Diario las Américas Newspaper, January 13, 1957, Page 22

1 t | ~ The Man in the Brown Habit! A Book Review of “Americas”, Magazine Published by the Pan American Union The Last of the Congiistedors, Junipero Serra, by Omer Engle- bert. New York, Harcounrt, Brace and Company, 1956. 368 p. Illus. $6.00. The Road to Glory, by Darwin L. Teilhet. New York, Funk and Wagnalls Company, 1956. 279 p. $3.75. Fray Junipero Serra, the Great Walker, by MacKinley Helm. Stan- ford, California, Stanford Universi- ty Press, 1956, 86 p. Illus. $4.00. Reviewed by Fernando Alegria On December 6, 1749, there arriv- ed at the port of Veracruz, aboard the Villasota, a detachment of Franciscans recruited in Spain to carry on evangelical work in the missions of northem México, Among them was a short little priest with dark, luminous eyes, skin weatherbeaten by a hundred days at sea, firm and decisive manners —Junipero Serra. At the age of thirty-six, Father Serra could boast of having re- ached the summit of an ecclesias- tical career devoted to teaching and to the propagation of the faith. Five years earlier, he had been en- trusted with the first professor- ship of Scotist theology at the Uni- versity of Las Palmas, Majorca. His prodigious learning, the clarity and depth of his reasoning, had earn- ed him the veneration of the Ma- jorcans; he had soon become one of the most sought-after preachers on the island. Little Father Serra had an admirably resonant voice, and in the pulpit he assumed a eombative attitude that made his hearers tremble. Triumphant in an environment of illustrios tradition, surrounded by the affection of re- lations and colleagues, with a bril- liant future in the ecclesiastical and academic world, what more could the young Franeiscan want? Yet he had abandoned it all, throw- ing himself suddenly and blindly into the abyss of the Conquest of the New Yorld. ™ Before setting out on-the voyage, he confessed with tears in his eyes, that he was filled with remorse for not having departed earlier, distracted as he was by “academic studies”. His secret vocation thus awoke suddenly, with supernatural ardor and zeal. Soon after arriv- ing at the Apostolic College of San Fernando in México, he set out to spread the faith first in the Sierra Gorda and later in Ca- lifornia. From 1750 til his death in 1784, he carried on ome of the most heroic and most historically significant enterprises in the Con- quest of America. Commanding a handful of friars humble and en- lightened like himself —with -no other weapon than a crucifix nor any other watchword than the “Amar a Dios” (Love God) of their customary greeting; driving a few mules, cows goats, pigs and chick- ens; replying to poisoned arrows with the apostolic blessing; strug- gling without rebellion against the abuse of unscrupulous military chiefs— Father Serra converted the solitudes of California into a true earthly paradise. Where before the law of the jungle had reigned and the Indian Tribes had annihilated each other in camnibaliste battles, Father Serra’s Franciscans establish ed, in less than half a century, a kind of communal republic that filled the civilized world of the eighteenth century with admira- tion. Perhaps better than any other historic figure of his time, Father Serra represents the spirit of Las Casas and of the Jesuits in Para- guay, who considered the Conquest of America an essentially humani- tarian enterprise destined to de- velop superior, free men in the har- mony of a Christian collectivism. At the unveiling of a monument to him in Washington, Senator LB, Dockweileer described his signifi- cance in California history in these terms: This man, qwhoae memory is in- dissolubly one with the epic of Ca- lifornia, was great in his $ humility; he triumphed by his courage, when und to discourage him and beat him down; he is one who is as of first place among the tmmortal heroes who created our nation; so his memory will never die, and his name will be blessed from genera- tion to generation. With good reason Omer Engle- bert comments, in the Last of the Conquistadors, Hunipero Serra: In a world-famous book that ap- peared in 1516, Thomas More pro- pounded the question “What is the ideal political system, and the one which can make sure the happiness of mankind?” He answered, with Plato, that it was the communal regime. Before publishing his book however, he took care to give it the title of Utopia, to show clearly that it- was a dream, and that he deemed the system impracticable, From the testimony cited, have we not reason to believe that once at least, thanks to the genius and the saintliness of Father Junipero Se- rra, this impossible , ideal was achieved, and the Utopia of St. Tho- mas More was realized? The Saga of Father Serra, invol- ving so many sacrifices, so much renunciation and disinterested de- sire to serve humanity, is now being discovered by novelist, poets, and playWrights; therefore, it is no strange coincidence that 1956 has produced three books dealing direc- tly