T u b a c
H i s t o r y
Juan Bautista de Anza Expedition illustrations courtesy of Bill Singleton.
Visit his gallery website at: www.billsingleton.net
Baby Born at La Canoa
published May 2007
Tubac Villager
by Mary Bingham
It was three in the afternoon on the first day of the Anza Expedition’s departure from Tubac. The San Francisco bound colonists, recruited primarily from the provinces of Sinaloa and Sonora, were finally on their way to establish a new presidio and a new city for the King of Spain.
Arriving at their first campsite, La Canoa, the expedition had departed four hours earlier from the presidio at Tubac. It was Monday, October 23, 1775 and they had traveled approximately 14 miles north of Tubac, probably paralleling the Rio de Tubac [Santa Cruz River] on either side. With the large amount of people, horses, pack mules and cattle, the expedition would have been spread out for a couple of miles. The livestock was kept from scenting what little water was in the river, or they would never get there.
Leading the colonists on their journey was the highly respected and equally famous captain of the Tubac Presidio, the newly promoted Lieutenant Colonel Juan Bautista de Anza.
Upon arrival in camp, José Vicente Feliz notified Anza that his wife, María Ignacia Manuela Piñuelas, was about to give birth.
Anza’s diary for that date noted in part:
At the end of the afternoon today the wife of one of the soldiers of the expedition began to feel the first pains of childbirth. We aided her immediately with the shelter of a field tent and other things useful in the case and obtainable on the road, and she successfully gave birth to a very lusty boy at nine o’clock at night, the rest of which was passed without any other happening....
Manuela must have realized that with the birth of her seventh child something was seriously wrong. He was not only a big baby but he had arrived feet first! At least one of the three padres accompanying the expedition would have been by her side throughout the ordeal.
The following day a portion of Anza’s entry read:
At three o’clock in the morning, it not having been possible by means of the medicines which had been applied in the previous hours, to remove the afterbirth from our mother, other various troubles befell her. As a result she was taken with paroxysms of death, and after the sacraments of penance and extreme unction had been administered to her, with the aid of the fathers who accompany us she rendered up her spirit at a quarter to four.
Five months earlier, Manuela and Vicente had been recruited in Álamos. Natives of Álamos, they had six children ranging in age from two to twelve on May 9th when Vicente signed on with Anza. It was a big decision, and Manuela was already four months pregnant. Over the next couple of months, the successful delivery of five babies on the trek from Culiacán to Tubac must have been reassuring to Manuela. The most recent had been the safe delivery of a little girl to Feliciana Arballo de Gutiérrez.
Portions of Padre Pedro Font’s two diaries of the expedition add a little more information. For October 23rd to 25th he wrote:
...Next day in the afternoon she was taken for burial to the mission of San Xavier del Bac, and on the 25th in the morning she was buried by Father Garcés, who went ahead accompanying the body.... On the way the people and I went saying the Rosary for the deceased, and I finished by singing the Salve of the Virgin of Los Dolores....
The night of the 24th was spent at the campsite known as Punta de los Llanos or Llano Grande. Two of the priests and four soldiers continued on with the body of Manuela Piñuelas to Mission San Xavier for burial.
October 25th brought the expedition to Padre Francisco Garcés, home mission of San Xavier del Bac. That afternoon, Padre Tomás Eixarch baptized the infant, José Antonio Capistrano Feliz.
A new and brighter future for the expedition came the next morning. Padre Font recorded the following:
I said Mass. Before this I had solemnized three marriages of members of the expedition, and during the Mass I veiled the newly married couples. In order properly to publish the banns and the rest, I had previously appointed my servant as notary.
Ramón Bojórquez and María Francisca Romero were the parents of two of the young brides, María Antonia (age 14) and María Michaela (12). They married Juan Tiburoio Vásquez (20) and Ignacio Anastasio de la Higuera (18) respectively. The third marriage brought together a widower, Gregorio Sandobal, and Maria Dolores Ontiveros. Maria’s name would not appear on the official expedition roster, an oversight possibly caused by the many events of the previous three days.
Two more babies would be delivered during the remainder of the journey. Little José Antonio Feliz survived thanks to the other nursing mothers. It was a relief for all concerned when the expedition arrived at Mission San Gabriel, near the future site of the city of Los Angeles on January 4, 1776.
However, even before the expedition arrived at the mission, Captain Fernando de Rivera y Moncada, commander of all troops in California, rode out to meet Lt. Col. Anza. Anza and his soldiers were now under his command and Rivera had a mess on his hands. An uprising at the San Diego Mission in November of 1775 was still out of control. Rivera asked Anza to send 17 of his 20 soldiers to help put down the revolt. Anza agreed and offered his own services as well.
