Mission and Turquoise Walking Tour

Tuesday, Gail and I took a day off to explore Tucson. It was nice to get a day to wander and soak in the heat of the place. I do really like this town. Hopefully at some point we will have a few days with the highs under 95... I think I over wished for warmth.

We went down to the San Xavier del Bac Mission and take the historic downtown Tucson Turquoise Trail walking tour.

The Misson, located on the Tohono O'odham reservation was beautiful and quite old dating to the 18th century under King Carlos III. Instead of tile work, designs and images were either plaster or painted. If you want to poke around, they have an online virtual tour of the place. URL is too long to paste here. Google it!

On the Mission ou will note that one of the towers on the Mission has a flat top - it seems that they ran out of money while constructing it so left one with that traditional pointed design and the other not. Strange.

I was struck by the early cooperation and then raw disrespect for the indigenous people by the Spanish. Not a surprise, but still stunning nonetheless.

Here is the quote from King Carlos III from Spain that sums up his sentiments towards even his own missionaries:
"Because of weighty considerations which His Majesty keeps hidden in his heart, the entire Society of Jesus and all Jesuits must leave the country and their establishments, and properties must be turned over to the Royal Treasures." In other words, get out and give me all your money!

The Turquoise Walking Tour of downtown Tucson was really interesting. We started by the Teatro Carmen which opened in 1915 named for the wife of the builder. Like much of Tucson, art and murals abound.

Nearby was a statute of Aztec Emperor Cuauhtémoc regarded as the first resistance fighter in the Americas.

We ate lunch at the Ferrin House (now the Coronet Restaurant) built in the 1860s by Joseph Ferrin and his wife, Terese. They and their daughter Clara were instrumental in building the first synagogue in Arizona just a few block away.

I happened to take a photo of some interesting rain spouts coming out of a nearby building. I thought these rather beautiful and each unique spouts were just for their artistic effect. In fact, the spouts jut out to that water doesn't drip on the adobe walls. Ya learn something new every day.

We visited the Pima County Courthouse that hosts the January 8th Memorial - dedicated to the men and women who were shot and killed along the injuring many others including US House Representative Gabby Giffords. A moving tribute and reminder of the tragedy.

I saw that Cyclovia was going to happen on Sunday, October 27th - Unfortunately, I was going to out knocking on doors. Something else I like doing. More on my campaign week on my next post. Czytaj więcej