When you hear the name “Espada Mission”, what comes to mind? Maybe, some old buildings made out of moldy, ugly stone or possibly the image of a frivolously dressed European man binding a long, dark haired “savage”? If so, in some right you are correct. But that is not the entire account. The mission were much more than giant slave camps, but also served as a lesson the general population should learn from today.
My experience at the Mission Espada was in all honesty okay. I did not find anything spectacular about it and in order to one would have to use a lot of imagination and most likely be Christian or Catholic to appreciate it. Despite my religious cynicism, learning about the history was marvelous, but the result of it wasn’t.
My experience at the Mission Espada was in all honesty okay. I did not find anything spectacular about it and in order to one would have to use a lot of imagination and most likely be Christian or Catholic to appreciate it. Despite my religious cynicism, learning about the history was marvelous, but the result of it wasn’t.
I’m neither Hispanic nor Native American so I do not have the “familial” ties to this certain spot, but I still feel a certain culpability for being European and having ties to the subjugators who called themselves “Men of God” (The Franciscans) who performed various heinous acts on the Natives. By all means there wasn’t just the eradication of their “existence” and society, it wasn’t just forcing themselves to believe in a what the Native Americans at the time thought was a false God, that was not good enough. I researched the treatment they received and it was not sunshine and daisies. Some were starved, some were beaten. I would not say they were tortured, but, it was still not a treatment the everyday common man should receive.
In the future I believe I would like to research the topic more, but in a different sense. A debate over the historical aspects of The Missions would be more to my liking.
