Learn More -- Spanish Colonial Missions of the Southwest Travel Itinerary

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Mission 2000 Searchable images, or Mission 2000 Searchable Spanish Mission database records: Original, primary source text from mission records have been translated and digitized into a searchable database. Trace a person's life events, family members, occupation, and tribe.

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Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary Series The National Park Service's travel itineraries include many interesting and exciting historic destinations to visit online and in person. Each itinerary spotlights a different geographic region, theme, or community, and provides a wealth of information. The travel itineraries include a huge variety of places significant in American history, architecture, archeology, engineering, and culture, most of which are listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

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National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places is the nation's official inventory of historic places worthy of preservation. Districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects significant in American history, architecture, archeology, engineering, and culture are included in the National Register, which is expanded and maintained by the National Park Service. The National Register website is the gateway to information on authentic registered historic places, the benefits of recognition, and how to become involved in identifying, nominating to the National Register, and protecting these irreplaceable reminders of our heritage. The National Register publications are online. Among them are brochures in both English and Spanish.

National Trails System The National Historic Trails System is the network of scenic, historic, and recreation trails created by the National Trails System Act of 1968. These trails provide for outdoor recreation needs, promote the enjoyment, appreciation, and preservation of open-air, outdoor areas and historic resources, and encourage public access and citizen involvement.

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Office of Sustainable Tourism National Parks have been interwoven with tourism from their earliest days. This website highlights the ways in which the National Park Service promotes and supports sustainable, responsible, informed and managed visitor use through cooperation and coordination with the tourism industry.

Park History Program The Park History Program preserves and protects our nation's cultural and natural resources by conducting research on national parks, national historic landmarks, park planning and special history studies, oral histories, and interpretive and management plans.

Teaching with Historic Places Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) is a National Park Service program that uses properties listed in the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places to enliven history, social studies, geography, civics, and other subjects. TwHP has created a variety of products and activities that help teachers bring historic places into the classroom. The website for the Teaching with Historic Places Program contains a wealth of information for educators and students that can be used in the classroom and beyond. It offers a series of more than 140 online classroom-ready place-based lesson plans created by historians and educators. Each lesson is linked to national and State standards for history and social studies. Lesson plans are indexed in several ways. The thematic index identifies the lesson plans that relate to Hispanic topics. Two of these lessons are available in Spanish, as well as in English.

Other Relevant Websites

American Memory at the Library of Congress Search this website for documents, photographs, and other materials relating to America's diverse population.

American Scenic Byways This website, maintained by the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, includes information on State and nationally designated byway routes throughout America based on their archeological, cultural, historic, natural, recreational and scenic qualities.

Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service administer this trail jointly. Visit the BLM website dedicated to El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro.

CARTA: El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro Trail Association CARTA facilitates goodwill, cooperation, and understanding among communities, and promotes the education, conservation, and protection of the multicultural and multiethnic history and traditions associated with the living trail, El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro.

El Camino Real Historic Trail Site Step back in time and join us on a journey along the historic El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the Royal Road of the Interior Lands. This 1500-mile historic trade route that extends from Mexico City to San Juan Pueblo/Ohkay Owingeh, is one of the oldest trails in the United States, and for more than a century, one of the longest. Designated a national historic trail in 1993, it is one of New Mexico's most important cultural artifacts.

El Rancho de las Golondrinas El Rancho de las Golondrinas is a living history museum located on 200 acres in a rural farming valley just south of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Historic Hotels of America A feature of the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Heritage Traveler program that provides information on historic hotels and package tours in the vicinity of sites included in this itinerary.

National Archives and Records Administration Search the National Archives website for primary documents.

National Park Foundation The National Park Foundation, in partnership with the National Park Service, enriches America's national parks and programs through private support, safeguarding our heritage and inspiring generations of national park enthusiasts.

National Trust for Historic Preservation The National Trust for Historic Preservation is a United States Congress-chartered non-profit membership organization that works to save America's historic places. Chartered by Congress in 1949, the organization is now supported entirely by private contributions. In the word of the National Trust, "We take direct on-the-ground action when historic buildings and sites are threatened. Our work helps build vibrant, sustainable communities. We advocate with governments to save America's heritage. We strive to create a cultural legacy as diverse as the nation itself so that all of us can take pride in our part of the American story."

Selected Bibliography

Anderson, Gary Clayton. The Indian Southwest 1580-1830. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999.

Bolton, Herbert Eugene. Texas in the Middle Eighteenth Century: Studies in Spanish Colonial History and Administration. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1970.

Carter, William B. Indian Alliances and the Spanish in the Southwest, 750-1750. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2009.

Chipman, D.E., and H.D. Joseph. Spanish Texas, 1519–1821: Revised Edition. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2010.

