Built
in 1771 under the Spanish crown, San Gabriel was the first mission
in the Los Angeles area. Though highly romanticized as an idyllic
period when Franciscans brought civilization and Christianity to
Native Americans, the actual experience of the mission system was
often starkly more about conquest, dispossession, widespread death,
and forced labor, as was the case at Mission San Gabriel. Indians
were forced to work the 1.5 million acres of mission land, turning
it into a highly productive and lucrative institution. San Gabriel
Mission was the site of at least two known Indian revolts, the most
notable led by a woman, Toypurina in the early 1800s. Toypurina
mobilized the Indians to unsuccessfully attack the mission and the
priests. She was considered a bruja (witch), as, at the time, there
was no other way to explain Toypurina’s anger. At her trial,
Toypurina was banished to the Monterey mission where she lived out
her days. |