or indirectly with his life and work. Up to now the primary sour- ce of biographical information on Father Serra has been the work of his colleague and inseparable friend Francisco Palou titled Relacién His- térica de la Vida del V. P. Fray Junipero Serra (1787). To this has been added Abbot Omer Engle- bert’s work, published originally in French. Abbot Englebert, employing new- ly discovered material, has written an exegesis of Father Serra in a style of sober and considered ad- miration, shunning obvious glori- fication, letting the facts —marve- lous in their starkness — do the work of adjectives and exclama- tions. In Abbot Englebert’s style there is much of the sublime sim- plicity that illumined Father Se- tra’s life. He effortlessly convinces us that no argument or discussion is necesssary for acceptance of the breath of the supernatural in some of Father Serra’s predictions. The Franciscan’s companions — sailors, soldiers, monks, artisans, both Spaniards and Indians — cut bits of cloth from his worn habit to. make scapularies, and within a short time after his death Father Serra began to work miracles. The abbot tells these things without comment, with a simple and pro- found faith that disarms all ob- jections. His mission ts plain: to show us a man ruled by love of God and of his fellows, who discovered the true inner meaning of his apostolic vocation and went out- along the roads of the world to perform it. Academic books sank once more into the well of wisdom; from now on it would no longer be with sy- llogisms that he ordered his life. At the head of his flock he would seek the direction of the winds, the hidden fountains and streams, the pulse of the earth; he would climb mountains, ford rivers, embark on tiny frigates bound for the frozen lands of the Russians, cross deserts, and, with the intuition of a genuine conquistador, choose sites to es- tablish his missions and his Indian communities. His writings would be full of references to cattle, seed, saddles, and tools. He would fight bitterly for the bushel of wheat that would rescue his parishioners from starvation. He would go on with: his task witout caring how serious the obstacles were. He had hardly arrived in Veracruz when he suffered.an infection in his leg that made him an invalid for the rest of his.life, For thirty-five years he traversed on foot the immense territory of his missions, dragging _the ulcerated leg. Various, govern ors opposed him and tried’ to bend him to their will, but Father Serra, wise as the serpent and’ gentle as the dove, always defeated them and , despite delays and lack of tools, built missions and brought them to flourishing prosperity. The value of his work is stamped in- delibly in deeds and constructions. His biograpner wisety grves us this reality in all its magnificent and transcendent simplicity. What was the inmer nature of produce in the men who shared his of Father Serra? What effect did it the heorism that inspired the life exploits? How was he thought of in Spain, in México, in all Améri- ca? Abbot Englebert’s pages do not always give a complete idea of the contrary influences that Fa- ther Serra exercised on his time and particularly of the reactions he himself inspired. His book is a testimony of veneration —sober, as has been said, but partisan. The Franciscan spirit glows here un- waveringly. But there are other aspects of- Father Serra’s charac- ter that demand an interpretation More objective and, at the same time, more complex. During his life Father Serra had implacable ene mies in the army and to a certain extent in the Church. Why? His enemies never doubted his saint- liness and would willingly have canonized him. Nevertheless, there were things they criticezed in him —a matter that Abbot Englebert never clarifies in his book. When a governor called Father Serra’s attention to the dangers of estab- lishing mission too hastily and re- commended caution, in the shape of long delays, the priest reaffirm- ed his obediemce, always in terms of genuine humility, but went ahead with his plans— and the San Diego Mission was destroyed and his colleagues were massacred. When Felipe de Neve tried to es- tablish in Calitornia municipal gov- ernment run by the Indians, Fa- ther Serra opposed it with blind obstinacy and did not rest till the plans for reform were thwarted. Was it lack of historical vision, fear ef the introduction of European li- beralism, fear that the Indians would fall into the hands of tyran- nical and corrupt powers? Abbot Englebert does not analyze all the reasons for oppositon to Father Serra in certain political and reli- gious sectors. This analysis be- comes especially necessary in the discussion of the rivalry —incom- prenhensible to the layman— bet- ween the Dominicans and the Fran- ciscans. Again, I find it hard to condone the author’s lack of understanding of contemporary México. Abbot En- glebert is not the first historian who, hastily explaining contradicto- ry facts in Mexican history, prefers to fall