Mission San José de Tumacácori — Photo-Artistry by kenne
“People constantly change their story…
we are writing fictitious versions of our lives all the time,
contradictory but mutually entangling stories that,
however subtly or grossly falsified, constitute our hold on reality
and are the closest thing we have to truth.”
— from Counterlife by Philip Roth
Tumacácori (September 27, 2019)– Image by kenne
“As Jesuit Eusebio Francisco Kino and his party approached the O’odham (or Pima) settlement of Tumacácori in January 1691, they rode the wave of a century of expansion northward along New Spain’s west coast corridor. The Jesuits had performed tens of thousands of baptisms and also become the region’s most powerful social and economic force. But the tide carried them no farther north than the Pimería Alta, home of the upper Piman Indians.” — Read more . . .
Mission San José de Tumacácori Visitor Center Entrance — Photo-Artistry by kenne
Abandoned Bunkhouse Windowsill — Photo-Artistry by kenne
Windowsills hold many stories,
Some we may know, most go untold.
Hiking trails near the Rio Santa Curz,
A broken barbwire fence guarded
An old adobe structure in a grove
Of common mesquite trees
Whose shadows form a matrix
Across the wintering landscape
Adding to a scene locked in the past
Waiting to be unlocked in a story.
Now I must turn and go back
Following the footsteps of the Pima.
— kenne
San José de Tumacácori Mission Church Ruins — Image by kenne
Image by kenne
Even while I walk this ground
I imagine a time that was different
For brown people whose land was
Taken by people in long robes on horses
Who proselytized the native peoples
Building missions in the harsh desert.
Today, like most colonial missions
The ruins are preserved for tourists
Mostly old people, who walk the grounds
Near the Santa Cruz River
Learning about the Spanish conquest
What was, that is now no longer.
— kenne
Sobaipuri (a branch of the O’odham) Structures on the Grounds of the Mission San José de Tumacácori
— Image by kenne
“The importance of any story is what is it trying to teach you.
I’m O’odham, and I’ll always be O’odham, so these stories are a part of me.
If I choose not to value my own culture, then I would have a conflict with who I am.”
— Ron Geronimo, Tohono O’odham
A Panorama View Down Through Madera Canyon In The Santa Rita Mountains South of Tucson, Arizona.
(Note the light color of mining tailings surrounding ponded water.)
— Image by kenne
Hiking the de Anza Trail between Tubac and Tumacacori, Arizona, 20 miles north of Nogales, Sonora, Mexico — Images by kenne.
Ruins of the Franciscan church at Mission San José de Tumacácori — Images by kenne
Last Wednesday we went to Nogales, Sonora and Patagonia and Sonoita in southern Arizona. Along the way, we visited the Mission San José de Tumacácori. Father Eusebio Francisco Kino established the mission in January, 1692. Originally called San Cayetano de Tumacácori, the mission was established at an existing native O’odham or Sobaipuri settlement on the east side of the river. After the Pima rebellion of 1751, the mission was moved to the present site on the west side of the Santa Cruz river and renamed San José de Tumacácori. Preservation and stabilization efforts began in 1908 when the area was declared a National Monument by President Theodore Roosevelt and continue today.
kenne
(Click on any of the photo thumbnails to see large view.)
Becoming is Superior to Being 