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210 kilometers south of Los Angeles, San Diego is the southern end of a
nearly continuous urban agglomeration that extends from the Mexican
border to Santa Barbara, spanning nearly 400 kilometers of Southern
California coast. San Diego’s civic marketeers have a proclaimed it
“America’s finest city.” Although I’m naturally skeptical of any such
hyperbole, I will agree that San Diego is a fine place to visit (even if
the very high cost of housing makes it a less than fine place to live).
It has a mixture of historical and modern attractions in a relatively
compact area that’s easy to explore, along with the (usually) pleasant
weather for which Southern California is (not always justifiably)
famous. It’s also one of the most photogenic places I’ve visited.
The recorded history of San Diego (and of California) began on 28
September 1542, when Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo “discovered” San Diego Bay
during the first European expedition to California. The Kumeyaay Indians
had actually discovered it some 20,000 years before then, but as usual
that doesn’t count. Cabrillo anchored his ships off Point Loma, the
peninsula that forms the north entrance to San Diego Bay. The Cabrillo
National Monument at the end of the peninsula commemorates this event
with a life-size statue of the explorer. Like much of the San Diego
area, most of Point Loma is a “military reservation.” On the road to the
monument you’ll pass many locked gates, bunkers, barbed wire fences, and
a military cemetery. Once you reach the end of the road, you’ll get a
splendid aerial view that includes (on a clear day) the entire bay, most
of San Diego, and Mexican mountains stretching to the horizon.
The Old Point Loma Lighthouse, built in 1854, is a short walk from the
statue. I can only speculate that well-meaning United States Coastal
Survey officials somewhere on the East Coast looked at a map and
selected a site at the entrance to the bay without ever visiting it. If
they had spent any time in Southern California they would have known
that a “marine layer” of low clouds and fog frequently shrouds the
coast. 129 meters above sea level, the beacon was visible 40 kilometers
out to sea on a clear night. But it was completely invisible when the
fog rolled in. A much lower lighthouse replaced it in 1891, leaving the
old one for tourists. You can’t visit the new lighthouse, but you can
look down on it.
Cabrillo named the “very good enclosed port” he discovered San Miguel. We don’t call it that because sixty years later the Spanish king hired Sebastian Vizcaíno to map the California coast. Though specifically ordered not to change any existing names, Vizcaíno proceeded to rename everything Cabrillo discovered (and more) after the Catholic saints on whose feast days he arrived there. He got to San Diego on 10 November 1602, close enough to the feast day of Saint Didacus (Diego of Alcalá) on 12 November. Or perhaps he named it after his own flagship, the San Diego. Vizcaíno also named (or renamed) Santa Barbara, San Pedro, Catalina Island, Monterey, and numerous other places in California.
15th century Father Diego de San Nicolás del Puerto had a rather bizarre path to sainthood. He was renowned as a missionary and miracle-worker in Alcalá, Spain. Perhaps as a Divine reward for delivering a bumper crop of souls to the Church, his body miraculously avoided decomposition after he died. In 1562, Spanish King Philip II’s son was dying of a brain hemorrhage. When the physicians’ bloodletting didn’t help, the king’s priest decided to try alternative medicine. He fetched Diego’s century-old corpse and put it in the prince’s bed. By the next morning the prince had miraculously recovered. (Even more miraculously, he avoided death from fright or revulsion when he discovered the dead body in his bed.) Philip, an important political player in the election of Pope Gregory XIII, asked the Pope to declare Diego a saint. Gregory officially Latinized Diego’s name as Didacus, but Spanish-speakers call him San Diego.
A century and a half after Vizcaíno, both the Spanish king and
the Catholic Church turned their attention toward consolidating their
respective empires in California. The Church was represented by members
of the Franciscan Order of monks, led by Father Junípero Serra.
Their job was to turn the heathen Indians into faithful Catholics, and
to build missions from which the Church could assert its authority while
meeting the spiritual needs of a new flock. Given Didacus’ reputation
for converting heathens, it was surely appropriate that California’s
chain of 21 missions would begin in San Diego.
