The Andalucian Roots of California
How Palma del Río shaped San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego.
To the modern traveller, the names San Francisco and Los Angeles evoke the sun-drenched coastlines, historic cable cars, and bustling urban cities of California. Yet the true genesis of these global American metropolises traces its way across the Atlantic, back to Spain in general and in particular deep into the heart of Andalucia.
The historical thread linking the Monasterio de San Francisco in Palma del Río to the foundation of California’s greatest cities is a fascinating tale of 18th-century religious devotion, grueling wilderness expeditions, and a forgotten Andalucian footprint.
The Mallorca Core and the Mission to New Spain
The story begins with two Franciscan friars born in Mallorca: Fray Junípero Serra (1713–1784, born in Petra) and his student and lifelong friend Fray Francisco Palóu (1723–1789, born in Palma). In 1748, while Serra was enjoying a prestigious career as a priest and university scholar in Palma, the two men confided a shared, radical desire to leave behind their comfortable academic lives to become new world frontier missionaries.
To avoid confusion Fray Junípero Serra was born Miguel José Serra. He admired the original Fray Junípero Serra (1210 - 1258) so much, he changed his name to Junípero Serra when he took his religious vows. The Fray Junípero Serra had been among the first Franciscans and a companion of the founder Francis of Assisi. The later Fray Junípero Serra was canonised by Pope Francisco in Washington DC in 2015, the first-ever canonization ceremony to take place on United States soil.
Visitors to Monasterio de San Francisco in Palma del Río will notice on the domed ceiling of the entrance to the grand patio one of the four figures is a man with a knife cutting the leg off a pig. This originates from a bizarre story in the collection published as ‘The little flowers of St Francis’.
When visiting a poor man who was very sick, Juniper asked if he could perform any service. The man told Juniper that he had a longing for a meal of pig's leg, and so Juniper happily ran off to find some. Capturing a pig in a nearby field, he cut off a leg and cooked the meal to save the man’s life. When the pig's owner found out about this, he arrived in a great wrath, calling the Friars’ thieves. Francis reproached Juniper and ordered him to apologize to the pig's owner and to make amends. Juniper, not understanding why the owner should be upset at such a charitable act, went to him and cheerfully retold the tale of the pig's leg, as though he had done the man a favor.
Serra and Palou petitioned the head of the Franciscan Order in Spain for support to lead a foreign mission to Nueva España (New Spain) the name for the vast Spanish colony that today encompasses Mexico and the southwestern United States.
By the mid-1740s, the Franciscan Order in Spain was a massive institution boasting over 15,000 friars. Administratively, the order was split into distinct ecclesiastical jurisdictions called provinces (not to be confused with Spain's post-1833 civil administrative provinces).
To assemble a "special forces" team of missionaries for the Americas, Commissary Fray Pedro Pérez de Mezquía was tasked with recruiting a new intake for the Apostolic College of San Fernando in Mexico City.
Mezquía travelled across Spain’s major Franciscan gathering centres, recruiting small groups of companions from the same provinces so the men would have companions and friends during the perilous journey across the Atlantic.
The expedition gathered talent from across the peninsula:
- La Provincia de Mallorca (5 Friars): The close-knit core of the expedition, including Junípero Serra, Francisco Palóu, and their brilliant peer Fray Juan Crespí.
- La Provincia de Los Ángeles (5 Friars): A strict, reformed branch of the Franciscans spread across the rugged mountains of Córdoba and Seville, including the Convento de San Francisco in Palma del Río.
- Province of Andalucía / Bética (3 Friars): Covering the western half of modern Andalusia (Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, and western Málaga).
- Province of Granada: Covering eastern Andalusia (Granada, Jaén, Almería, and eastern Málaga).
- The Provinces of San Miguel and Burgos: Contributing experienced priests from Extremadura, León, Cantabria, and the Basque regions.
Palma del Río: The Spiritual Capital of "Los Ángeles"
When Commissary Mezquía sought the most austere and disciplined friars for the harsh wilderness of the New World, he headed directly to the Convento de San Francisco in Palma del Río.
Founded at the end of the 15th century by Fray Juan de la Puebla, the Provincia de los Ángeles (Province of the Angels) was established to revive a deeply contemplative, ascetic lifestyle known as the Franciscan "Regular Observance." Its monasteries were intentionally tucked into isolated, rural landscapes south of the Guadalquivir River.
