The Apostle of California
Juniperro Serra’s missionary work earned him the title Apostle of California. His ruthless exploitation, enforced conversion, and physical torture of indigenous people makes him perhaps the singular defining villain of the text. Two years after publication irony was layered over insult and injury when Pope Francis officially canonized Serra as a saint.
Fishers of Men
In his writings, Serra described the native inhabitants of the region he transformed into a Catholic stronghold through a singularly distinct perspective: “before long, they will be caught in the apostolic and evangelical net.” This imagery is, of course, an allusion to the scriptural imperative to spread the faith of Jesus by becoming Fishers of Men. The author points out the inherent irony of this bizarre tenet of church dogma:
“the comparison between catching fish and catching souls just never worked for me. After all—one eats what one catches; swallows, consumes, devours. One uses that flesh as fuel for one’s own body. Catching Indian bodies and souls like catching fish?”
“Yes, Virginia, there really are live Mission Indians”
Part of the required educational curriculum of California has long mandated what is known as the “Mission Unit” for all fourth graders. It is a unit devoted to the study of the history of missionary movement in the state. So ingrained into the system is the Mission Unit that it actually big business at real missions: one can buy all the requisite materials needed for completion of study. The one aspect of that part of Californian history which is apparently absent from the requirements is learning that Mission Indians are still alive and well and not just ghost figures from another existing as drawings in textbooks.
Flogging
According to the official policy of the Spanish crown government, missionaries were allowed to flog the natives as punishment for violations of rules up to a limit of no more than twenty-five blows for each violation. Records from the other side—the padres—indicate that some could receive more than a hundred blows in a single flogging. And the irony? Remember, these men were commissioned with converting the pagan natives into worshipping Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and building missions for the purpose of praying to the man who is famously thought to have said something along the lines of “love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.”
“Digger Belles”
The term “Digger” come with certain connotations related to its not coincidental similarity to another word that sounds almost identical. It is intended as an insult to describe Mission Indians at large. The additions of “Belles” is self-explanatory. The author proceeds to expound upon why it is ironic:
“The term `belle,’ with its connotations of civilization and domesticated females with the sole purpose of serving as objects for male enjoyment, seems to have been a widespread joke in California—sarcasm, irony, mean-spirited derision of Indian women.”
