In the 1690s, Father Kino described Tucson as a highly suitable place to
establish a mission community. Once founded, Mission San Agustin del Tucson became a
visit a of the neighboring Mission San Xavier del Bac, which served as the cabecera.
After Mexico gained its independence from Spain in 1821, the nearby Pima village of El
Pueblito was abandoned, and the mission fell into ruin as the church property was
homesteaded, given away, or sold. Physical evidence of the mission, including a convento
and gardens, was further compromised after a brick manufacturing plant and, later, a
landfill took their toll on the archaeological record. By the middle of the twentieth
century, the last evidence of the mission era was destroyed. Mission San Agustin can be
interpreted as an example of colonial failure that does not conform to traditional culture
contact models of a unilinear sequence from diffusion to acculturation and, ultimately, to
assimilation. San Agustin was for a short period a thriving, productive, complex mission
community that overshadowed its neighboring cabecera, San Xavier del Bac. Using a
historical archaeological approach, this paper describes the cultural context in which
Tucson's mission was constructed, abandoned, fell into ruin, and disappeared. Major
historical events and processes are suggested as possible causes for this failure.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/620721 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Young, Monica Zappia, Young, Monica Zappia |
| Contributors | Reid, J. Jefferson |
| Publisher | The University of Arizona. |
| Source Sets | University of Arizona |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text, Thesis-Reproduction (electronic) |
| Rights | Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. |
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