Crucially, the Convento de San Francisco in Palma del Río served as the headquarters (cabeza de provincia) and administrative capital for this entire network. It was the premier hub for training and organizing the region's friars. Its strategic location on the banks of the Guadalquivir made it the perfect launching point for the recruited volunteers to begin their journey downriver toward the port of departure in Cádiz city.
Palma de Mallorca to Malaga on a small English packet
Meanwhile Serra, Palóu, Crespi and the other two brothers from the Palma de Mallorca convent set sail on 13th April 1749 on a small English packet boat (a scheduled sailing vessel that carried mail, freight and passengers to Malaga. Unfortunately the crossing was lengthened due to head winds to an exhausting 15 days to Malaga and then on to Cadiz the monopoly port for all sailings to the Americas. We know this because Paloú was not just Serra’s student he was his biographer in his 1787 book - Relación histórica de la vida y apostólicas tareas del venerable padre Fray Junípero Serra (Historical Account of the Life and Apostolic Labors of the Venerable Father Fray Junípero Serra).
Palóu also tells us that the English captain on the Malaga bound boat was a fiery Protestant who insisted on debating theology with Serra in broken Portuguese. When Serra calmly backed him into a theological corner using the Bible, the captain became so enraged he held a dagger to Serra's throat, threatening to throw him overboard. Fortunately he didn’t as Junipero went on to greater things.
Brothers at sea
In total, 33 friars were cleared by the Casa de Contratación in Cádiz to sail aboard the Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe on 30th August 1749. This was a large Spanish merchant galleon owned and captained by Don Juan Manuel Bonilla. When it departed Cádiz it was heavily laden with European commercial goods to be traded in New Spain for silver and cochineal (valuable red dye). Crammed among the cargo and crew were the 33 Franciscans, along with seven Dominican friars.
The Guadalupe suffered from cramped conditions, unfavourable winds and poor rationing, particularly water. Half way across the Atlantic the ship was running out of fresh drinking water, so much that it was rationed to a ‘quartillo’ (250ml) per passenger per day. In the end to save the crew and passengers from dehydration, Captain Bonilla was forced to detour and make an emergency landing in San Juan, Puerto Rico to save the passengers, repair the ship and take on supplies. During this stopover, Serra and the friars went ashore, sought out the Cathedral and preached a ‘Mission’. In the Catholic tradition, a "Mission" is not a regular Mass, but rather a special, intensive spiritual renewal and revival service. The ship remained in San Juan for fifteen days eight of which were at the city’s request so that the mission might continue.
On 1st December 1749, the ship’s lookout finally spotted the mountain peaks behind Veracruz, Mexico. Suddenly, a massive winter storm (a Norte) blew in, pushing the Guadalupe violently off course toward Campeche. For two days, the ship was battered by towering waves. On 4th December, as the ship seemed destined to sink, the terrified priests decided to pick a patron saint to pray to for deliverance. Because December 4 is the Catholic feast day of Saint Barbara (the patron saint of lightning and sudden death), they prayed in unison to her. According to Palóu’s dramatic retelling, the very moment they finished their prayer, the winds instantly died down and the seas calmed. The Guadalupe righted itself and limped safely into the harbour of Veracruz on 6th December 1749, completing a gruelling 99-day ordeal.
The Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe survived its voyage with Serra, but its luck ran out on the return trip. The Galleon was crippled by another hurricane, this time off the coast of (British) North Carolina. Grounded in shallow waters Captain Bonella hired local help to save the cargo. However one of the men hired was a Welsh mariner named Owen Lloyd, who famously walked with a wooden leg just like Long John Silver. When they realised the cargo was silver treasure, they double crossed the captain and called Pirates to help unload the cargo onto another vessel which sailed away leaving Captain Bonella redfaced. The treasure was eventually buried on Norman Island of the British Virgin Islands. This theft inspired Robert Louis Stevenson's classic novel; Treasure Island.
The Bond on the Camino Real
The spiritual rigor of the Los Ángeles province manifested famously the moment the expedition landed on the Gulf coast of Mexico at Veracruz in 1749.
To reach Mexico City, the friars faced the Camino Real (Royal Path) - a gruelling, 250-mile rough road climbing from sea level through tropical forests and volcanic ranges to an altitude of 7,400 feet (2,300 meters). Spanish Royal officials provided horses for the journey. Every single friar accepted the offer to ride—except for Junípero Serra and one unnamed companion from the Province of Los Ángeles.
