The Challenges of Spanish Colonization: Struggles and Accommodation in the
Eighteenth Century
San Antonio Missions and Assimilation In the following paper I will discuss the sources of Chapter 3; The Challenges of Spanish Colonization: Struggles and Accommodation in the Eighteenth Century, in the book Major problems in Texas History. The essay “Self-Sufficiency and the San Antonio Missions” by Gilberto Hinojosa, is the secondary source. This source differs from the primary sources in the chapter in that the author disagrees with what they say was the primary goal of the Franciscans. To elaborate further, I will discuss a few of the primary sources next. In the third document of the chapter, Father Gaspar Jose de Solis Praises the Productivity of Indians at the San Jose Mission, it is made clear that the father is pleased with how well the Indians are being integrated. The father is pleased with how well the Indians are being integrated into Spanish society. The father goes on to say that “all the Indian men and women are very well trained in civilized customs and Christianity. All of them know how to pray the Christian doctrine and the mysteries of the holy faith; all speak the Spanish language… All know how to pray and have been baptized.” This shows how well the Indians have developed in their new surroundings and works as a sort of checklist for what the Franciscans want from the Indian’s assimilation. Historian Gilberto M. Hinojosa begs to differ with the idea of assimilation being a goal however. In his essay Self-Sufficiency and the San Antonio Missions, Hinojosa believes that assimilation into Spanish culture and lifestyle was not even “seriously considered.” Instead he believes that “quite the contrary, the work and life in the missions and the building programs directed by the padres were designed to create permanent communities completely separate from the other institutions on the frontier.” This means that Hinojosa disagrees with the idea that the Franciscans were trying to bring the Indians into their culture and he instead thinks that