Dunmire, William W. Gardens of New Spain: How Mediterranean Plants and Foods Changed America. 1st ed. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2004.

Early, J. Presidio, Mission, and Pueblo: Spanish Architecture and Urbanism in the United States. Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 2004.

Eckhart, George Boland. "Spanish Missions of Texas, 1680-1800," in Kiva, vol. 32, no. 3, Feb. 1967, pp. 1-28.

Eckhart, George B, and Griffith, James S. Temples in the Wilderness. Tucson: Arizona Historical Society, 1975.

Engelhardt, Fr. Zephyrin, The Franciscans in Arizona. Harbor Springs, MI, Holy Childhood Indian School, 1899.

Fisher, Lewis F. The Spanish Missions of San Antonio. San Antonio: Maverick Pub. Co, 1998.

Forrest, Earle R. Missions and pueblos of the Old Southwest. Glorieta: The Rio Grande Press Inc., 1929, reprint 1979.

Garate, Don, and Southwest Parks and Monuments Association. Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail. Tucson: Southwest Parks and Monuments Association, 1994.

Gerhard, Peter, The North Frontier of New Spain. Princeton:Princeton University Press, 1982.

Giffords, Gloria Frasier. Sanctuaries of Earth, Stone, and Light: The Churches of Northern New Spain. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2007.

Ed. Jackson, Robert H., Spanish Borderlands Sourcebooks: The Spanish Missions of Baja California. New York: Garland Publishing Co., 1991

Joyner, Brian D. Hispanic Reflections on the American Landscape: Identifying and Interpreting Hispanic Heritage / Reflejos hispanos en el paisaje americano: identificación e interpretación de la Herencia Hispana. U.S. Department of the Interior. National Park Service. Washington, DC: 2009. Also available online in Spanish and English.

Kessell, J.L. Kiva, Cross &Crown: The Pecos Indians and New Mexico, 1540-1840. 2nd ed. Tucson: Southwest Parks and Monuments Association, 1995.

———. Spain in the Southwest: A Narrative History of Colonial New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and California. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2002.

———. Miera y Pacheco: a Renaissance Spaniard in Eighteenth-century New Mexico. First edition. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2013.

———. The Missions of New Mexico Since 1776. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1980.

Kimbro, Edna, et al. The California missions: history, art, and preservation. Los Angeles: Getty Conservation Institute, 2009.

Kubler, George. Religious architecture of New Mexico. Chicago: Rio Grande Press, 1962.

Lutrell, Estelle. The Mission of San Xavier del Bac: An Historical Guide. Tucson: F.E.A. Kimball, 1922.

Lux, Annie, and Daniel Nadelbach. Historic New Mexico Churches. Layton: Gibbs Smith, 2007.

Matovina, Timothy M. The Alamo Remembered: Tejano Accounts and Perspectives. San Antonio: University of Texas Press, 1995.

Messina, John."San Xavier del Bac" in Cross-Cultural Vernacular Landscapes of Southern Arizona.Minneapolis:Vernacular Architecture Forum, 2005, pp. 109-116.

Minge, Ward A. Ácoma: Pueblo in the Sky. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1991.

Morgan, Richard Jr., A Guide to Historic Missions and Churches of the Arizona-Sonora Borderlands, Tucson: Adventures in Education Inc., 1995

Morrow, B.H. A Harvest of Reluctant Souls: Fray Alonso de Benavides's History of New Mexico, 1630. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2012.

Murphy, Daniel O. Salinas Pueblo Missions –Abo, Quarai, and Gran Quivira. Arizona: Western National Parks Association, 1993.

Nelson, George S. The Alamo: An Illustrated History. 1st ed. Dry Frio Canyon: Aldine Press, 1998.

Officer, James. Hispanic Arizona, 1536-1856. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1989.

Roca, Paul M., Spanish Jesuit Churches in Mexico's Tarahumara. Tucson:University of Arizona Press, 1979.

Pickens, Buford, ed. The missions of northern Sonora: a 1935 field documentation. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1993.

Quirarte, Jacinto. The Art and Architecture of the Texas Missions. 1st ed. Jack and Doris Smothers Series in Texas History, Life, and Culture no. 6. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2002.

Roberts, David. The Pueblo Revolt: The Secret Rebellion That Drove the Spaniards Out of the Southwest. New York: Simon &Schuster, 2004.

Roca, Paul M., Paths of the Padres Through Sonora. Tucson: Arizona Pioneer's Historical Society, 1967.

Sánchez, Joseph P. Comparative Colonialism, the Spanish Black Legend, and Spain's Legacy in the United States: Perspectives on American Latino Heritage and Our Story. Spanish Colonial Research Center, National Park Service, 2013.

