Monjeríos
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Monjeríos were quarters within a colonial Spanish mission for the housing of unmarried Indigenous Californian girls and single women. Girls were taken away from their parents to the monjeríos at aroun
Monjeríos were "spaces of social monitoring" between mission padres and Indigenous girls. Image: 19th century engraving of Narciso Duran with a young neophyte girl (pictured).
Otto von Kotzebue visited Mission Santa Clara in 1824 and noted the miserable condition of the monjeríos.
Eulalia Pérez was a llavera (key-keeper) at Mission San Gabriel who noted an Indigenous woman by the name of Polonia who was recruited to secure the girls in the monjerío.
Fernando Librado was a Chumash man born at Mission San Buenaventura who recalled stories of Indigenous experiences of molestation and resistance at the monjeríos.
The San Antonio de Pala Asistencia, or the Pala Mission, was founded on June 13, 1816, as an asistencia or "sub-mission" to Mission San Luis Rey de Francia, some twenty miles inland upstream from the
The modern capilla (chapel) at "Pala Mission."
Pala Asistencia, with its original bell tower, circa 1875. The structure is loosely styled after a similar one at the Mission of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe located in Juárez, Mexico.
Pala Mission around 1903, falling into ruins
Pala's replica bell tower.