Gerónimo Boscana
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Gerónimo Boscana (Jerónimo Boscana) was an early 19th-century
Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...
missionary in Spanish
Las Californias The Californias (), occasionally known as the Three Californias or the Two Californias, are a region of North America spanning the United States and Mexico, consisting of the U.S. state of California and the Mexican states of Baja California an ...
and Mexican
Alta California Alta California (, ), also known as Nueva California () among other names, was a province of New Spain formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but was made a separat ...
. He is noted for producing the most detailed ethnographic picture of a
Native Californian Indigenous peoples of California, commonly known as Indigenous Californians or Native Californians, are a diverse group of nations and peoples that are indigenous to the geographic area within the current boundaries of California before and afte ...
culture to come out of the missionary period, an account that "for his time and profession, is liberal and enlightened" (Kroeber 1959:282).


Life

Born at
Llucmajor Llucmajor (; ) is the largest municipality (in terms of surface area) of the Balearic Island of Mallorca. There are sixteen urban settlements in the municipality, including the town of Llucmajor and the coastal areas of s'Arenal, Cala Blava ...
on the island of
Mallorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest of the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain, and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, seventh largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. The capital of the island, Palma, Majorca, Palma, i ...
,
Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
in 1775 (Geiger 1969:29). Boscana was educated at Palma, joined the Franciscan order in 1792, and was ordained in 1799. He traveled to New Spain in 1803 and to Alta California in 1806. He served at the missions of Soledad, La Purísima, San Luis Rey, and San Gabriel. For more than a decade, from 1814 to 1826, he was stationed at
Mission San Juan Capistrano Mission San Juan Capistrano () is a Spanish missions in California, Spanish mission in San Juan Capistrano, California, San Juan Capistrano, Orange County, California, Orange County, California. Founded November 1, 1776 in colonial ''The Califo ...
. He died at Mission San Gabriel in 1831, and is the only missionary to be interred in its cemetery among over 2,000 other mission inhabitants, mainly Gabrielino or Tongva Indians, buried there.


Ethnographic studies

Boscana's first
ethnographic Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. It explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Ethnography is also a type of social research that involves examining ...
contribution resulted from an 1812 questionnaire sent by the Spanish government in Cádiz to the missionaries of Alta California (Geiger and Meighan 1976). The task of helping his colleague,
José Barona Father José Barona, O.F.M. was a Catholic priest of the Franciscan Order, and a Spanish missionary in California during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Born in July, 1764 at Villanueva del Conde, in the archdiocese of Burgos, Old Casti ...
, to prepare a response in 1814 on behalf of Mission San Juan Capistrano may have stimulated the missionary's interest in the native culture. While at San Juan Capistrano, Boscana composed at least two versions of a detailed ethnographic sketch of the Juaneño or Acagchemem Native Americans, who were primarily speakers of a dialect of the
Luiseño language The Luiseño language is a Uto-Aztecan language of California spoken by the Luiseño, a Native Americans in the United States, Native American people who at the time of first contact with the Spanish in the 16th century inhabited the coastal ar ...
but probably also included Gabrieliño or Tongva speakers from the north. A translation of one version of Boscana's manuscript, "Chinigchinich; a Historical Account of the Origin, Customs, and Traditions of the Indians at the Missionary Establishment of St. Juan Capistrano, Alta California Called The Acagchemem Nation," was published by Alfred Robinson in 1846 as an appendix to his book ''Life in California''. Robinson was apparently responsible for giving the title " Chinigchinix (Chinigchinich)" to Boscana's work. An edition of this version with extensive annotations by the anthropologist and linguist
John Peabody Harrington John Peabody Harrington (April 29, 1884 – October 21, 1961) was an American linguist and ethnologist and a specialist in the indigenous peoples of California. Harrington is noted for the massive volume of his documentary output, most of whic ...
was published in 1933. The following year, Harrington published a translation of another, variant version of Boscana's account, newly discovered in France and entitled "Relación histórica de la creencia, usos, costumbres, y extravagancias de los indios de esta Misión de San Juan Capistrano llamada la nación Acagchemem" (Harrington 1934). This version was subsequently also published in its original Spanish by Henry and Paula Reichlen in 1971. It seems to have been an earlier draft of the manuscript published by Robinson, but it contains some material not included in the later version. Portions of a still earlier draft made by Boscana, with some additional ethnographic information, have also been discovered by John R. Johnson in 2006.Johnson, John R. 2006. "The Various Chinigchinich Manuscripts of Father Gerónimo Boscana." In ''San Diego, Alta California, and the Borderlands: Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Conference of the California Mission Studies Association, Mission San Diego de Alcala, February 18–20, 2006,'' edited by Rose Marie Beebe. Bakersfield, California: California Mission Studies Association.


References

---- {{DEFAULTSORT:Boscana, Geronimo Native American history of California 1776 births 1831 deaths People from Mallorca Roman Catholic missionaries in Mexico Spanish Franciscans Religious workers from California Priests of the Spanish missions in California Spanish Roman Catholic missionaries 19th-century Spanish people Llucmajor Franciscan missionaries in New Spain Spanish expatriates in Mexico