The Acjachemen in the Registers of Mission San Juan Capistrano

 

The Acjachemen in the Registers of Mission San Juan Capistrano

        I have had the great fortune of presenting at Mission San Juan Capistrano for the past three summers on a variety of topics related to the mission's early history. Researching and putting these presentations together has been one of the great pleasures of my life. Below is one of eight or so other presentations I plan on adding to this blog. A huge thanks to Mechelle Lawrence-Adams and Jennifer Ring - it's a blast working with you!

        Historians are generally limited to the historical evidence available to them from any given time period. The abundant correspondence between missionaries, military, and political personnel provide a rich source of historical material for historians to research. The stories therein are complex, interesting, and worthy of inquiry. While not necessarily intended, the captivating nature of this historical material often omits the history of Indigenous peoples in and around the missions. The historiography of mission studies has seen an ongoing dramatic shift in the last century from a Spanish-focused point-of-view to one that frames mission communities more accurately as primarily Indigenous communities. This new framing is necessary. At its height, Mission San Juan Capistrano counted about thirty so-called Spanish individuals, although most of them were from New Spain (today's Mexico), while the number of Acjachemen numbered over 1,300. The Acjachemen represented approximately 98% of the mission's population.

        The presentation here focuses on some insights gleaned from mission's baptism, marriage, and burial registers about the Acjachemen people. These registers have been fundamental in genealogical research and statistical analysis of mission populations. The research angle presented here is one that attempts to recover the stories of Acjachemen individuals by contextualizing information from the registers with other historical evidence.

        In the weeks to come I plan to add details to this post. For now, please let me know if you have any questions about a particular slide.

Note on this slide - The villages of Pamajam, Guaromo, Wapijanga, and Anonga may have been within Acjachemen territory. I'm still working on this.

Note on this slide - This village map was adapted from one on display at Mission San Gabriel.

Note on this slide - the new chairman is Nathan Banda.