Private Women, Public Lives: Gender and the Missions of the Californias (Chicana Matters Series)

246 Pages·2009·1.65 MB·English

by  Barbara O. Reyes

Private Women, Public Lives
Chicana Matters Series / Deena J. González and Antonia Castañeda,
editors

Chicana Matters Series focuses on one of the largest population groups in
the United States today, documenting the lives, values, philosophies, and
artistry of contemporary Chicanas. Books in this series may be richly diverse,
refecting the experiences of Chicanas themselves, and incorporating a broad
spectrum of topics and felds of inquiry. Cumulatively, the books represent
the leading knowledge and scholarship in a signifcant and growing feld of
research and, along with the literary works, art, and activism of Chicanas,
underscore their signifcance in the history and culture of the United States.
Private Women, Public Lives
Gender and the Missions of the Californias
BárBara O. reyes
University of Texas Press Austin, TX
Copyright © 2009 by the University of Texas Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
First edition, 2009
Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to:
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♾ Te paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of aNsI/NIsO
Z39.48-1992 (r1997) (Permanence of Paper).
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Reyes, Bárbara.
Private women, public lives : gender and the missions of the Californias /
Bárbara O. Reyes. — 1st ed.
p. cm. — (Chicana matters series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
IsBN 978-0-292-71896-8 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Women—Mexico—Baja California (Peninsula)—Social conditions—18th
century. 2. Women—Mexico—Baja California (Peninsula)—Social conditions—
19th century. 3. Women—California—Social conditions—18th century.
4. Women—California—Social conditions—19th century. 5. Catholic Church—
Missions—Mexico—Baja California (Peninsula)—History—18th century.
6. Catholic Church—Missions—Mexico—Baja California (Peninsula)—History—
19th century.  7. Catholic Church—Missions—California—History—18th century.
8. Catholic Church—Missions—California—History—19th century. 9. Baja
California (Mexico : Peninsula)—History. 10. California—History—To 1846.
I. Title.
HQ1464.B35r49 2009
305.48'868079409033—dc22 2008041894
Para mi mamá,
María de Lourdes Hernández Ochoa de Reyes,
por su fuerza moral y espiritual
y por su cariño y apoyo incondicional.
THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Gender and Public Space in the Nineteenth-century
Californias 1
Part I. Constructing Space 17
1. “For the Riches of Its Souls”: Te Society of Jesus in Antigua
California 19
2. “To Teach the Natives Love and Loyalty toward the Spanish
Monarch”: Te Order of the Predicants of Santo Domingo in
Baja California 37
3. “[For Its] Very Large and Fine Harbor”: Te Franciscans of the
College of San Fernando in Alta California 54
Part II. Negotiating Space 75
4. Bárbara Gandiaga: Race and Agency at Mission Santo Tomás 77
5. Eulalia Callis: Privilege and Power in the Colonial Californias 93
6. Eulalia Pérez: Gender and Labor in the Spanish Frontier 111
Conclusion: Women in the Public Missions of the Californias 131
Appendix I-A. Interrogatorio de Bárbara Gandiaga sobre la muerte
del Padre Eudaldo Surroca, misionero de la Misión de Santo Tomás
en la Antigua California 134
viii Contents
Appendix I-B. Bárbara Gandiaga’s Interrogation Regarding the
Death of Padre Eudaldo Surroca, Missionary at Mission Santo
Tomás, Baja California 138
Appendix I-C. Interrogatorio de Bárbara Gandiaga sobre la muerte
del Padre Miguel López, misionero de la Misión de Santo Tomás en
la Antigua California 142
Appendix I-D. Bárbara Gandiaga’s Interrogation Regarding the
Death of Padre Miguel López, Missionary at Santo Tomás Mission,
Baja California 144
Appendix II-A. Instancia de Da. Eulalia Callis, muger de Don
Pedro Fages, Governador de Californias, sobre que se le oyga en
justicia, y redima de la opresión que padece 146
Appendix II-B. Petition by Doña Eulalia Callis, Wife of Don Pedro
Fages, Governor of the Californias, Tat Her Case Be Heard 148
Appendix III-A. Una vieja y sus recuerdos, dictados por Doña
Eulalia Pérez que vive en la Misión de San Gabriel a la edad
avanzada de 139 años, a D. Tomas Savage para la Bancroft Library,
1877 150
Appendix III-B. An Old Woman and Her Recollections, Dictated
by Doña Eulalia Pérez, Who Lives at Mission San Gabriel at the
Advanced Age of 139 Years, to D. Tomas Savage for the Bancroft
Library, 1877 160
Notes 171
Bibliography 203
Index 221
Acknowledgments
Tis project would not have been possible without the support of several
institutions and foundations. At the University of California, San Diego
(UCSD), archival research and travel to the Bancroft Library and to the
Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas of the Universidad Autónoma
de Baja California (IIH-UABC) were funded through generous grants
from the J. M. Hepps Foundation, the Center for Iberian and Latin
American Studies, the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, and
the UCMEXUS Foundation. More recently, a Ford Foundation Post-
Doctoral Fellowship, a University of New Mexico Faculty Research
Grant, and grants from the Feminist Research Institute and the Center
for Regional Studies of the University of New Mexico aforded me the op-
portunity to visit the Santa Barbara Mission Archives, make a second re-
search trip to the IIH-UABC, and fnish writing this book. I am especially
grateful to Dr. Tobías Durán, director of the University of New Mexico’s
Center for Regional Studies, for his support and the Center’s eforts to
encourage the advancement of Chicana/o scholars, as well as to my friends
and colleagues at UNM’s Southwest Hispanic Research Institute.
I owe an important debt to my mentors, colleagues, friends, and family
who have encouraged and supported me in my eforts to become a schol-
arly worker. My early intellectual formation began during my years as an
undergraduate student at UCSD with my estimado profe, Carlos Blanco
Aguinaga, whose political and theoretical teachings continue to infuence
my work. I must acknowledge and give thanks to my mentors and dis-
sertation committee cochairs, Ramón Gutiérrez and Rosaura Sánchez,
whose exigent and rigorous training, and support and guidance, kept me
going during one of the most challenging periods of my life. My heartfelt
thanks to the staf and faculty of the Ethnic Studies, History, and Lit