Sánchez, J.P., R.L. Spude, and A. Gómez. New Mexico: A History. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2013.

Sando, Joe S., and Herman Agoyo. Po'pay: Leader of the First American Revolution. Clear Light Publishers, 2005.

Sanford, Trent Elwood.The Architecture of the Southwest.Tucson:University of Arizona Press, 1997.

Sheridan, Thomas E. Landscapes of Fraud: Mission Tumacácori, the Baca Float, and the Betrayal of the O'odham. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2007.

Sheridan, Thomas E. Arizona: A History. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1995.

Spicer, Edward. Cycles of Conquest. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1962.

Texas Archeological Research Laboratory, and Department of Anthropology, Texas State University. "Texas Beyond History," 2012. http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/.

Texas State Historical Association. "Handbook of Texas Online." Accessed October 16, 2013. http://www.tshaonline.org/.

The Missions of Northern Sonora: a 1935 Field Documentation. The Southwest Center Series. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1993.

Torres, Luis. San Antonio Missions National Historical Park. Tucson: Southwest Parks and Monuments Association, 1992.

Zavala, Adina &Richard R. Flores. History and Legends of the Alamo and Other Missions in and Around San Antonio. Texas: Arte Publico Press, 1997.

Glossary Acequia (Spanish, from Arabic) Most commonly used to refer to large, molded, and sun-dried blocks of clayey mud and water, sometimes also incorporating a binder such as manure or straw;also used for the mud mixture itself when used as mortar or for building walls, as in puddled adobe, which is set in "puddles" and left to dry, eventually building up to form a wall—in contrast to adobe masonry which uses blocks set in mortar and is often covered by a mud plaster made water resistant through the addition of caliche, a naturally occurring calcium deposit found in local soil, or lime.

Ak chin farming Farming made possible by the diversion of water from canyon mouths onto cultivated fields that is a strategy that is particularly effective for cultivation in arid environments and was practiced throughout the Southwest in both the prehistoric and historic periods.

Apostolic College Franciscan institutions established to receive and train priests for service in the missions. Examples Colegio Apostólico de Santa Cruz de Querétaro, founded in 1683, and Colegio de Nuestra Señora de Guadelupe de Zacatecas founded in 1707, both in Mexico.

Apse The apse is the semicircular or polygonal termination to the choir or aisles of a church. In relation to church architecture it is generally the name given to where the altar is placed or where the clergy are seated.

Arroyo (Spanish) A desert wash, dry except after rainfall, when it can become a torrential river.

Atrio (Spanish) A walled forecourt before a church.

Buttress (also known as a macho in Spanish) An architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall used to support and reinforce by directing the weight of the wall to the base of the structure. Adobe buttresses were used at Abo and San Agustin de Isleta in New Mexico.

Cabecera (Spanish) A primary mission complex where a priest would reside most of the time.

Campanario (Spanish) A wall with openings to hold bells, the campanario was unique to Spain and Mexico. It was either freestanding or incorporated into the mission buildings, and an excellent example can still be seen today at Mission San Juan Capistrano.

Campanile (Spanish) Probably the most well-known mission bell support, was a large tower which held one or more bells;these were usually domed structures. Good examples of campaniles can be seen today at Mission San Xavier and San Estevan de Acoma.

Campo Santo A cemetery.

Canal(es) (Spanish) A channel used to drain water from adobe roofs;it projects through the parapet of the roof and often has a flared opening with ornamental pieces perpendicular to the opening.

Compound A cluster of connected buildings. Most missions were built as a quadrangle including a church, padre's quarters and workshops, native quarters, warehouses and other buildings.It housed workshops for crafts and served as the center of daily mission life.

Convento (Spanish)A residence for clergy serving a mission church and a residence for visitors, often shaped in rectangle of rooms that surrounded a central courtyard and formed the mission quadrangle.

Corbel An architectural element, either wood or stone, protruding from a wall and used to support beams, rafters and occasionally, arches.

Courtyard Central patio of mission quadrangle that served as an activity and living area for the mission and was often surrounded by the convento, also called a garth.

Espadaña (Spanish) Ornamental false fronts that made the buildings appear more imposing than they truly were.Espadañas hid the flat, low roofline.

Gente de Razon (Spanish) Literally, educated people. A phrase used to characterize those who followed Spanish customs. Used to designate non-Indians.

Hacienda (Spanish) A large estate;also the main dwelling of such an estate.

Huertas (Spanish) Orchards and small gardens, often outside of mission walls.

Jacal (Spanish) A building with walls constructed of vertical timbers plastered with mud, stones, or sticks. Example-- Mission Corpus Christi de la Isleta.

