Sigismundo Taraval

Sigismundo Taraval (1700–1763) was a pioneering Jesuit missionary in Baja California who wrote important historical accounts of the peninsula.

Born in Lodi, Lombardy, he served initially as missionary at La Purísima (1730–1732) and San Ignacio (1732-1733), among the Cochimí.^[1] A notable episode while he was at San Ignacio was the bringing of the inhabitants of Cedros Island to the mission.^[2][3] In a relatively detailed account of the islanders' aboriginal lifeways, Taraval presented what were perhaps the earliest speculations concerning the region's prehistoric past.^[4]

In 1733 he was sent south to found the Misión Santa Rosa de las Palmas at the modern site of Todos Santos. The following year, the local Pericú and Guaycura Indians staged a serious revolt against Jesuit rule, and Taraval was forced to flee, first to La Paz and then to Isla Espíritu Santo. He wrote a detailed if partisan account of the revolt and its subsequent suppression.^[5][6]

Subsequently Taraval later served at the southern missions of San José del Cabo (1736–1746) and Santiago (1747–1750).^[7][8] He left the peninsula in 1750 to serve at the Jesuit college in Guadalajara.

Taraval Street in San Francisco is named after him.

References

1. Crosby, Harry W. 1994. Antigua California: Mission and Colony on the Peninsular Frontier, 1697–1768, p. 410. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.
2. Des Lauriers, Matthew R., and Claudia García Des Lauriers. 2006. "The 'Huamalgüeños' of Isla Cedros, Baja California, as Described in Father Miguel Venegas' 1739 Manuscript Obras Californians. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 26:123–152.
3. Venegas, Miguel. 1979. Empressas Apostolicas de los PP. Missioneros de la Compañia de Jesus, de la Provincia de Nueva Espaňa Obradas en la Conquista de California, pp. 389–409. Obras californianas del padre Miguel Venegas, S.J., vol. 4. Universidad Autónoma de Baja California Sur, La Paz, Mexico.
4. Laylander, Don. 2014. "The Beginnings of Prehistoric Archaeology in Baja California, 1732-1913". Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly 50(1&2):1–3.
5. Taraval, Sigismundo. 1931. The Indian Uprising in Lower California, 1734–1737. Edited by Marguerite Eyer Wilbur. Quivira Society, Los Angeles.
6. Taraval, Sigismundo. 1996. La rebelión de los Californios. Edited by Eligio Moisés Coronado. Doce Calles, Madrid.
7. Burrus, Ernest J. 1984. Jesuit Relations: Baja California, 1716–1762, 35–36. Dawson's Book Shop, Los Angeles.
8. Crosby, Harry W. 1994. Antigua California: Mission and Colony on the Peninsular Frontier, 1697–1768, p. 410. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.