Strictly adhering to Saint Francis of Assisi’s rule that friars "must not ride on horseback unless compelled by manifest necessity," this anonymous Andalucian friar stepped forward to match Serra’s radical vow of poverty. The pair walked the entire 400km to Mexico City on foot. The trek left Serra with a chronic leg ulcer that plagued him for the rest of his life, but cemented a legendary bond between the Mallorcan leader and the spirit of the Andalusian Los Ángeles province.
From the Sierra Gorda to the Expulsion of the Jesuits
They all arrived at the specialized training headquarters of the Colegio de San Fernando near Mexico City. After a few months in mid 1750 Serra and Palóu were dispatched to the rugged Sierra Gorda missions north of Querétaro. For nine years, they worked among the indigenous Pame people, rebuilding missions in disarray and learning the complex logistics of frontier administration.
In 1758, Serra and Palóu returned to the College of San Fernando in Mexico City. For the next nine years, the college was their home, and they served as administrators and recruiters. They travelled throughout central Mexico to preach and perform missionary work, always returning to San Fernando as their 'home base'.
The geopolitical landscape changed overnight on 24th June 1767. Spanish King Carlos III expelled the Jesuit Orders from all the Spanish Empire in the Americas. This was to centralize royal power, secure absolute control over colonial administration. The Jesuits were singled out for their special vow of obedience to the Pope over the Spanish monarchy, making them difficult for Bourbon kings to control.
The Franciscans under Serra were immediately ordered to replace the departing Jesuits in Baja California. Three weeks later on the 14th July 1767 Serra and a party of Franciscans set out from Mexico City and embarked at the port of San Blas, bound for the Baja California peninsula. After a short voyage, they arrived in Loreto, the seat of the Mission of Our Lady of Loreto, which is regarded as the mother of the missions of Upper and Lower California (modern day northern Mexico).
The Visitor-General, José de Gálvez, (born in Macharaviaya, Malaga Spain) founded a naval base in San Blas and between 31 October 1768 and 10 January 1769, Gálvez and Junípero Serra carefully weighed up all aspects of four planned expeditions into the remote California Alta (modern day California USA).
The friars from the Palma del Río group
At this point it is worth noting that there is little written information about the lives in the Viceroyalty of New Spain (today Mexico and South West USA) of the friars from the Province of Los Ángeles (the Palma del Río group). We know they were not sent to other monasteries because of the strict, binding legal structure of the Apostolic Colleges in the 18th century.
When the friars volunteered in Palma del Río, they signed a specific contract under Royal and Papal authority. They did not just volunteer to go to "the Americas"—they volunteered specifically and exclusively for the Apostolic Colegio de San Fernando. So by a royal decree these men were "fenced off." They were permanently incardinated into the Colegio de San Fernando. If they tried to leave to join a normal monastery in Mexico, they would be considered fugitives under canon law.
On the other hand Serra, Palou and Crespi were the educated scribes and leaders, so our story continues with their names and unfortunately without mention of the names of their comrades.
Don Alonso Moreno de la Cova, founder of the Hotel Monestario de San Francisco in Palma del Rio tells us that, “Sadly, the church was burned in the Spanish Civil War and most of the valuable records were lost”.
The names of the Provincia de Los Angeles Friars should be available in Archivo de las Indies in Seville and the archives of San Fernando (preserved today in various collections, including Mexico's National Library and the Franciscan archives) contain the Libro de Decretos and Libro de Recepciones. These books tracked the arrival of the 1749 expedition.
Mission San Diego de Alcalá
The 1769 Portolá military expedition directly resulted in the founding of the first California Alta Mission - San Diego de Alcalá—but there is a fascinating, historical twist involving Juan Crespí
The 1769 Portolá expedition, lead by Captain Gaspar de Portolá was a multi-pronged expedition effort organized by the Spanish Crown to secure Alta California before the Russians (sailing down from Alaska) or British who had no presence yet in the west of North America , could claim it. The expedition consisted of five separate groups — three traveling by sea, and two marching overland up the Baja California peninsula. Significantly, it was the first ever [European] overland exploration of Alta California. Juan Crespí was the official diarist for the expedition. He recorded detailed daily entries on the geography, indigenous populations, and flora of California.
