The revolt against Spanish colonial rule was inevitable. The Tongva people were forced into baptism, and stripped of their culture, language and religion. A desperate attempt by the Spanish on a mission from god to civilise these savage people. But this was no holy war. The Spanish had already won. The Tongva were beaten into submission and forced to work the fields, all in the service of Spanish domination. Something had to give. This is the story of one 25-year-old woman whose brave revolt was met with lethal force…
Life under San Gabriel’s Rule
Spain laid claim to what’s now the western coast of America in 1542. Juan Rodriquez Cabrillo set out on a voyage of exploration… and conquest. All in the name of the king. Initially, they didn’t set out to colonise these territories, but that was about to change.
By the late 18th century, the British, French and Russians all wanted a piece of the west coast. Their curious glances worried the Spanish. So, anxious to cement their claim, Charles III ordered the Portolà Expedition to head north from Mexico to establish colonies along the west coast.
The expedition set out in 1769, slowly making its way up the coast. It established missions as it went, the first in San Diego. Missions were crucial to the Spanish efforts to colonise what is now California. Ultimately, the Spanish created 21 missions, all manned by Franciscan friars. Their mission?
To convert the savages to Catholicism, or to ‘civilise’ the natives.
But it was a trap. Once baptised, they became enslaved to the religious order. They were resettled in the missions and forced to work for the friars. They forced the natives to build new settlements and tend to the land, with no regard for their culture or the sacred lands beneath their feet.
Thousands and thousands of years of culture was wiped out. The natives were forbidden from practising their beliefs and all cultural traditions ceased. In 1771, the San Gabriel Mission was established at the Whittier Narrows on the fertile ground where the Rio Hondo and San Gabriel Rivers pass through the Puente and Montebello Hills.
It was ironic that the Portolà Expedition went to great lengths to establish peaceful relations with the natives. But once the Spanish came, the honeymoon period was over. Now the expedition had the numbers to reinforce their power.
Once, few in number, they had to make nice with the locals. But now? Now their true colours shone…
In 1776, the Spanish moved the San Gabriel Mission five miles northwest, right on the edge of the Tongva village of Shevaanga. At the time, there were 5,000 Tongva people across a 1,500-square-mile area. In this, there were at least 50 different Tongva communities. The largest village, Yang-Na, is now occupied by Los Angeles City Hall.
Inevitably, disputes arose between the colonisers and the native peoples. But for some time, they lived peacefully side-by-side. Of course, it was all a pretence as the expedition leaders waited for backup. The native people had no idea what was coming for them.
They had no chance of resisting the Spanish, or at least not for very long. The Tongva faced many dangers, namely disease. They had little to no resistance to European disease, with syphilis, smallpox and measles ravaging the Tongva people. We know that today, over 6,000 indigenous people are buried at the San Gabriel Mission.
Many of them died of disease, others were slaughtered. Yet more died toiling under the Sun. Enslavement was inevitable. Relations between the colonisers and the natives deteriorated rapidly. When the Spanish built a new town on tribal land in 1781, the natives were furious. A group from San Gabriel, new converts, and Tongva people had had enough.
In 1786, French sea captain Comte de Lapérouse, who passed through the area, wrote:
‘The moment an Indian allowed himself to be baptised, he relinquished every particle of liberty and subjected himself body and soul to tyranny, from which there was no escape.’
The missions claimed the natives as their own. And so the Tongva decided to fight back. Their mission? To kill every last Spanish missionary and soldier. Little did the Tongva realise just how powerful the Spanish were…
The Plot to End the Mission
Toypurina [toy-purr-eena] was born in 1769 in Japchivit, a Tongva community. The various communities competed with one another for the limited resources the valley offered. But the Spanish Missions were encroaching on their land.
Toypurina watched as her people were exploited and forced to convert to Catholicism. She saw the brutality of those who resisted first-hand. To retain their tribal culture, religious practices and beliefs, many natives resisted the colonisers.
Spanish assimilation was not an option for many natives.
The attack against San Gabriel was to take place on the evening of October 25th, 1785…
We’re not sure what exactly sparked the revolt, but it’s thought it came after the Spanish forbade traditional dances. These dances were extremely important for helping the dead find their way to the afterlife.
Without the dances, their souls would be trapped in limbo, stuck between worlds.
The missionaries were lenient until this point, but something changed. They became incredibly strict. Neophytes, in particular, became a real problem. These were natives who had recently converted to Catholicism but held on to many of their traditions.
The Spanish could not tolerate this anymore. They wanted complete subservience.
One neophyte, a man named Nicolás José, approached Toypurina to see if she could rally the surrounding villages and lead an assault on the mission. While we don’t know much about Toypurina’s life, we know she was a highly-respected medicine woman and religious figure, despite being just 25.
Oh, and she was also pregnant.
José, along with other leaders such as Temejasaquichí and Alijivit, believed Toypurina could use her ‘divine influence’ to immobilise the priests while the rebel natives killed the Spanish soldiers. Toypurina did not hesitate. She rose to the challenge.
Not long before she was asked to lead the rebellion, she saw a local chief killed by Spanish soldiers in front of his wife and the entire village. They then raped his wife, again in front of the entire village. Moments like this stayed with Toypurina. It wasn’t a choice to stand up to the Spanish. It was more of a duty than anything.
And so she set off to convince the villages to join the rebellion. But it did not work out as Toypurina had hoped…
The Punishment for Rebellion
Under the cover of darkness, the rebel natives crept up on the mission. Unfortunately for them, a Spanish corporal had overheard Temejasaquichí warning Tongva residents of an impending attack. The rebellion was over before it even started.
