The Mexican Secularization Act of 1833, officially called the Decree for the Secularization of the Missions of California, was an act passed by the Congress of the Union of the First Mexican Republic which secularized the Californian missions. The act nationalized the missions, transferring their ownership from the Franciscan Order of the Catholic Church to the Mexican authorities.
The act was passed twelve years after Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1821. Mexico feared Spain would continue to have influence and power in California because most of the Spanish missions in California remained loyal to the Roman Catholic Church in Spain. As the new Mexican republic matured, calls for the secularization ("disestablishment") of the missions increased.
Secularization took place for 10 missions in 1834, 6 in 1835, and the other 5 in 1836. Religious services ended, and most priests left the province. The buildings were stripped of valuables, and left to deteriorate. The rich farmland was not given to the Indians as planned, but was sold or given it away in large grants called ranchos.Land in California: The Story of Mission Lands, Ranchos, Squatters, Mining ... By William Wilcox Robinson, p. 29: The cortes (legislature) of New Spain issued a decree in 1813 for at least partial secularization that affected all missions in America and was to apply to all outposts that had operated for ten years or more; however, the decree was never enforced in California. Secularization also emancipated Indigenous peoples of California from the missions and closed the monjeríos, although only a minority of Indigenous peoples were distributed land grants, which left many of them landless to work the ranchos.
Background The Spanish missions in Alta California were a series of 21 religious and military outposts; established by Catholic priests of the Franciscan order between 1769 and 1823 for the purpose of spreading Christianity among the local Native Americans. The missions were part of the first major effort by Europeans to colonize the Pacific Coast region, the most northern and western parts of Spain's North American land claims. The settlers introduced European fruits, vegetables, cattle, horses, ranching and technology into the Alta California region and to the Mission Indians. The El Camino Real (Royal Road) connected missions from Loreto, Mexico to Mission San Francisco Solano, in Sonoma, a length of over 1200 miles. Between 1683 and 1834, Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries established a series of religious outposts from today's Baja California and Baja California Sur into present-day California.
Proclamation of Emancipation José María de Echeandía, the first Mexican-born, elected Governor of Alta California issued a "Proclamation of Emancipation" (or "Prevenciónes de Emancipacion") on July 25, 1826.Engelhardt 1922, p. 80, San Diego Mission, "The military district of San Diego embraced the Missions of San Diego, San Luis Rey, San Juan Capistrano, and San Gabriel." All Indians within the military districts of San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Monterey who were found qualified were freed from missionary rule and made eligible to become Mexican citizens. Those who wished to remain under mission tutelage (guardianship) were exempted from most forms of corporal punishment.Bancroft, vol. i, pp. 100–101:
The motives behind the issuance of Echeandía's premature decree may have had more to do with his desire to appease "...some prominent Californians who had already had their eyes on the mission lands..." than with concern for the welfare of the natives.Stern and Miller, pp. 51–52: Catholic historian Zephyrin Engelhardt referred to Echeandía as "...an avowed enemy of the religious orders." By 1830 even those new to California appeared confident in their own abilities to operate the mission ranches and farms independently; the padres, however, doubted the capabilities of their charges in this regard. In 1831, the number of Indians under missionary control in all of Upper-Alta California was about 18,683, while garrison soldiers, free settlers, and "other classes" totaled 4,342.
New immigration, of both Mexican and foreign origins, increased pressure on the Alta California government to seize the Church-controlled mission properties and dispossess the natives in accordance with Echeandía's directive.Kelsey, p. 21: Settlers made numerous false claims in order to diminish the natives' abilities: "The Indians are by nature slovenly and indolent", stated one newcomer. "They have unfeelingly appropriated the region", claimed another. Despite the fact that Echeandía's emancipation plan was met with little encouragement from the newcomers who populated the southern missions, he was nonetheless determined to test the scheme on a large scale at Mission San Juan Capistrano. To that end, he appointed a number of comisionados (commissioners) to oversee the emancipation of the Indians.Bancroft, vol. iii, pp. 322; 626
The Mexican government passed legislation on December 20, 1827, that mandated the expulsion of all Spaniards younger than 60 years of age from Mexican territories. Spaniards could pose a threat to Mexico because Spain did not recognize Mexican independence and attempted to regain control over its former colony. Governor Echeandía nevertheless intervened on behalf of some Franciscans to prevent their deportation once the law took effect in California.Engelhard 1922, p. 223
Secularization Act
Governor José Figueroa, who took office in 1833, initially attempted to keep the mission system intact, but after the Mexican Congress passed its Decree for the Secularization of the Missions of the Californias on August 17, 1833, he took action to start secularization enactment.Yenne, Bill, 2004|The Missions of California, publisher by Thunder Bay Press, San Diego, CA, , pp. 18–19 In 1833, Figueroa replaced the Spanish-born Franciscan padres at all of the settlements north of Mission San Antonio de Padua with Mexican-born Franciscan priests from the College of Guadalupe de Zacatecas. In response, Father-Presidente Narciso Durán transferred the headquarters of the Alta California Mission System to Mission Santa Bárbara, where it remained until 1846.