Juan Crespí was embedded in the first land group, led by Captain Fernando Rivera y Moncada. They arrived at San Diego Bay in May 1769. Junípero Serra and Gaspar de Portolá arrived at their San Diego bay rendezvous several weeks later in late June with the second land group.
Waiting there they learned that the sea crews had been devastated by scurvy, leaving dozens of sailors dead or gravely ill. Only two ships arrived. The expedition was on the brink of collapse. Realizing they could not stay idle while supplies dwindled, Portolá made a strategic decision to split the group.
The Northern March with Crespi
On 14th July 1769, Portolá took the healthiest men—including Juan Crespí as the official diarist—and marched north into the uncharted wilderness to find Monterey Bay. They missed Monterey entirely, and Crespí ended up being the first European to formally document the discovery of San Francisco Bay instead. This massive protected bay was unknown to the Spanish. The expedition returned to San Diego bay arriving on 24th June 1770 after a trek of 1.200 miles overland.
The San Diego Mission Founding with Serra
Junípero Serra had stayed behind in San Diego with the sick, the doctors, and a small military guard. Just two days after Portolá and Crespí marched north, on 16th July 1769, Serra raised a large wooden cross on a hill overlooking the San Diego bay and officially consecrated the ground and founded Mission San Diego de Alcalá.
The Masterplan of Alta California
Moving north alongside Spanish military expeditions, Fray Junípero Serra set out to build a contiguous chain of missions along the Pacific coast, connected by a northern extension of the Camino Real. Out of the 21 historic missions that ultimately defined California, Serra personally founded nine before his death in 1784:
- Mission San Diego de Alcalá (July 16, 1769) – The initial Mission on the Pacific coast.
- Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo (June 3, 1770) – Located in the fertile Carmel Valley. This beautifully preserved stone complex became Serra’s official headquarters and final resting place.
- Mission San Antonio de Padua (July 14, 1771) – An agricultural powerhouse in the Santa Lucia Mountains.
- Mission San Gabriel Arcángel (September 8, 1771) – The massive agricultural base that laid the foundations for the future of southern California.
- Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa (September 1, 1772) – Famous for introducing the iconic red-clay tile roofs to California architecture to defend against flaming arrows.
- Mission San Francisco de Asís (Mission Dolores) (June 29, 1776) – The architectural seed of San Francisco.
- Mission San Juan Capistrano (November 1, 1776) – Famous for its massive stone ruins and the annual migration of cliff swallows.
- Mission Santa Clara de Asís (January 12, 1777) – Anchoring the valley and locating San Jose. that would eventually become Silicon Valley.
- Mission San Buenaventura (March 31, 1782) – The final mission Serra personally established, located in modern-day Ventura.
San Francisco’s Mission
Six years later in March 1776, the Spanish missionary Pedro Font (Pere Font) scouted a strategic, windswept peninsula at the mouth of a massive, sheltered bay. Recognizing its immense geographic importance, the Franciscans earmarked the location for a premier mission dedicated to the founder of their order: Saint Francis of Assisi.
On October 9, 1776, Fray Francisco Palóu and Fray Pedro Benito Cambón formally founded Mission San Francisco de Asís. It quickly became known locally as Mission Dolores, named after a nearby creek (Arroyo de Nuestra Señora de los Dolores). The native Ohlone population provided the labour to manufacture 36,000 adobe bricks, completing the four-foot-thick walls of the historic chapel in 1791. Junípero Serra himself celebrated mass at the site during its construction.
Pobladores - The settlers recruited by the Spanish
By 1781, the Spanish Empire had a logistical problem in Alta California. They had established military forts (presidios) and religious missions along the coast to secure their territorial claims against Russian and British expansion, but these outposts were constantly running out of food.
Supply ships from Baja California were unreliable, and overland routes were incredibly long and dangerous. To solve this, the Spanish crown ordered the creation of civilian farming towns (pueblos) whose primary purpose was to grow enough grain and livestock to feed the military.
The settlers recruited by the Spanish government to build this new town were known as Los Pobladores. Unlike the wealthy Spanish aristocrats often depicted in romanticized histories of early California, the original 44 settlers (comprising 11 families) were working-class farmers recruited from the present-day Mexican states of Sonora and Sinalo.
San José - California's first secular town was El Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe next to the Mission Santa Clara de Asís founded in November 1777. The Spanish authorities established the settlers specifically to support the military forts in San Francisco and Monterey, which were struggling to survive on delayed supply ships.