Spanish soldiers waited to ambush the natives. The Tongva never stood a chance. They had no firearms. What chance did they have? The Spanish arrested dozens of rebels and imprisoned them, awaiting interrogation. In other words, torture.
The Spanish set out to punish every native who was involved in the revolt. Under Spanish law, leaders of the revolt could be sentenced to death. During the trials, all the natives denied any knowledge of the plot. A common response was:
“I don’t know anything.”
Some who testified attempted to pin all the blame on Toypurina, with some claiming she used her ‘special powers’ to trick them. But Toypurina did not shy away from her role. She freely admitted what she did, claiming she had instructed the head of her village to join the revolt. She even admitted to being there at the time of the attack to:
“Encourage the men to be brave and fight.”
She declared she did this because she was angry. Sick of the Spanish. That she wanted them off her land. She actually said this. To the Spanish. While on trial. The Spanish were humiliated. This young woman had outwitted the authorities after months of planning.
It’s said that, during her trial, she kicked over the stool she was given to sit on, demanding to stand during her testimony. The Spanish officials sentenced five people to 25 lashes and another 12 to receive 15 or 20 lashes, carried out in public.
Toypurina was held in solitary confinement for 16 months and repeatedly flogged, during which time the Spanish took her newborn child from her. Toypurina was forcibly baptised. In doing so, she would not be executed.
After extensive discussions, the Spanish decided to transfer Toypurina to another mission, ‘as far away as possible’, so she wouldn’t bother them anymore. Some people say she was willingly baptised, but this isn’t true.
She had no choice. What if she didn’t? They would kill her. And then her child would have no one. And are we forgetting that the Spanish had her child and wouldn’t let Toypurina see him until she was baptised? Come on, of course she didn’t do it willingly.
As with all baptisms, the Spanish assigned the baptised a Spanish name, forbidding the baptised to use their native name. Toypurina was given the name Regina Josefa. She spent the rest of her life in exile.
She later married a former soldier, Manuel Montero, the man who helped establish Los Angeles. He and Toypurina had three children together, while Manuel adopted Toypurina’s first child. The descendants of these four children are alive to this day, living in California.
We have no idea if Toypurina truly loved Manuel or if it was a marriage of convenience. Suffice to say, she was intelligent and knew what it took to survive.
Toypurina died on May 2nd 1799 at the age of just 39. To add insult to injury, she was buried not in her tribal land but at the Spanish Mission San Juan Bautista, where she remains to this day. Of course her family had no say on this matter.
The Remarkable Tongva Revolt of San Gabriel
The natives never stood a chance against the colonisers. The missions became even more powerful. In 1834, after Mexico gained its independence from Spain, the missions were secularised and the lands sold off. Even then, the Tongva survived in this area well into the 1880s. But, by the early 20th century, much of the San Gabriel Valley, as it became known, was developed and every inch of tribal land was paved over. San Gabriel, San Marino, Pasadena and Alhambra became suburbs of Los Angeles County, the City Hall itself standing as an insult to the Tongva people, rising from a once magnificent tribal village of theirs.
The revolt against Spanish colonial rule was, ultimately, futile. But for what the Tongva people endured, a rebellion was inevitable. Something had to give. Toypurina, at the heart of the uprising, was not a failure. Her story continues to inspire to this day.
She was a medicine woman of the Tongva people, rallying support and leading the revolt against San Gabriel at just 25. The bravery that took is astonishing. After all, the Tongva people did not have guns and the Spanish very much did.
Was it a fool’s endeavour? No, of course not. Toypurina became a symbol of resistance to oppression. How it’s better to do SOMETHING rather than nothing. Yes, her people paid a heavy price. By the 1900s, the last Tongva had gone from their ancestral lands and their culture effectively ceased to exist.
But Toypurina is one of the reasons we even remember them at all. 2,000 Tongva people survive, and although their language is no longer spoken, it survives in places such as Pasadena, a Tongva word. Yes, Toypurina’s rebellion was unsuccessful. But her story is about so much more than a foiled uprising.
Her story is one of resilience and survival against the odds. One of oppression and what we can do to stop it. All across the San Gabriel Valley today, there are murals of Toypurina, including one that’s 60 feet wide.
They remind us of the story of one 25-year-old woman, the message of her brave revolt living on to this day.
When on trial and questioned about the attack, Toypurina responded by saying:
“[I hate] the padres and all of you, for living here on my native soil, for trespassing upon the land of my forefathers and despoiling our tribal domains… I came [to the mission] to inspire the dirty cowards to fight, and not to quail at the sight of Spanish sticks that spit fire and death, nor [to] retch at the evil smell of gun smoke – and be done with you white invaders!”
Toodle-Pip :}{:
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My Other Blogs: The Indelible Life of Me | To Contrive & Jive
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Image Credit
https://contendingmodernities.nd.edu/global-currents/beyond-aztlan/
Post Sources
https://www.aclunc.org/sites/goldchains/explore/toypurina.html, https://blogs.iwu.edu/history-lbjerkan/files/2019/02/ToypurinaPoster.pdf, https://wams.nyhistory.org/settler-colonialism-and-revolution/settler-colonialism/toypurina/, https://www.missionscalifornia.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Toypurina-Final.pdf, https://www.laalmanac.com/history/hi710.php, https://www.thereallosangelestours.com/toypurina-la-freedom-fighter/, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toypurina, http://depthome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/latinashistory/toypurina.html, https://www.kcet.org/history-society/toypurina-a-legend-etched-in-the-landscape-of-los-angeles
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