Failed distribution to indigenous people Governor Figueroa issued a regulation () on August 9, 1834, outlining the requirements for the distribution of property (land, cattle, and equipment) to each mission's neophytes.Smilie p. 50 Among the provisions were that "5. To each head of a family and to all over 20 years old, will be given from the Mission lands a lot not over 400 nor less than 100 varas square" (28 to 7 acres), plus "6....pro rata...one-half of the livestock" and "7.... half or less of the existing chattels, tools, and seed".THE SONOMA MISSION San Francisco Solano De Sonoma: The Founding, Ruin & Restoration of California's 21st Mission by Smilie, Robert S. The Act also provided for the colonization of both Alta California and Baja California, the expenses of this latter move to be borne by the proceeds gained from the sale of the mission land and some buildings to private parties; many started ranches. The ranches made of former mission pasture lands were divided into large land grants, thus greatly increasing the number of private landholdings in Alta California.
This meant that the missions would hold title only to the worship chapel, the residences of the priests, and a small amount of land surrounding the church for use as gardens. In some missions, all of the other buildings were lost, and some mission buildings were divided, with a physical wall added into the mission buildings. With the loss of all support from the surrounding land and support buildings – like livestock, orchards, barns, tanning, blacksmithing, candle making, vineyards, winery, water rights, loom, Beehive ovens, carpenter shop, soap making, grain silo, in some cases the mission courtyard and more – the Franciscans had no means of support for themselves or the natives. The Franciscans soon thereafter abandoned most of the missions, taking with them almost everything of value, after which the locals typically plundered the mission buildings for construction materials, as the four to six soldiers assigned to guard each Mission were dismissed.
Mission lands confiscated Mission San Juan Capistrano was the very first mission to have its land taken away; on August 9, 1834, Governor Figueroa issued his "Decree of Confiscation."Engelhardt 1922, p. 114 Nine other settlements quickly followed, with six more in 1835; San Buenaventura and Mission San Francisco de Asís were among the last to have their land taken away, in June and December 1836, respectively.Yenne, pp. 83, 93
Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad land was sold and over time all the buildings became ruined. In 1859, the buildings' ruins and 42 acres of land were returned to the Church. Restoration began only in 1954.
In 1838, Mission San Juan Capistrano property was auctioned off under questionable circumstances for $710 worth of tallow and hides, (equivalent to $15,000 in 2004 U.S. dollars) to Englishman John (Don Juan) Forster (Governor Pío Pico's brother-in-law, whose family would take up residence in the friars' quarters for the next 20 years) and his partner James McKinley.Engelhardt 1922, p. 157 More families would subsequently take up residence in other portions of the Mission buildings. Father José María Zalvidea left San Juan Capistrano around November 25, 1842, when Mission San Luis Rey de Francia's Father Ibarra died, leaving the Mission without a resident priest for the first time (Zalvidea had been the Mission's sole priest ever since the death of Father Josef Barona in 1831).Engelhardt 1922, p. 182 The first secular priest to take charge of the Mission, Reverend José Maria Rosáles, arrived on October 8, 1843;Engelhardt 1922, p. 188 Father Vicente Pascual Oliva, the last resident missionary, died on January 2, 1848. The Mission's ruins and 44.40 acres were returned to the Church in 1865.Engelhardt 1922, p. 227
Mission San Diego de Alcalá and some other missions were offered for sale to citizens, and some Mission land was given to ex-military officers who had fought in the War of Independence. On June 8, 1846, Mission San Diego de Alcalá was given to Santiago Argüello by Governor Pío Pico "...for services rendered to the government."Leffingwell, translation of The Mission of Saint Louis, King of France p. 19 After the United States annexed California, the Mission was used by the military from 1846 to 1862. Most of the grants were made to rich "Californios" of Spanish background who had long been casting envious eyes on the vast holdings of the Roman Catholic missions. In 1845, California Governor Pio Pico confiscated the lands of Mission San Diego de Alcalá. He granted eleven square leagues (about 48,800 acres, 197 km2) of the El Cajon Valley to Dona Maria Antonio Estudillo, daughter of José Antonio Estudillo, alcalde of San Diego, to repay a $500 government obligation. The grant was originally called Rancho Santa Monica and encompassed present-day El Cajon, Bostonia, Santee, Lakeside, Flinn Springs, and the eastern part of La Mesa. It also contained the Rancho Cañada de Los Coches grant. Maria Estudillo was the wife of Don Miguel Pedrorena (1808–1850), a native of Madrid, Spain, who had come to California from Peru in 1838 to operate a trading business. In 1862 the 22 acres and mission ruins were returned to the Church by the U.S. government.