Los Angeles settlement was the second of these agricultural towns in California. Governor Felipe de Neve and 44 multi-ethnic settlers officially establish the secular farming pueblo to supply Spanish military forts.
A decade earlier, in 1769, the Spanish Portolá expedition had camped near a river in the area. They arrived on August 2nd, which happened to be the Catholic feast day honoring the "Porciúncula" (a small chapel in Italy that St. Francis of Assisi had famously restored, translating to the "Little Portion"). They named the river after this feast day.
When the town was founded it adopted the full religious title. They named it El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula (The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels of Porciúncula). The El Pueblo monument sits today on present-day Olvera Street. Thankfully, over time, it was simply shortened to Los Angeles.
San Francisco was different
San Francisco, unlike San Jose and Los Angeles, there was no official Spanish "Pueblo of San Francisco". The Franciscans founded the Mission San Francisco de Asís in 1776 and the Spanish Military founded The Presidio.but they never later established a corresponding civilian farming pueblo. For decades, the area remained just a remote military outpost and a religious mission.
After Mexico won independence from Spain in 1821, they began to secularize the missions, stripping the Franciscan friars of their vast landholdings. By the early 1830s, a small, unofficial trading post had started to form around a natural cove on the bay, a few miles east of the Presidio and the Mission. The locals called the area Yerba Buena after a minty plant that grew abundantly along the shore.
Yerba Buena wasn't an agricultural pueblo designed to feed the military like San Jose; it was a maritime trading hub where ships swapped manufactured goods for California cowhides and tallow. Yerba Buena remained a tiny, muddy village of a few hundred people for years.
In July 1846, U.S. naval forces sailed into the bay, raised the American flag, and claimed the territory. A few months later, in early 1847, the U.S. military governor, Washington Bartlett, officially changed the town's name from Yerba Buena to San Francisco.
Just a year later, in 1848, gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill. The tiny trading settlement of San Francisco exploded, transforming from a quiet village of a few hundred residents into a booming, chaotic metropolis of tens of thousands almost overnight.
So perhaps the founding of the city of San Francisco was not directly attributed to the Friars, but the name of the city certainly was.
A Living Monument in Palma del Río
The historical link between the banks of the Guadalquivir and the Pacific coast remains palpable. Today, the 15th-century Hotel Monasterio de San Francisco in Palma del Río still stands proudly. Meticulously restored, it operates as a unique historic hotel allowing visitors to walk through the very cloisters, orchards, and courtyards where the friars of Los Ángeles trained before changing the map of the Americas forever.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juniper_(friar)
https://www.ccel.org/ccel/ugolino/flowers.html
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/kathyschiffer/2015/01/the-lords-jester-and-the-pigs-feet-the-story-of-brother-juniper/
https://sandiegohistory.org/archives/books/serrassandiego.
Convento de San Francisco de Palma del Rio by Salvador Rodríguez Becerra.Associación Hispánico de Estudions Franciscanos Cordoba 2025
https://historia.nationalgeographic.com.es/a/monasterio-san-francisco-convento-palma-rio-cuyo-legado-llego-a-fundar-san-francisco-y-angeles_25427
Relación histórica de la vida y apostólicas tareas del venerable padre Fray Junípero Serra by Fray Francisco Palóu’s (1787);br: https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=g-SJ91JDDPIC&pg=GBS.PA8&hl=en_GB
https://archive.org/details/relacionhistoric00palo/page/14/mode/2up
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=ucm.5323541353&seq=47&q1=cadiz
Junípero Serra: California's Founding Father by Steven W. Hackel (2013)
The Life and Times of Fray Junípero Serra by Maynard J. Geiger, O.F.M. (1959)
https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/portola-expedition
https://www.treasureislandtheuntoldstory.com/serra
El Archivo General de Indias (Seville): The Casa de Contratación (Cadiz) records now housed in Seville contain the official passenger manifests (listas de pasajeros a Indias) for the 1749 voyage of the Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe.
Conversations with Don Alonso Moreno de la Cova, owner Hotel Monasterio de San Francisco 06-07-2026
https://www.facebook.com/HotelMonasterioSanFrancisco/videos/don-alonso-moreno-de-la-cova-nos-relata-la-historia-del-hotel-monasterio-de-san-/1521428122650650/
History of the Presidio. Info collected from the visitors centre December 2025.
Conversations with Terry Hanay, General Manager of the Inn at the Presidio 20-12-2025