When Mission Santa Cruz was closed,
I found Hispanic history at the beach!
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By Miguel Pérez
When I got there on a Monday afternoon, I realized that my trip to Santa Cruz, a beautiful beach town on the north coast of Monterey Bay, needed much better planning. Mission Santa Cruz, the Spanish Franciscan mission that was my ultimate destination, was closed and would not reopen for several days! Yet, my California road trip was planned to anticipate such setbacks. I decided to keep moving south and leave Santa Cruz for my return north. It meant that I would need to go back to Santa Cruz on a weekend, during one of three days when the mission is open. |
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But I had already reserved a hotel room in Santa Cruz, near Monterey Bay, and this was a sight I had always wanted to see, a bay with volumes of Hispanic history!
Yet, when I got there, I had to go through the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk amusement park, which was amazingly active, especially for a Monday. It was an unexpected break from my tireless pursuit of Hispanic history, a time to sit back and contemplate the scenery, the beauty of people having fun. But I couldn't relax that way for very long, lol, not when my favorite relaxation is exploring history and I was standing by the huge bay discovered by Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo in 1542 and named by Sebastian Vizcaíno in 1602. |
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Others were enjoying the rides and basking in the sun, but I was reviewing that bay's amazing history in my mind.
This was the bay sought by the Gaspar de Portolá overland expedition in 1769, I thought, the one they inadvertently skipped but went on to discover the much larger San Francisco Bay! This is the "noble harbor ... well-suited for settlements" described by Vizcaíno 168 years before Portolá finally recognized it during his second overland expedition in 1770. This is the bay that is so wide and open, and with such gently curved shores, that, at first, Portolá didn't even recognize it as a bay! (See map). |
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This is bay where Portolá met with Father Junípero Serra, where Portolá established a presidio and a town, Monterey, and where Serra established San Carlos Borromeo, California's second Franciscan mission in 1770.
Just looking at the water made me see volumes of Hispanic history! In my mind, I was lecturing, as if I was with my students in my Hispanic American history class. But the history of Monterey Bay is best told from the south shore (see map), from the City of Monterey, which is where I'm writing my next few articles. Are you coming? |
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CALIFORNIA ROAD TRIP/25
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