis, the captain of the presidio, and a few soldiers. The last explored point where they made a stop was San Francisco Javier, where the captain of the presidio and the soldiers took advantage of the opportunity to make adobes and begin the construction of a chapel and a room for the priest.
On the morning of October 27, the explorers set out, and during their route, they were well treated by all the Californians they encountered, who gave them mezcal and shells and provided them with information or accompanied them to the nearest watering holes.
During this journey, Father Piccolo was able to demonstrate his great diplomatic skills, which characterized him throughout his life. He always stood out for his great respect and appreciation for the locals and their customs, refusing, when ordered, to educate the Californians only in Spanish. His respect for the decisions of the locals was such that, for example, on this trip, he asked the women of a settlement to let him baptize their children, but they replied that they had to wait for their husbands, who were hunting, to make that decision; Father Francisco Maria did not object or show any annoyance at the refusal, and he showed the same love and food to everyone.
After a few days, they reached their final destination and were able to contemplate an immense bay with abundant food, but unfortunately, it did not offer a suitable refuge for the Manila Galleon. They stayed at the site for several days until provisions began to run low, so Father Piccolo and the captain ordered a return to San Francisco Javier. After a painful march through places with little water, they arrived at San Javier on October 30, around 3 p.m.
As a conclusion to this journey, we can say that it was a success since they reached the coasts of the South Sea and established alliances of friendship with the groups of Californians who inhabited those lands.
An event that almost brought this San Francisco Javier Vigge Biaundó Mission project to its knees was led by a soldier who had married a neophyte from the area. When the pitahaya harvest season (called Mejibó in the Cochimi language) arrived, the soldier's wife decided to join her relatives and wander through the mountains collecting and enjoying these fruits. The husband, annoyed by her absence, decided to follow her to bring her back. On the way, he was approached by an elderly Californian who tried to convince him not to do it, but in the heat of the argument, the soldier shot and killed him. The other inhabitants of the settlement heard the shot and rushed to the scene, and upon realizing what had happened, they killed the soldier, destroying what little had been built of the Mission in the process. Fortunately for Father Piccolo, he was on a trip at the time, or he would surely have paid with his life for this unfortunate situation. With time, tensions calmed down, and the leaders of the uprising were forgiven, bringing tranquility back to this Mission.
During the years 1700 and 1701, a great famine was felt in California, as well as in other places in New Spain, caused by the almost total absence of rain. This motivated Father Píccolo to go to the cities of Guadalajara and Mexico to manage support in food and money for his Californian missions. If he did not obtain it, his evangelical work on the peninsula would be compromised. During his absence, the newly arrived priest, Juan de Ugarte, covered him in the leadership of the San Francisco Javier mission. Thanks to Píccolo's good offices, in January 1702, he returned to Loreto on the "San Javier" ship loaded with a good amount of food. As a comment that exemplifies the desperate situation that colonizers were living in California, the priest Salvatierra recorded in his letters that both priests and soldiers "had seen the need to go out and search for food in the way that the natives did."
During the year 1702, the priest Francisco María Píccolo wrote his famous report entitled "On the state of the new Christendom of California, requested by the Royal Audiencia of Guadalajara." This document was a desperate attempt made by the Ignatian to convince the authorities to immediately support their brothers in California. In the writing, he also made some comments about the fauna, flora, and geography of this peninsula. He also reviews the efforts he made upon arriving in Loreto and how he gradually learned the language of the groups of Californios until he made the first trips and foundations of missions, which until that date were four: Our Lady of Loreto, San Juan Londó, San Francisco Javier, and Our Lady of Sorrows (in the latter, he had only performed some baptisms and concentration of natives in this place).
The aforementioned document has been criticized for considering it as a version with "exaggerated and very cheerful" data about California. Even Miguel del Barco, a Jesuit missionary who worked in the missions of the peninsula for thirty years, describes it as "having many errors," among which the "praise of the fertility of California" stands out. Defenders of Píccolo's writings argue that the priest generally chose his exploration routes in canyons and streams and almost always in dates when it was likely to have rained, which is why he made very flattering descriptions of the greenery of the peninsula and the great amount of flora and fauna he found on his way. Nowadays, the process of desertification that has gradually spread throughout the peninsula has caused the landscape to be much different from what Píccolo knew. Despite everything, the report has been published as a book in several languages, standing out its inclusion in the book "Kino's historical Memoir of Pimeria Alta" by Herbert E. Bolton.
Continuing with the life of Father Píccolo, despite his great efforts, as a result of his journey he only obtained the payment of 6,000 pesos that King Philip V had stipulated for the support of the Missions. In October 1702, the ship carrying these provisions, as well as two priests who were joining the missionary efforts, Juan Manuel Basladúa and Jerónimo Minutuli, were caught in a huge storm, which forced the captain to throw most of the supplies overboard to avoid shipwreck and certain death. Finally, the storm calmed down and they were able to reach Loreto exhausted and tired.
Upon returning to California, it was decided to relieve him definitively of his responsibility in the Mission of San Francisco Javier, and Father Juan de Ugarte was officially put in charge. From this moment on, Píccolo devoted himself to managing economic and food resources for the meager Californian missions, and in 1704 he traveled with the priest Basaldúa to Sonora to request that Father Eusebio Francisco Kino send whatever he could to these needy lands. As has been mentioned, Kino never disconnected from California and made available to his brothers in the Order as well as the Californians everything he had in his power, sending shipments of grains, tools, fabrics, and everything else they might need through the port of Guaymas. For a brief period during this year, Father Píccolo was in charge of the Mission of San José de la Laguna or San José de Guaymas (now Guaymas) in Sonora.