back on highly questionable simplifications and generalizations. This is clear, for example, in the pages dealing with the destruction and decline of the missions during the nineteenth century. If we are to believe him, Mexico advances on Father, Serra’s paradise with wolf claws and destroyed his work in a few years of abusive authority. But was Mexico the only political and economic force seeking then to ex- pand toward the west? Were its po- liticians the only ones interested in crushing the Spanish Franciscan tradition and in swindling the In- dians out of their wealth? To be sure, it would be a mistake to demand of Abbot Englebert a discussion of problems that are pur- posely left on the emargin in his work. Nor do I think it fair to give disproportionate emphasis to these ° objections. The Last of the Con- quistadors is a book of concen- trated spiritual force, a lesson im hope and faith; in tenacity and courage before the impossible. Wri- tten with praiseworthy simplicity, solidly documented. it raises the figure of Father Serra on ‘an illus- tious pedestal in the history of California. ompared with this ,work, the other two current books on Father. Serra are of minor significance, In his novel The Road to Glory, Dar- win ‘feilhet weaves a story that on- y peak » concerns. the, , quia Only authentic portrait of Junipero Serra, painted in 1773, hangs in Dispensary of Church of San Fernando, Mexico City, trious Franciscan. It deals with the adventures of Hugo O’Connor, an eighteenth-century apprentice con- quistador who has something of the knight and much of the rogue. Commissioned with establishing the boundaries between the city of San José and the Franciscan mi- ssions, he becomes involved in in- trigues with a group of contra- bandists, fights savagely, lies like a trooper, falls in love with a Ga- lician emigrant,and finally disco- vers the true meaning of his efforts under the guidance of Father Se- tra. Don Hugo, it is hardly necessa- ry to state, is a fictitious character. Most of his adventures were cook- ed upon the magic over that made Dickens famous. Such coincidences! But that is what historical novels are like, and Mr. Teilhet merely uses the recipe with enthusiasm. The principal value of the book lies perhaps in the descriptive pa- ssages. Anyone who has seen the coast, the valleys, and the moun- tains of California will admire the asides in which the author loving- ly paints the gigantic redwood and pine forests, the bold and twist ed manzanita trees like a Cubist sculpture, the fragrance of burn- ing leaves rising from the valley to the placid evening sky, the rains, the sudden fogs of the coast, the earthquakes, the avalanches. Mr. Teilhet has a muleteer’s eye as he moves his characters over the paths of primitive California. No detail of the scene escapes him, and the atmosphere is one of vigorous poe- try. But a novel camnot be all des- cription: The characters speak. And how badly they speak! Is there anything worse in modern litera- ture than this passion of certain US. novelists for imitating the Spanish language in English? I be- lieve it was Hemingway who start- ed the fashion, and he ought to problem is even more serious, for his characters must speak eigh- teenth-century Spanish. He makes an indigestible hash of it. To this may be added countless bunders: “Hugito” for “Huguito”, “aguar- diente pura” for “aguardiente pu re”, “oyedme for oidme, “empa- fiada’ for empanada, “rasqueado” for ra lo, “indigenes” for in- digenas, “Jovenito” for jovencito”, “soldados de cuerra” (misspelled at that) for Leatherjackets. His bits of Latin are no better. And the names of the characters, be it said in passing, are atrocious. Well, this is of small importance. What really matters is that Mr. Teilhet plants Father Serra in the path of his Don Hugo and the Franciscan survives this mishap without losing an iota of his spiritual greatness and heroism. MacKinley Helms Fray Junipero Serra, the Great Walker may be described as a kind of dramatic poem or pageant of which the pur- pose is to exalt the virtues of Fa- ther Serra through long recitations in prose and verse, with a view to possible canonization. Unfortu- nately, Mr. Helm appears to lack a Paul Claudel’s profundity of shoeght, a Pablo Neruda’s genius for the poetic epithet. Nor does the epic of Father Serra need embroi dery either in verse or in prose. When he is decked out in ar- tistic flourishes, the force of his simple heroism is lost. In Mr. Helms work everything is transfor- med in fires of artifice. The atmos- here cloys, the human figures are sugar-coated (there are an Indian called Orlando amd a sailor who seem to have escaped fron a Vien- nese operetta), the landscape is pasteboard. I may be wrong, but the result strikes me as stupefy- ingly shoddy. However, Stanford Press -has made a beautiful book be thrashed. For Mr. Teilhet theof it. . .The Mission of San Gabriel, founded by Father Serra in Uppes. Sahar bh ebty $9309 an Ton SuRB AY, TARUARY 13, iyere J Re MS