Journey to the Sun: Junipero Serra's Dream and the Founding of California
One merely has to look at the place names in modern California to confirm the enduring legacy of the Spanish colonization of the area. To a great extent, the initial success of that effort to “civilize” California was due to the labors in the eighteenth century of the Franciscan priest Junipero Serra. Driven by intense religious devotion and a restless, adventurous spirit, Serra abandoned a promising and secure teaching position in Spain in 1749 to sail to the New World. After 15 years as an administrator and preacher in Mexico City, he began the work of founding a series of missions in Alta (upper) California. Here Orfalea reveals the sheer toughness, courage, and even fanaticism of his subject, as Serra founds a series of missions, often traveling in solitude while plagued by a severely ulcerated leg. As Orfalea acknowledges, the results for the Indians who were attached to the missions were mixed and certainly did not prevent the demographic collapse of the Indian population. Still, this admiring and admirable biography pays tribute to an essential figure in the early development of California. --Jay Freeman