Native Californians, Missions, Presidios, and Colonists on the Spanish Frontier, 1769-1848
Workshop 1: July 7 – 13, 2013
The Fourteenth Colony is devoted to the exploration of the Spanish colonial missions of California’s storied Monterey Bay. Two six-day residential workshops spanning the weeks of July 7 through 13, and July 13 through 19, 2013, will address the tumultuous and often controversial era of The Fourteenth Colony: California Indians, Missions, Presidios, and Colonists on the Hispanic Frontier, 1769-1848. This program will consist of historic landmarks tours and lectures, art history and indigenous food and culture orientations, discussion forums, and traditional craft and technology demonstrations presented by community scholars, museum curators, musicians, and leading scholars of California and Southwest Spanish colonial mission studies.
Applicants are encouraged to apply for either Workshop 1 (July 7 – 13, 2013), or Workshop 2 (July 13 – 19, 2013) as their first choice. While we will attempt to honor your first choice, we may not be able to accommodate all preferences. Please note, however, that though minor differences in speakers’ schedules may distinguish Workshops 1 and 2, the Workshops are otherwise structured alike. Click on link or download PDF for detailed schedule of this week’s workshop content.
Day 1/Sunday, Opening Day
Topic: Mythic beginnings/Spanish colonial history
Big Questions
1) What prompted the joint Spanish military and religious expedition into Alta California?
2) What role did Father Junípero Serra play in the founding of the California missions?
Opening Presentation
Introduction by founding professor, Dr. Ruben Mendoza, Director, Institute for Archaeology, California State University, Monterey Bay
Keynote
Dr. Robert M. Senkewicz, Father Junípero Serra and the Sacred Expedition.
Day 2/Monday, Mission San Juan Bautista
Topic: How to read a Mission
Big Questions
1) How does one go about interpreting the architecture and material culture of the California missions?
2) What are primary resource documents, and how does one make use of mission landmarks for getting at the interpretation of California’s Spanish colonial heritage?
Faculty Presentation
Dr. Rose Marie Beebe, How to Incorporate Primary Sources into Your Classroom.
Landmarks Tour
Site review of European and New World sources of Spanish colonial art and architecture, and sacred geometry and iconography, with Dr. Mardith Schuetz-Miller, author of Building and Builders in Hispanic California, 1769-1848; and Dr. Ruben Mendoza will address his studies of the solar geometry of the mission church of San Juan Bautista in Sacrament of the Sun: Solar Geometry in a California Mission.
Spanish colonial art walk and aesthetic orientation of Mission San Juan Bautista with Dr. Ruben Mendoza, Project Director, SJB Mission Conservation Program. Cowboy blacksmith John Grafton will review and demonstrate the Art and Technology of Spanish Colonial Architectural Metalwork.
On-Site Faculty/Teacher Discussion
Day 3/Tuesday, Missions San Miguel and San Antonio
Topic: Mission art and music
Big Questions
1) What artistic and musical traditions dominated daily life in the California missions?
2) How did Spanish colonial art serve to convey both aesthetic values and notions of civility on the Spanish frontier?
3) What were the physical characteristics and functions of the mission campus on the frontier?
Landmarks Tour
A reading and interpretation of the polychrome frescoes and paintings of Mission San Miguel with Spanish colonial art historian Cynthia Lewis, and missions’ archaeologist Dr. Ruben Mendoza speaking to Art and Conservation in the California Missions.
Landmarks Tour
Archaeology and Spanish colonial ceramics of Mission San Antonio with Dr. Robert Hoover, Principal Investigator. Outdoor landmarks tour of the aqueducts, water driven mills, holding ponds, neophyte housing areas, and soldiers barracks ruins. Music appreciation and recital with John Warren, Director of the New World Baroque Orchestra, in Recreating the Music of the California Missions.
Day 4/Wednesday, Content Presentation
Topic: Mythic constructs and historical memory
Big Questions
1) What primary myths and themes dominate discussions of the California missions and why?
2) What historical realities pervade consideration of the California missions?
3) What role does the Leyenda Negra or Black Legend play in the perpetuation of myths and stereotypes about the California missions?
Faculty Presentation
Dr. Douglas Monroy, Missions, Myths and Misconceptions
Content Dissemination
Participants will convene focus groups led by facilitating master teachers and scholars. Groups will discuss content and instructional activities pertinent to Landmark sites and scholarly presentations.
Faculty Presentation
Anne Marie Sayers, Native Californian perspectives on the missions.
Day 5/Thursday, Mission San Carlos Borromeo/Royal Presidio of Monterey
Topic: Piracy, the Spanish militia, and indigenous leadership
Big Questions
1) What role did the Spanish militia play on the mission frontier?
2) How were the Spanish military districts and their facilities configured and why?
3) To what extent did piracy play a role in the nature of both mission and coastal defenses?
Faculty Presentation
Dr. Russell Skowronek, X marks the spot: Piracy and the Bouchard raid on Monterey.
Landmarks Tour
Participating teachers will be introduced to the ecclesiastical furnishings, liturgical artifacts, and evidence for the life and times of Father Junípero Serra by missions’ archaeologist Dr. Ruben Mendoza in History, Ideology and Everyday Life of Franciscans Friars in the New World.
Landmarks Tour
Participating teachers will be introduced to period artifacts, materials, and specimens from the on-site collections of the Royal Presidio of Monterey by Drs. Russell Skowronek and Ruben Mendoza.
Landmarks tour of the Spanish, Mexican, and early American adobes of Monterey with along the Path of History with Ruben Mendoza. Specific consideration will be given to construction methods and the social configuration of space in selected Spanish and Mexican era adobes, such as those of the Casa Abrego, Cooper-Molera, and Serrano.
Day 6/Friday, Content Presentation
Topic: Indigenous acculturation and change
Big Questions
1) What role did the missions play in indigenous acculturation and culture change?
2) How was the material culture of the Native Californian transformed with the arrival of the Spanish padres, and subsequently, with the transition to Mexican California?
Faculty Presentation
Dr. Craig H. Russell, European Music and Indian Musicians in California’s Missions.
Content Dissemination
Participants will join focus groups led by facilitating master teachers and scholars. Groups will discuss content and instructional activities pertinent to Landmark sites and scholarly presentations.
Faculty Presentations
Dr. Russell Skowronek, Indigenous Life ways: Native versus Introduced foods and beverages.
Douglas Monroy, The making of Mexican culture in California.
Day 7/Saturday, Closing Day
Topic: Secularization, decline, and restoration of the California missions
Big Questions
1) To what extent did the missions come to define the nature of social relations obtaining between Native Californians, Spanish colonists, and Mexican era settlers?
2) What impact did the Secularization of 1834 bring to bear on the life ways of the Native Californians?
3) How has heritage tourism played a role in the formulation of those histories presented in the media and public schools?
Closing Presentation
Dr. Ruben Mendoza, Images of Faith: Religious Art of New Spain and Mexico, 18th and 19th Centuries
Dr. Ruben Mendoza, Public school narratives and mythic constructs regarding the California missions