Visita

Visitas or asistencias were smaller sub-missions of Catholic missions established during the 16th-19th centuries of the Spanish colonization of the Americas and the Philippines. They allowed the Catholic church and the Spanish crown to extend their reach into native populations at a modest cost.

Description

Visitas served missions and were much smaller than the main missions with living quarters, workshops and crops in addition to a church. They were typically staffed with a small group of clergymen and a relatively small group of indigenous neophytes in order to maintain the complex.

Particularly strategic visitas were later elevated to the status of a full mission. This typically included an expansion of existing facilities to support a larger clergy and indigenous neophyte population, improvement of basic infrastructure such as roads, and rechristening under a new Catholic saint.

In Spanish Florida, ''visitas'' were mission stations without a resident missionary. Church buildings at ''visitas'' were simple, or sometimes absent. ''Visitas'' were often in satellite villages associated with a town with a ''doctrina'' (a mission with one or more resident missionaries).

History

The first visita that was founded and documented seems to be a visita established in the village of Soloy (in modern day Florida). Pedro Menéndez de Avilés designated it to become a blockhouse in 1567, but it became a visita to Mission Nombre de Dios in the beginning of the 1600s.

More visitas were established in Spanish Florida during the early 1600s, but the only ones that seem to have been documented were four visitas to Mission San Pedro de Mocama and nine visitas to Mission San Juan del Puerto.

During the early 1600s, visitas were founded in present day New Mexico and Sonora. Almost a century and a half later, the third and final visita in New Mexico was established, Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Pojoaque.

The last visita to be founded in Sonora was San Valentin de Bisanig (later renamed San Juan Bisaning) in 1706. Missions stopped being founded after 1772, when Father Juan Crisóstomo Gil de Bernabé founded the mission Carrizal (also known as Carrizel) and was martyred the year later, on March (6, 8, or 9). Father Antonio Caxa designated March 8, 1774 as the day to honor Bernabé.

Starting in 1684 with the founding of Mission San Bruno in Baja California Sur by Spanish admiral Isidro de Atondo y Antillón and Father Eusebio Kino, missions started to be founded in Baja California and Baja California Sur, along with visitas.

The first visita founded there was San Juan Bautista Londó in 1699, which served Mission Nuestra Señora de Loreto Conchó. The final visita in Baja California and Baja California Sur was established in 1798 as San Telmo, which served Mission Santo Domingo de la Frontera.

In 1687, Father Eusebio Kino started to establish missions in Pimería Alta, as well as visitas. In what is modern day Arizona, he established visitas at Huachuca, Quiburi, and Santa Cruz, as well as one called San Ignacio de Sonoitac. Sonoitac was originally just a ranchería which was said to have a bigger population than the Guevavi, Tumacácori, and Calabazas settlements. A church was built, it became a visita, and it was named San Ignacio de Sonoitac after or around 1737.

In 1692, San Agustín del Tucson was established by Kino as a visita to Mission San Xavier del Bac, but became a mission in 1768 as Mission San Cosme y Damián de Tucsón.

In 1749 and 1750, along the Lower Rio Grande Valley, there was a large colonization effort, mainly led by José de Escandón. The towns of Reynosa, Camargo, Mier, an
Guerrero
were established in present-day Mexico, along with missions. However, the visitas that were built to serve those missions were established in present-day Texas, technically making them the only visitas established within its current boundaries.

The mission system in California started with the founding of Mission San Diego de Alcala in 1769 by Father Junipero Serra. The first asistencia in California, Santa Paula, was founded around 1782 to Mission San Buenaventura. More asistencias were established to 6 out of the 21 missions in California.

America

The following are lists of visitas in America, sorted by year of establishment.

California

Arizona

New Mexico

Texas

Spanish Florida

Mexico

The following are lists of visitas in Mexico, sorted by year of establishment.

Baja California

Baja California Sur

Sonora

See also

* Estancia – Spanish colonial ranch
* Reductions

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Asistencias In California
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