The front of the church was originally painted with bright colors. The columns were painted red and the Egyptian-style capitals yellow with black markings. The statue niches were blue. You can still see the round and square holes where scaffolding was built into the walls during construction.
Spanish maestros de obra used architectural traditions from across the globe. The capitals at the tops of the columns are Egyptian in style. The plastered arch design over the front door is Roman. The pointed tops on the statue niches on the second level come from the Moorish influence of the middle east and northern Africa. Even the bell tower niche scallop shell motif, a nod to Spain’s patron saint, has Roman origins. Spain’s influences made their way to Tumacácori in color, as well. The columns on the front of the church were painted red, the capitals yellow with black markings. Statues stood against a blue background in their niches. The plaster of the doorway was carved and painted to resemble blocks of orange marble. You can still see original paint in the doorway and under the cornice below the window. The monumental building with its bright color scheme and decorative elements would have been unlike anything in O’odham tradition. Previously, natural features like springs and mountains provided a community’s identity and place name. But after the O’odham labored for more than twenty years to build this new face for their village, it became a landscape feature itself, and a symbol for Tumacácori’s complex story.
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Self-guided tour - Nave
The people stood or knelt during services. There are no side chapels. The church is in the form of a long hall, rather than a cross. Lining the walls are four side altars where people lit candles and said prayers to statues of saints in the niches above.
The church was abandoned in 1848. The roof was soon removed and local settlers used the timbers for construction elsewhere, leaving the church exposed to the elements for nearly seventy years.
Step through the arched entryway and into the remains of an impressive nave, the central hall of the church. In this room, indigenous people and Spanish settlers prayed and celebrated the Mass each day. There were no pews. People knelt or stood during services. Along the walls are four side altars where devotional candles might be placed. In the walls above are niches where ornate statues of saints once stood.
Along the interior walls, weathering has exposed the sun-dried adobe bricks made by mission residents. The once brightly-painted walls were decorated by the steady hands of artisans both indigenous and Spanish.
With the rising sun, families and individuals living in the mission would make their way to the nave to gather and start the day. It is likely that men and women were separated by sex, as was the colonial manner. Here, indigenous people learned and practiced new religious traditions in new languages. They adopted new deities and established a new worldview under the direction of the padres. In this space, there were tears, both happy and sad. There was loss, celebration, learning, and change.
Shortly after the residents left in 1848, the roof timbers were taken by local settlers for construction elsewhere. For the next seventy years, the nave was exposed and heavily damaged by weather. Looters, seeking Jesuit treasure that never existed, dug holes in the walls and floors.
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Self-guided tour - Baptistry
Baptisms were performed for babies, children, and adults in this room. Adobe walls, nine feet thick with an inner rock core, support the massive bell tower above you. The stairway leads up to the robing room and the entrance to the choir loft, then on up to the roof and the bells.
To the right of the church entrance is a small room where baptisms were performed. The room is composed of sun-dried adobe walls, nine feet thick with an inner rock core, which support the bell tower above. The stairway (inaccessible to visitors for reasons of safety) leads to the choir loft, the robing room, and beyond to the bell tower and roof.
Baptism was the first major sacrament undertaken by mission residents. Adults participated in religious instruction in order to learn about the doctrine of the Catholic church. Infants were baptized by padres with the permission and presence of the parents. All newly baptized individuals were given at least one godmother or godfather whose job it was to provide spiritual support. In the baptistry, the Catholic religion officially became a part of the lives of community members.
How did the new converts undergoing baptism feel? Were they apprehensive? Proud? Would they have to give up their traditional beliefs, or could they practice all of their spiritual beliefs simultaneously? We may never know. One thing is certain, though, this room was a space of transition and change.
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Self-guided tour - Choir Loft
The community at Tumacácori might have supported a dozen singers and musicians playing instruments such as trumpet, oboe, bassoon, flute, and zither (guitar). Singers and musicians memorized up to twenty-five songs in Latin, Spanish, and O’odham for Masses and other religious rituals.
Facing the front door of the church, you can see where the choir loft once stood. Notice the entrance to the balcony high on the left wall, and the ruined bases of the two pillars that supported the arch below it.
Music played an important role in mission life, as it always had in the lives of the O’odham and Yoeme. Tumacácori likely supported anywhere from eight to ten choir members, both men and women, at a given time. There were also musicians who played instruments such as oboe, flute, and zither (guitar), adding flourish to the sound of the Masses and other religious ceremonies held here.
Singers needed to memorize up to twenty-five songs for the community’s Masses, services, and processions. Despite the fact that few could read or write, they learned and performed hymns and kyries in Latin, Greek, Spanish, and O’odham.
You are welcome to sing a few bars of your favorite song here. The excellent acoustics of the building are no accident—the sound, along with the height, color, and beauty of the space, were designed to inspire feelings of awe, and a sense of power and majesty.
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Self-guided tour - Bell Tower
The bell tower was built in three stories: on the ground floor lies the baptistry, on the second level the preparation room for the choir, and on the third level the arches and bells. The scallop shell niches harken to Saint James, Santiago de Compostela, the patron saint of Spain, and indicate a baptistry below.