Lieutenant José Moraga was left in charge of the colonists and remaining soldiers while they recovered at Mission San Gabriel from the arduous trek across the desert. Moraga would be in charge of establishing the colony once it arrived in San Francisco.
Anza and his men helped to quell the uprising, leaving San Gabriel on January 7th and returning on February 12th. He was not impressed with the military forces of California and was anxious to continue on with his first duty--to deliver the settlers safely to Monterey.
It is not known if Vicente Feliz was among the soldiers sent to San Diego in early January. However, on February 21st when the Anza Expedition headed north, Feliz and his seven children remained at Mission San Gabriel along with twelve other soldiers and their families. He would be reassigned to the presidio at San Diego, but it appears he was made a permanent member of the guard for Mission San Gabriel.
Some sources say Felix was later assigned to the presidio at Santa Barbara. Mission records show marriage and baptismal records for his children and grandchildren at both Mission San Gabriel and Mission Santa Barbara over the ensuing years.
Sadly, a few months after Anza’s departure Feliz’s youngest son, born at La Canoa, died at the age of ten months. Mission records show that Antonio Capistrano Feliz was buried within the mission church of San Gabriel on September 9, 1776, an honor reserved for those of great importance. It seems the infant had probably won the hearts of the mission community, and his father was highly respected.
Vicente Feliz would be associated with another expedition in 1781. Fernando de Rivera y Moncada, began recruiting colonists to establish El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora La Reina de Los Angeles de Porciúncula [The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels of the (River) Porciúncula], simply known today as Los Angeles. For two years Rivera traveled throughout Sinaloa and Sonora, just as Anza had a few years earlier. He was not nearly as successful in recruiting colonists.
Historian Michael Hardwick gives this account of the first recruits to arrive at Mission San Gabriel from the Rivera Expedition:
The first division included 46 persons in all under the command of Lt. José de Zúñiga. Zúñiga left Alamos on Feb. 2, 1781 escorted by 17 soldiers and their families under Alferez Ramón Laso de la Vega. The travelers boarded lanchas (sailing launches) at the mouth of the Mayo River for the trip across the Sea of Cortes to Loreto, California, Baja. After recuperating from the strenuous sea trip, Alfz. Laso de la Vega and his 17 soldier families embarked anew for the Bahia de San Luis Gonzaga via lanchas. Zúñiga and his pobladores soon followed. Zúñiga and his party arrived at San Gabriel August 18, 1780.
Under the command of Rivera, the second division arrived at the Yuma Crossing. Rivera sent the colonists and most of the soldiers on ahead, while he remained behind with the livestock and the few remaining soldiers. The colonists arrived at Mission San Gabriel on July 14, 1781. They would become the future colonists for Santa Barbara.
On July 17, 1781 Captain Fernando Javier Rivera y Moncada and the remaining members of the expedition were massacred by an Indian uprising at Yuma.
Meanwhile, plans for the founding of Los Angeles continued while the colonists waited at Mission San Gabriel. On September 4, 1781 Vicente Feliz headed up a four man military escort for the founding ceremony. With much pomp and circumstance and many dignitaries present, Feliz pointed out the lots designated to each family patriarch.
The escort would remain with the colonist for the next several months. In time, Feliz became the most important man in Los Angeles. John P. Schmal writing for Somos Primos notes:
In 1787, Governor Farges appointed Feliz as Comisinado of the Los Angeles Pueblo, giving him the powers of Mayor and Judge.
José Vicente Feliz was now the first mayor or alcalde of Los Angles!
Sources:
Anza Expedition Diaries of Juan Bautista de Anza, Padre Pedro Font & Padre Francisco Garcés - Web de Anza - http://anza.uoregon.edu/
Garate, Donald T., Antepasados VIII: Captain Juan Bautista de Anza -- Correspondence -- on Various Subjects, 1775. San Leandro, Calif.: Los Californianos, 1995.
Ayers, Mary Triplett, “The Founders of Santa Barbara: Who They Were and Whence They Came.” http://www.militarymuseum.org/SBFounding.html
Huntington Early California Population Project - http://www.huntington.org/Information/ECPPmain.htm
Historic Adobes of Los Angeles County © 1997 John R. Kielbasa, “Rancho Los Feliz” - http://www.laokay.com/halac/RanchoLosFeliz.htm
“The Docent of El Pueblo de Los Angeles” - http://www.lasangelitas.org/lospobladores.htm
Hardwick, Michael R., “Se Fundaron Un Pueblo de Espanoles (A Village of Spaniards was Founded)” - http://www.neta.com/~1stbooks/colony0a.htm
Schmal, John P. “The Mayors of Los Angeles: From Feliz to Aguilar (1781-1872) - http://www.somosprimos.com/sp2004/spjun04/spjun04.htm
Singleton, Bill, Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail in Pima County, “Canoa Campsite” - http://www.pima.gov/areainfo/anza/