Granary Structure that served as warehouse and surplus storage for the mission and can be seen at missions like San José de Tumacácori and San José y San Miguel de Aquayo.

Kiva A Pueblo Indian chamber used for religious and other purposes, usually circular and wholly or partly subterranean.

Labores (Spanish) Word used in Texas for the larger fields where crops such as corn, beans, squash, cotton, and sugarcane were grown. Examples: Mission Concepción.

Latilla(s) (Spanish) Slender wooden poles or twigs, such as saguaro ribs or ocotillo branches, placed across vigas and upon which an earthen roof is applied in traditional Sonoran construction.

Majolica A ceramic glaze used on pottery and tile in which bright colors are applied to a white base coat. Frequently found at missions, majolica was manufactured and brought north from Mexico.

Mission A complex comprising a church, residence, and school for the purpose of converting the local population and administered by a resident priest.

Nave The nave is the main body of a church and extends from the entrance to the sanctuary. It is frequently oriented east-west and is where most people at a mission would have been standing during a mass.

Narthex Entrance foyer, separated from the main nave, where penitents and unbaptized stood to hear mass. In a mission context, this was the place that unbaptized people from the native community would have been.

Ornamented openings Common in Moorish architecture of Spain, the doorways and windows of the churches were often elaborately decorated. There is also evidence that the walls, both interior and exterior, were painted with vibrant colors.

Pimeria Alta When the Spanish first arrived in Southern Arizona, they called the O'odham Indians Pimas. This area of present-day southern Arizona and northern Sonora, Mexico, became known by the Jesuit order of Catholic missionaries as the Pimería Alta, and is still known by the same name today. The Spanish words Pima-ería alta mean "place of the upper Pimas" in English.

Portal(es) (Spanish) A doorway, gate, entrance hall, or colonnaded passageway.

Presidio (Spanish) A walled garrison containing living quarters and various types of buildings.

Pueblo (Spanish) A settlement, town, or people;may refer to both traditional Native American communities and Spanish Colonial new towns.

Ramada (Spanish) A post-and-beam shade structure open on all four sides and covered with lightweight brush and sometimes mud.

Ranchería (Spanish) An Indian settlement where dwellings are not permanent and are scattered some distance from each other.

Rancho (Spanish) A location where herding, animal husbandry, and ranching took place using the domesticated animals introduced by the mission priests. Ranchos could belong to a family or to a mission. In the case of San Antonio missions, the ranchos were originally nearby the missions, but the herds of cattle became so large that they interfered with farming. The herds of each mission were moved to ranchos to graze 25 miles to the south.

Reducción (Spanish) Spanish strategy of concentrating, stabilizing, and controlling native populations through missions.

Retablo (Spanish) A decorative structure of wood or plaster behind or above an altar in Spanish Colonial churches whose purpose was to form a frame for holy statues and paintings of religious figures;often elaborately painted in rich colors and gold leaf.

Sacristy Area adjacent to the main church space where the materials for mass were prepared.

Secularization The process under which the Mexican government removed the mission lands from the jurisdiction of the Franciscans (who were replaced by secular priests) and half the mission land was theoretically turned over to the Indians. The bylaws for secularization were enacted by the Mexican Congress in 1828, ratified in 1833 and fully enforced in 1834.

Tabla (Spanish) Segment of land for planting herbage.

Torreón (Spanish) Fortified tower, occasionally built at missions for defense. Example-- San José de Aguayo.

Transept The section of a cruciform church whose axis crosses that of the nave;sometimes thought of as the "arms" in the figure of a Latin cross. Examples-- Mission San José de Aguayo, Quarai, and Abó.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo The 1848 agreement between Mexico and the United States that ended the Mexican War, and ceded 58 percent of Mexican territory, including Alta California, to the United States.

Tribe A society consisting of several communities united by kinship, culture, language and other social institutions.

Vaqueros (Spanish) Native cowboys who cared for the livestock at the mission at the ranchos

Viga(s) (Spanish) Round or rectangular wooden beams used to support a flat roof;sometimes projecting beyond the supporting walls and thus exposed on the exterior.

Visita (Spanish) A secondary mission complex;similar to a mission but without a resident priest. Visitas were generally smaller communities, but their status often changed through time. MissionTumacacori, for example, was a visita and later replaced Guevavi as cabecera when the Franciscans took over the administration.

Wattle-and-daub An infilled wall in a post-and-beam structure made of a weave of plant material (wattle) with mud filling in the small holes and forming an exterior plaster (daub).

Zaguán (Spanish, from Arabic) A covered entrance hall leading from the street into a courtyard;eventually such halls were enclosed, creating a spacious semi-public room from which other rooms were entered.

Zanja (Spanish) Name for ditch used for irrigation. Examples—San José de Tumacacori.

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