The city of Tucson, the desert metropolis of southern Arizona, has sprawled through the scorched earth and dry beds of the old Santa Cruz River to become the state’s second largest city. U.S. Customs and Border Protection maintains a visible presence in the city, which lies fewer than 100 kilometers from the binational city of Nogales along the U.S.-Mexico Border. And yes, kilometers are the chosen measurement for this stretch of highway, the result of a 1970s experiment that was never undone.
But the metric system is far from the only incongruous feature of the region’s culture. Lest Americans forget one of the United States’ final territorial acquisitions, southern Arizona continues to share many ties with the Mexican state of Sonora to the south, from which it only split following the 1853 Gadsden purchase. Prior to that time, citizens of the area were citizens of the newly independent nation of Mexico, and its Catholics were ministered to by the Diocese of Sonora.
It was also from that direction that missionaries first approached the American Southwest; one particular priest, Fr. Eusebio Kino, was an Italian-born Jesuit sent to New Spain in 1682. By the end of the decade, he had drawn the first reliable maps proving that California was not an island, had met with over a dozen Native American tribes, and had begun establishing missions in the Pimeria Alta area, where he would continue his work until death.
One need only visit the area to understand the magnitude of the impact he had on the region: drive on Kino Parkway past Tucson’s Kino Sports Complex, golf at the Kino Springs golf resort, or join the annual cross-border pilgrimage to Magdalena de Kino, the site of his burial. However, the legacy of Fr. Kino remains far more visible in the mission churches that remain standing today.
In what is today Arizona, Fr. Kino first founded Mission San José de Tumacácori in 1691. The foundation still projects from the ground, and the primary structure is a later construction from the Mission’s period of Franciscan occupation. Immediately surrounding the major building are the cemetery (with only one marked grave), the old Jesuit church and its convento, and a circular funerary chapel. A reconstructed Melhok Ki, a sod structure with a thatched roof, resembles the traditional homes of the Tohono O’odham who once populated the area. The Church, its interior stripped of decoration, was left abandoned from 1848 to 1908, before Theodore Roosevelt declared it a national monument.
Further north is the Mission San Xavier del Bac, located on a Native American Reservation just south of Tucson, a pilgrimage site containing the best-preserved example of Mexican Baroque architecture in the United States. Its 52-foot tall dome is supported by squinches, hollow pockets that create a floating effect. The church standing today was constructed under the Fransiscans, who assumed responsibility for the parish after the Jesuits were banned from Spanish America under Charles III in 1767. Alongside the Fransiscans, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet have run a school for the local children since 1872 from adjoining buildings.
Adorning the interior are brightly painted and gilded motifs, a mixture of Spanish and indigenous stylistic influences evident in their design. Hundreds of angels, more than 50 saints and dozens of depictions of Mary, sculptural and painted, fill every niche. These decorations were thoroughly restored in the 1990s. Lining the whole of the walls are vibrant geometric patterns contained by Fransiscan ropes carved in wood, evidence of the aesthetically diverse influences of the Spanish and O’odham populations residing at the Mission.
On October 4 of every year, the Camino de Kino pilgrimage walks the 100 kilometers from San Xavier del Bac to Magdalena de Kino across the Mexican border. The pilgrimage is a physical demonstration of the borderless faith that Fr. Kino embodied, and reminds each participant of the equally great lengths crossed by the missionaries who formed the foundations of the American Southwest.
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