Serra founded the original Mission San Diego de Alcalá in 1769,
the first European settlement in California. Its location on a hill was
a bad choice. It lacked water for crops, and was far from the villages
of the Indians it was supposed to “serve.” After five years the
Franciscans moved the mission to its current location 10 kilometers
inland, near the San Diego river and Indian villages in what is today
called Mission Valley. Nonetheless, some Indians did not appreciate the
Spanish conscripting them as slave laborers, abolishing their culture,
and decimating them with European diseases. The resulting riots burned
down the mission in 1775, and blessed California with its first
Christian martyrs. Other missions would have similar troubles with
Indians who lacked proper gratitude for the gifts of civilization and
salvation the Franciscans so generously offered them.
Like most of the California missions, Mission Basilica San Diego de
Alcalá suffered wear and neglect during the transition from
Spain to Mexico to the United States. The current building is the fifth
church on the site, reconstructed in 1931. It’s an active parish church,
as well as the destination of field trips for herds of nine-year-old
school children.
The “social studies” curriculum for the state’s fourth graders has long
focused on California history, including when feasible a visit to the
nearest mission. Since that’s the only time it’s taught, the educational
system has effectively ensured adult Californians’ complete ignorance of
state history. Those who move to California after age nine miss it;
everyone else will surely forget all of it before high school.
Next to the church, at the back of the campanile (bell tower), is a
little courtyard with a quiet garden.
The 18th century Mission has a 20th century counterpart in the Mormon
Temple, consecrated in 1993. Its gleaming white spires are visible to
everyone who drives along Interstate 5, the main north-south freeway in
San Diego. The design may evoke science fiction movies, but it has
mysterious spiritual significance for Mormons.
Unlike the Mission, the Temple is open only to faithful members of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints who bear the requisite
credentials. Inside, they perform weddings, baptisms, and secretive
“temple ordinances” that include ceremonies to retroactively convert
dead relatives for a proper afterlife (hence the Mormon obsession with
genealogy). But anyone is welcome to visit the Temple grounds and see
the architecture and gardens, for the price of listening to friendly
Church members explain their beliefs.
Old Town San Diego State Historic Park provides an idea of what San
Diego looked like after Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1822.
Wealthy families started building their versions of mansions out of
adobe below the hill where Junípero Serra had built the original
mission. California became American territory in 1848, which coincided
with the discovery of gold in northern California. San Diego was an
important stopping point for prospective prospectors on their long trip
from the East Coast around South America. With the end of gold rush, and
after a disastrous fire in 1872, Old Town was abandoned in favor of a
new waterfront development that is now Downtown.
Heir to a sugar fortune, John Spreckels enjoyed a sweet life as a
real estate, railroad, and newspaper magnate. Old Town first attracted
his interest in 1907. He bought the ruins of Casa de Estudillo, an adobe
from 1827, and began restoring it. The automobile brought tourists, and
by the 1930s enough buildings had been reconstructed to form a “Spanish
village.” In 1968 the state took over the complex as Old Town San Diego
State Historic Park.
The reconstructed buildings set around a typically Mexican plaza include
mock-ups of 19th century business, museum displays, and shops, some of
which sell recreations of 19th century wares. Although Old Town is the
most visited state park in California, its relative simplicity somehow
gives it less of a “theme-park” atmosphere than some historical
recreations.
Though seemingly lacking in historical authenticity, El Centro
Artesano is an interesting corner of Old Town. It’s a bazaar of
artisans’ Southwestern-inspired ceramic and metal handiwork, overflowing
with distinctive and colorful tchotchkes arrayed in seemingly endless
heaps, piles, and hangings.
A short walk takes you from the Mexican era of Old Town to the Victorian
era. Rather than demolishing seven 19th century buildings to make room
for Downtown redevelopment, public and private contributions paid for
moving them to county land next to Old Town beginning in 1971.
They arrayed the buildings on pedestrian-only cul-de-sac and named it
Heritage Park. Six of the buildings were originally private houses built
between 1887 and 1893. After renovation (and a fresh coat of colorful
paint) the county leased them for commercial operation as
bed-and-breakfast inns and shops.
The seventh building was originally the first synagogue in San Diego.
Built in 1889, Temple Beth Israel actually reflects the architecture of
late 19th century churches— with some appropriate adjustments. Today
it’s a popular venue for weddings and receptions for people of all
faiths (or of no faith— park rangers are available to perform
civil wedding ceremonies on weekends).
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