J. M Carillo

This is a short introduction to the Mission San Antonio de Pala, written for the rededication of the mission quadrangle in 1959 and reprinted in 2006. It does exaggerate the Mission somewhat -- in Spanish and Mexican times it was never a true mission, but an Assistencia of San Luis Rey. I would have liked to know more of the Assistencia's role in the mission system. The book is a nice, pious work which contains a number of curiousities like reference to the City of San Diego's 1916 flirtation with a rain-maker (who claimed success -- and lead to such flooding that the bell tower at Pala was destroyed in the subsequent flooding!). It also discusses such events as the shameful 1903 relocation of the Cupeno Indians to Pala. I wish it spent more time on the various church buildings and paintings. I would also have liked to have seen an update -- 50 years is a long time, and some of the structures, like the aqueduct, I believe are now gone, and the famous church murals seem to be different now than they were just a few decades ago, judging from postcards. In any event, an interesting booklet which makes me wish there were a more substantial book on the Mission.… (mais)