Juan Crespí

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Cenotaph of St. Junípero Serra in the Mission of San Carlos Borromeo in Carmel-by-the-Sea (1924): the saint reclining, Juan Crespí praying by his head

Juan Crespí (Catalan also Joan Crespí , born March 1, 1721 in Palma , † January 1, 1782 in Carmel-by-the-Sea ) was a Spanish Franciscan and missionary .

Life

Juan Crespí entered the Franciscan Order at the age of 17. He studied philosophy and theology in the Sant Francesc convent in his hometown. There he met two of his later companions: Junípero Serra OFM was his teacher, Francisco Palou OFM was his fellow student. In 1749 Fathers Serra, Palou and Crespí were sent to the mission in New Spain . Crespí worked mainly among the Pame in the Sierra Gorda in Querétaro , including eight years in the Santiago de Jalpan mission . After the Spanish King Charles III. 1767 had the Jesuits expelled from their missions in Baja California ( Baja California ), the Fathers Serra, Palou, Crespí and 13 other Franciscans went to Baja California the following year to continue the missionary work of the Jesuits. Crespí became head of the Purísima Concepción Mission in Cadegomó .

Just a year later, in 1769, Spanish soldiers led by Gaspar de Portolà and a group of Franciscan missionaries set out to explore Alta California (Upper California) from Baja California . Crespí was one of those who took the land route. In May they reached what is now San Diego and founded Mission S to Diego de Alcalá , which became the starting point for the following expeditions to the still little-known northern part of California.

  • The first expedition that Crespí took part in left San Diego in July 1769 and reached San Francisco Bay in October .
  • On a second expedition, Serra and Crespí explored the Bay of Monterey and its hinterland in 1770 and 1771 .
  • Crespí undertook the third expedition in 1772 with Pedro Fages, the commander ( Gobernador militar ) of the "California Nueva" (New California), which had just passed through and was yet to be developed, through the areas east of the Bay of San Francisco and up the lower reaches of the Sacramento River .
  • On his fourth expedition in 1774, Crespí accompanied the explorer Juan José Pérez Hernández by ship . They reached beyond what is now Vancouver to Langara Island in the Queen Charlotte Islands archipelago .

As much as Crespí's name is linked to exploring California, he saw himself primarily as a missionary. From 1772 he worked in the San Diego Mission, then in Monterey. In 1777 he visited with Serra some of the new missions that have emerged in recent years. He spent his last years of life and mission in the Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo , where he died on January 1, 1782.

Juan Crespí as a chronicler

Because he was the only one of the Franciscans who had made all journeys (except for the one in 1774) by land and therefore experienced and seen most of them, Crespí was officially appointed "First Chronicler " of the Spanish missionaries in California . Mile by mile, place by place, he recorded the course of the expeditions. He made notes on the way of life of the indigenous people they encountered, the flora and fauna, the landforms and possible locations for future missions. He named Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles (“Our Lady, Queen of Angels”) one of the places suitable for setting up a mission . The name of today's big city Los Angeles goes back to this naming .

With regard to his scientific knowledge, Crespí was considered the most learned among his confreres and as the most skilful in terms of the land survey and its mapping.

Editions of the diaries and other writings

in order of appearance

In the Spanish original

  • Salustiano Vicedo: El mallorquín fray Juan Crespí, OFM Misionero y explorador. Sus diarios (= Franciscanos en el Nuevo Mundo. Constructores de la paz , Vol. 14). Unión Misional Franciscana, Valencia 1994, ISBN 84-604-9589-2 .
  • Leticia Landín, Max Calvillo (eds.): Fray Junípero Serra, civilizador de las Californias. Diarios de fray Junípero Serra y fray Juan Crespí (= Colección Baja California, nuestra historia , vol. 20). Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas, Tijuana 2007, ISBN 978-970-735-057-1 .
  • Ángel Luis Encinas Moral, Teófilo Ruiz (ed.): Diario de la expedición de Fray Junípero Serra desde la misión de Loreto a San Diego in 1769 . Miraguano ediciones, Madrid 2011, ISBN 978-84-7813-382-6 .

