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Essay on Eusebio Kino in Pimeria Alta
A man of many talents, Eusebio Kino was born on August 10, 1645, in Segno, Italy, a small town in the Tyrolese Alps. After recuperating from a serious illness, Kino joined the Society of Jesus in 1665. Although he wanted to go to the Orient, his orders gave him the choice of Spain or Mexico. After drawing his lot, Father Kino set out for Mexico in 1678.
Four years later, as the head of a Jesuit mission, he led the Atondo expedition to lower California. After a drought in 1685, Kino was forced back to Mexico City where he attempted to establish a mission program in the dry and inhospitable region of Baja California. The time was not yet ripe for this enterprise, however, and Kino was reassigned to northern Sonora in 1687 (Bannon, 1997).
Thus began a career in the Pimeria Alta that lasted until his death in 1711. An indefatigable traveler and worker, Kino started mission programs at twenty villages. He introduced Christianity and the Spanish Empire to what is now a wide area of southern Arizona and northern Sonora, Mexico. He also introduced wheat and beef cattle into the region. Over three centuries after Kino's arrival, the regional Mexican and Native diet is still strongly based on beef, cheese, and wheat products (Bannon, 1997).
Kino labored in the Pimería Alta until March, 1711, when he arrived in Magdalena to dedicate a new chapel to St. Francis, his patron saint. He fell suddenly ill and died near midnight on March 15, 1711. He was buried beneath the floor of the chapel he had come to dedicate. His bones were rediscovered in 1966, long after the chapel had disappeared from the scene. They are currently on display in their final resting place in the Magdalena plaza.
When Kino arrived in Mexico in 1681....