The bell tower was built in three stories: on the ground floor lies the baptistry, on the second level the preparation room for the choir, and on the third level the arches and bells. The scallop shell niches harken to Saint James, Santiago de Compostela, the patron saint of Spain, and indicate a baptistry below.
A bell hung under each of the four arches. With imagination, you can see young O’odham boys and girls standing on the ground below, pulling on ropes dangling from the tower, signaling for Mass to begin. Forty-niners, en route to the California gold rush, recalled the haunting sound of the bells ringing through the river valley as they approached. The whereabouts of those original bells remains a mystery. They have since been replaced.
The bells rang many times each day, instructing mission residents when to eat, work, and pray. Yet the tower was never completed; round holes mark where construction scaffolding still supported the work in progress. Although the bell tower appears to be in ruin, it has changed little since the last residents left in 1848. The fired bricks of the bell arches never received their finishing coats of plaster. And whether a dome was intended to sit atop the tower we may never know.
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Self-guided tour - Sanctuary
The sanctuary, protected by an adobe domed ceiling, is still adorned with remnants of original paint, picture frames, and stenciling. Here the priest, dressed in bright-colored vestments, celebrated the Mass. The service was called the Misa Mayor (High Mass). It was nearly all sung in Latin by the priest and choir, facing the altar.
The sanctuary, still adorned with remnants of the original paints and flourishes, picture frames, and stenciling, can be seen as the heart of the church. Here, the priest, dressed in brightly-colored vestments, led the Mass. During the most sacred parts of the ceremony, he sang the words facing toward the altar, his back to the congregation. Scriptures were read from the pulpit, reconstructed on the east wall beside the sanctuary. The service was conducted in a combination of Latin, Spanish, and O’odham. Standing under the high dome, you might imagine the brightly painted decorations on the walls and ceilings, flickering candles, the congregants kneeling in the nave, the sound of chants, prayers, and song reverberating through the room. The combination of these things was meant to create a mental distance from the day’s hard work happening just outside the doors.
The O’odham and Yoeme people of the mission might have found the rituals of the Mass strange upon first introduction to the Catholic faith. The practice of kneeling, standing, and then kneeling again, during a ceremony conducted in primarily foreign tongues, was no doubt confusing for some. Eventually, however, these strange customs became familiar and blended with the spiritual and religious beliefs of the indigenous communities. Today, many O’odham and Yoeme people practice this uniquely intertwined religious tradition.
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Self-guided tour - Sacristy
Priests kept the clothing and articles used in the performance of their duties here. In the sacristy they documented and stored the records of important events, signing their names as witness to marriages, births, and deaths. After the mission was abandoned, travellers, soldiers, and cowboys spent nights here, lit fires, and recorded their stay.
The sacristy served as the priest’s office. It housed the holy vestments and other objects for Mass. A priest would spend many hours working by candlelight in this room, documenting the important events of the day such as baptisms, marriages, and deaths. The mission records are a treasure trove of information but require some skill to interpret. They were handwritten with quill pen in now-antique Spanish. Personal details, especially from the perspective of women, O’odham, Yoeme, and Nde community members, are difficult to extract.
After the mission residents left Tumacácori for the last time in 1848, the church became a refuge and the sacristy its primary lodging. The protection of its thick walls offered welcome shelter for gold-seekers on their way to California, and for Mexican and U.S. soldiers and cowboys. These tired travelers recorded their stays not in mission record books, but on the walls. The darkened ceiling and many names are proof of the numerous fires made, dinners cooked, and stories told in this space.
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Self-guided tour - Jesuit church footprint
The outline here marks the footprint of a church dating back to spring 1753. Jesuit priests used this small church until their expulsion in July 1767. A year later, Franciscans arrived to care for the mission. They continued to use this building until the new, larger church was ready for use in 1822.
Padre Eusebio Francisco Kino first celebrated Mass at Tumacácori in 1691 under a ramada (shade structure) built by the O’odham who were living here. At that time, the village was located on the other side of the Santa Cruz River. Although he chose Guevavi to be the cabecera (headquarters) where the priest would live, he and other priests continued to visit Tumacácori, sing the Mass, and tend to mission business. There is no record of an adobe church having been built while the village was on the east side of the river. In November of 1751, a group of O’odham led by Captain General Luis Oacpicagigua (“Ahk-pee- ah-CUK-ya”) rebelled against the Spanish and Yoeme who had moved into their land. The resulting conflict caused the abandonment of mission communities for over a year. The Spanish began construction of a presidio, a military outpost, at Tubac. When everyone returned, the village of Tumacácori was moved to the present location nearer to and on the same side of the river as the new presidio. The outline that you see before you marks the footprint of the community’s first church, begun in the spring of 1753. The date of its completion is uncertain, but it is known to have been in use by the summer of 1757. This small church remained under the management of Jesuit priests until they were expelled in 1767. A year later the Franciscans arrived to carry on the mission project in the Pimería Alta. They continued to use this building until the new church was ready for use in 1822.
