Traces the life of the Spanish explorer and missionary who traveled to Mexico and California to teach the Indians about Christianity and who established nine missions along the California coast.
Discusses the history of California missions, their dual purpose of converting people to Catholicism and consolidating Spanish territory, and the daily life of friars and natives.
Examines the Christian views of explorers Christopher Columbus and Hern?n Cort?s, arguing that evangelizing was one of their main reasons for coming to the New World and that this fact has been obscured by revisionist history; and also discusses the early Norse explorers and the Crusades.
Tells the story of the Chumash Indians, the soldiers, and the missionaries at the southern California mission of La Purisima, which was founded on December 8, 1787.
Presents a tour of this Spanish-built mission in California from the point of view of a priest, two Chumash Indian residents, and two military officers.
Discusses the Mission San Juan Capistrano from its founding in 1776 to the present day, including the reasons for Spanish colonization in California and the effects of colonization on the Acagchemem, or Juane?o, Indians.