Translations

  • Herbert Eugene Bolton: Fray Juan Crespi, missionary explorer on the Pacific coast, 1769–1774 . Berkeley 1927.
  • Noticias of the port of San Francisco in letters of Miguel Costanso, Fray Juan Crespi and Fray Francisco Palou in the year 1772 , translated by Edward E. Ayer. Windsor Press, San Francisco 1940.
  • Maximin Piette (ed.): An unpublished diary of Fray Juan Crespi, OFM San Diego to Monterey, April 17 to November 11, 1770 . In: The Americas. A quarterly review of Latin American history , Vol. 3 (1946/1947), No. 1 (July 1946), pp. 102-114, No. 2 (October 1946), pp. 234-243 and No. 3 (January 1947), pp. 368-381.
  • A Description of Distant Roads. Original Journals of the First Expedition into California, 1769–1770 , translated and edited by Alan K. Brown. San Diego State University Press, San Diego 2001, ISBN 1-879691-64-7 .

literature

in order of appearance

  • Alan K. Brown: The Various Journals of Juan Crespi . In: The Americas. A quarterly review of Latin American history , Vol. 21, No. 4 (1965), pp. 375-398.
  • Raymund Francis Wood: Juan Crespí, the man who named Los Angeles . In: Southern Southern California Quarterly , published by the Historical Society of Southern California, Vol. 53 (1971), Issue 3: Mission San Gabriel Arcángel 1771-1971 , pp. 199-234.
  • Bartomeu Font Obrador: Joan Crespí. Explorador i cronista franciscà a l'Alta California (= Biografies de mallorquins , vol. 19). Ajuntament de Palma, Palma de Mallorca 1994.
  • John Bankston: Fray Juan Crespi ( Latinos in American history series ). Mitchell Lane Publishers, Hockessin 2004, ISBN 1-58415-198-6 .
  • Joan-Antoni Adrover i Mascaró: 600 questions about Mallorca . Hoopoe travel guide, Campos 2010, ISBN 978-84-614-1808-4 , p. 159.

Footnotes

  1. ^ Herbert Eugene Bolton: Fray Juan Crespi, missionary explorer on the Pacific coast, 1769–1774 . Berkeley 1927, p. XIII.
  2. ↑ Martha Ortega Soto: Colonización de Alta California: primeros asentamientos españoles . In: Signos históricos (Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Ciudad de México), Vol. 1 (1999), Issue 1, pp. 85-103, here p. 96.
  3. ^ Iñigo Abbad y Lasierra: Descripción de las costas de California , edited by Sylvia L. Hilton (= Colección Tierra nueva e cielo nuevo , vol. 3). Instituto Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo, Madrid 1981, ISBN 84-00-04991-8 , pp. 33-35.
  4. ^ Herbert Eugene Bolton: Fray Juan Crespi, missionary explorer on the Pacific coast, 1769–1774 . Berkeley 1927, pp. XXXI.
  5. ↑ Joshua Paddison: A Transformed world. Firsthand accounts of California before the Gold Rush . Heyday Books, Berkeley 1999, ISBN 1-89077-113-9 , p. 6.
  6. ^ Herbert Eugene Bolton: Fray Juan Crespi, missionary explorer on the Pacific coast, 1769–1774 . Berkeley 1927, pp. XLII-LIX.
  7. ^ Herbert Eugene Bolton: Fray Juan Crespi, missionary explorer on the Pacific coast, 1769–1774 . Berkeley 1927, p. XV.
  8. ^ Lorenzo Galmés Más: Fray Junípero Serra. Apóstol de California . Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, Madrid 1988, ISBN 84-220-1312-6 , p. 163.
  9. ↑ Mariano Gutiérrez Salazar: Fr. Junípero Serra ( Colección Evangelizadores de América , Vol. 6). Ediciones Tripode, Caracas 1985, ISBN 980-208-011-X , p. 71.
  10. ^ Herbert Eugene Bolton: Fray Juan Crespi, missionary explorer on the Pacific coast, 1769–1774 . Berkeley 1927, pp. XVI-XVII.
  11. ↑ David Rex Galindo: Franciscanos e indios en la alta California española, 1769-1822 . In: Espacio, Tiempo y Forma , Series IV: Historia Moderna , vol. 20 (2007), pp. 157–170, here p. 161.
  12. ↑ Raymund F. Wood: Juan Crespí, the man who named Los Angeles . In: Southern Southern California Quarterly , vol. 53 (1971), volume 3: Mission San Gabriel Arcángel 1771–1971 , pp. 199–234.
  13. ^ Francisco Palou: Junípero Serra y las misiones de California , edited by José Luis Anta Félez (= Crónicas de América , vol. 44). Dastin, Madrid 1988, ISBN 84-7679-115-1 , p. 5.

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Commons : Juan Crespí  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Crespí, Juan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Crespí, Joan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish missionary
DATE OF BIRTH March 1, 1721
PLACE OF BIRTH Palma
DATE OF DEATH January 1, 1782
Place of death Carmel-by-the-Sea