“May your past make you better, not bitter.” ~ Timber Hawkeye
docent
Our last stop on the mission tour was 1755’s Mission Concepción. Mission Concepción is the oldest unrestored stone church in the U.S. There was a docent who talked briefly about its history, but most strikingly to me, he talked about being a descendent of the Coahuiltecan, the Native Americans in the Rio Grande Basin, which includes San Antonio, who were primary converts and labourers of the missions along the San Antonio River. Much of what I’ve read suggests that the Coahuiltecan who weren’t killed by European diseases like smallpox intermarried or were otherwise subsumed into the local mestizo population such that almost no Coahuiltecan exists today. That’s what makes this gentleman all the more fascinating. Imagine giving tours in a place whose people brought in diseases your ancestors had no immunity against and actively worked to acculturate them and essentially wiped out the entire band. Yet, I heard no malice and he was as good a docent as any other. I appreciated his telling. There’s a lot to unpack in this man’s history and in these missions, but they’re both part of our history, each worthy of wonder and appreciation.
door 3
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