At Peace
Peaceful. Quiet. Spiritual. Those are just some of the words I would use to express how I felt walking through the beautiful Yanaguana Trail of Mission San Juan Capistrano. The history of this mission ,that was established in 1716 as Mission San Juan de los Nazonis but later on March 5,1731 reestablished on the east bank of the San Antonio River and renamed Mission San Juan Capistrano, is amazing. This mission was actually moved from the woods of East Texas to the east bank of the San Antonio River. According to the message board when you first enter the trail states that the trail is part of the original channel of the San Antonio River. The word ‘Yanaguana’ means ‘the refreshing water’ by the Coahuiltecan people, and oh how it live up to that name. While I was walking by the river on a beautiful breezy afternoon, I felt so refreshed and relaxed listening to the flow of the river, even thought the river was calm you could see from the trees the damage that could be done by major floods. There are logs in trees and broken branches from the path that Mother Nature created for herself. There was no one else walking the trail there so I was able to enjoy the whole experience without being disturbed, as it would have been in the 1730’s with the birds singing and flying in the clear blue sky. No cars, no cell phones, no noise. It made me appreciate nature all over again. At that moment I knew exactly how according to his diary, Father Isidro Felix de Espinosa, the president of three east Texas missions, felt when he wrote on Thursday, May 14,1716,” By an open path we arrived at the river San Antonio worthy to be coveted, and praised for its pleasantness …its copious waters, which are blue, crystalline, and sweet..” The times have defiantly taken a toll on the environment which is evident when you consider what Father Damian Massenet states,” There are a great many fish, and upon those plains many turkey. Today there were so many buffalo that they mille through our horse herd and drew off forty horses.. I named this spot St Anthony of Padua, because it was his day, and in the Indian language it is called Yanaguana”. Even though we are no longer able to see such beautiful, awesome animals such as peccaries, buffalo or eels there still feels a presence of how rich this land once was in both animals and nutrition from the land to grow crops. These days now everything is handed to us, like HEB, internet, pizzas just a phone call away, and for the younger generations they truly don’t appreciate anything because they have truly never had to work in order to survive. If only we were able to travel back in time and live the way the mission Indians lived if only for a day so that maybe we would be able to appreciate now how much hard work it took for these wonderful structures to be built and how much hard work people used to do in order to survive then maybe we would have a better feeling of accomplishment.
Peaceful. Quiet. Spiritual. Those are just some of the words I would use to express how I felt walking through the beautiful Yanaguana Trail of Mission San Juan Capistrano. The history of this mission ,that was established in 1716 as Mission San Juan de los Nazonis but later on March 5,1731 reestablished on the east bank of the San Antonio River and renamed Mission San Juan Capistrano, is amazing. This mission was actually moved from the woods of East Texas to the east bank of the San Antonio River. According to the message board when you first enter the trail states that the trail is part of the original channel of the San Antonio River. The word ‘Yanaguana’ means ‘the refreshing water’ by the Coahuiltecan people, and oh how it live up to that name. While I was walking by the river on a beautiful breezy afternoon, I felt so refreshed and relaxed listening to the flow of the river, even thought the river was calm you could see from the trees the damage that could be done by major floods. There are logs in trees and broken branches from the path that Mother Nature created for herself. There was no one else walking the trail there so I was able to enjoy the whole experience without being disturbed, as it would have been in the 1730’s with the birds singing and flying in the clear blue sky. No cars, no cell phones, no noise. It made me appreciate nature all over again. At that moment I knew exactly how according to his diary, Father Isidro Felix de Espinosa, the president of three east Texas missions, felt when he wrote on Thursday, May 14,1716,” By an open path we arrived at the river San Antonio worthy to be coveted, and praised for its pleasantness …its copious waters, which are blue, crystalline, and sweet..” The times have defiantly taken a toll on the environment which is evident when you consider what Father Damian Massenet states,” There are a great many fish, and upon those plains many turkey. Today there were so many buffalo that they mille through our horse herd and drew off forty horses.. I named this spot St Anthony of Padua, because it was his day, and in the Indian language it is called Yanaguana”. Even though we are no longer able to see such beautiful, awesome animals such as peccaries, buffalo or eels there still feels a presence of how rich this land once was in both animals and nutrition from the land to grow crops. These days now everything is handed to us, like HEB, internet, pizzas just a phone call away, and for the younger generations they truly don’t appreciate anything because they have truly never had to work in order to survive. If only we were able to travel back in time and live the way the mission Indians lived if only for a day so that maybe we would be able to appreciate now how much hard work it took for these wonderful structures to be built and how much hard work people used to do in order to survive then maybe we would have a better feeling of accomplishment.
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