Upon returning to the peninsula, the ship carrying Píccolo passed by Bahía Concepción and Mulegé, leaving a pleasant impression on him due to the abundant water and trees, thinking that it would be a magnificent site to establish a new Mission. Unfortunately, the honor of being the founder of the Mission did not fall to Píccolo, but to his traveling companion, Juan Manuel Basaldúa, who founded the Mission of Santa Rosalía de Mulegé in November 1705. In that same year, Father Francisco María was appointed Visitador of the Missions of Sonora and California, so he had to travel constantly throughout this vast territory. However, he always had in mind the Californians and his brothers in the Company who inhabited these lands, so he frequently turned to Father Kino to remind him of the need for support.
In 1709, after completing his assignment as Visitador, he moved to the Mission of Santa Rosalía de Mulegé, where Father Basaldúa had fallen seriously ill with smallpox. Due to the severity of his illness, he was ordered to remain in charge of this site, remaining there for 9 long years (until 1718). As always, Father Píccolo resumed his work leading the Californians of this mission, evangelizing and teaching them European customs, assisting them in sickness, death, and in general in all matters of mission life. In addition, he continued to make exploration trips through the Sierra La Giganta to find new places and thus evangelize more Californians. He also did not cease in his efforts to find a port on the west coast that could serve as a port for the Manila Galleon.
In the year 1706, a very unfortunate event occurred between the priests and the until then captain of the Loreto garrison, Antonio García de Mendoza. This person accused Píccolo and Salvatierra of imposing too much work on him and his soldiers, however, this was a false accusation. The real reason for the captain's annoyance was that the priests opposed his use and exploitation of the Californians in pearl fishing. In the end, the captain's accusation did not prosper, so he had no choice but to request to be "dismissed" from his position, which the priests immediately accepted. A few days later, in a secret vote, the soldiers decided to appoint the Portuguese don Esteban Rodríguez Lorenzo as their new commander, highlighting his hardworking nature and, above all, his great affection for the priests.
In 1709, at the request of a group of Californians who came from a rancheria called Kaelmet (now La Purisima), he decides to accompany them to verify the conditions of the place and to see if it was suitable for founding a mission. Upon arriving at the site, he finds it very beautiful with abundant water and trees, and it was inhabited by a large number of Californians who were friendly and affectionate with the visitors, giving them agaves as gifts. Some of the natives present tell Father Píccolo that following the course of the stream they can reach the sea, which is a short distance away. The priest sets out on the path accompanied by the Californians and discovers a marvelous site from which the Pacific Ocean can be seen, but they do not find it suitable for establishing a port. That site is now known as Boca de San Gregorio. Very satisfied with what he achieved, he returns to Mission Mulegé, which he reaches on June 24, 1709. In 1712, he makes a new trip to this site where he finds a more suitable place to found a mission, but unfortunately, due to a lack of missionaries, this foundation was delayed until 1717, and it was named the Purísima Concepción de la Santísima Virgen. In 1734, the mission moved to a new location where it is now permanently located.
The wandering Father Píccolo was visited in the Mulegé mission by a group of Californios who lived in the San Vicente valley, at a place where the Kadakaamán stream passed by, and they asked him to accompany them since they wanted him to baptize them, their wives, and children and found a mission in their lands. Without delay, Father Píccolo, with his 62 years on his back, made the preparations to visit that place and left for this mission on November 13, 1716. A few days later, they arrived at the place where he recognized that it was very suitable for the foundation of a Mission: plenty of water, lots of land for cultivation, and an enormous amount of Californios who were arriving day by day, so many that it was impossible to calculate the total. He stayed in the area all December and witnessed different ceremonies and customs of the inhabitants of the rancherías, which he described in the letters he wrote to Father Jaime Bravo, thereby leaving evidence of his acute intelligence and great observational skills, which allowed him to give an account in these wonderful ethnographic writings.
In 1720, he was appointed Superior of the Californian Missions and moved to reside in the port of Loreto. Over time, the priest's health weakened to the point that in 1721, he was almost blind, but he continued to try to fulfill his obligations. The lack of more missionaries assigned to serve this land and the fact that all those who resided in California were occupied in solving the serious problems that afflicted their missions meant that he could not be relieved of his activities. Even with his precarious health, Father Píccolo dictated letters in which he interceded with the authorities to protect the children of a soldier from the presidio, and he strongly requested that more resources be allocated to help the missions that were just being founded or needed to be founded.
In 1728, Father Jaime Bravo was commissioned to go to Loreto and help Father Píccolo in his activities. The ravages that the years of privation had caused to his health, as well as the long and heavy exploration trips, were wearing down his body day by day. On February 22, 1729, at the age of seventy-five, Father Francisco María Píccolo passed away in the stillness of his humble cot, surrounded by his beloved Californios, who mourned him for several days. His remains were buried in Loreto, and he had the honor of being the first Jesuit priest to pay tribute to the land in this Californian peninsula.
Francisco María Píccolo was a tireless traveler through the Californian lands, carrying out exploration and evangelization missions. Thanks to his restless and perseverant spirit, he directly and indirectly contributed to the establishment of a third of the Missionary settlements founded by the Jesuits on our peninsula. There is a quote attributed to Mother Teresa of Calcutta: "We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop." Similarly, we can summarize Father Píccolo's work: without his dedication and love for this land, we would not be the California we have today.
Bibliografía:
Ponce A. (2012). Misioneros jesuitas en Baja California - 1683-1768. Madrid: Editorial Bubok
Lazcano C. (2017). Francisco María Píccolo: 288 años de su muerte, consultado el 18 de julio de 2020, de https://www.elvigia.net/general/2017/2/5/francisco-mara-pccolo-aos-muerte-263130.html
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