José de Grácia Cruz (c. 1848 – 1924) was a

Acjachemen The Acjachemen (, alternate spelling: Acagchemem) are an Indigenous people of California. They historically lived south of what is known as Aliso Creek and north of the Las Pulgas Canyon in what are now the southern areas of Orange County and t ...

man who was born in 1848 at

Mission San Juan Capistrano Mission San Juan Capistrano ( es, Misión San Juan Capistrano) is a Spanish mission in San Juan Capistrano, Orange County, California. Founded November 1, 1776 in colonial ''Las Californias'' by Spanish Catholic missionaries of the Franciscan O ...

. He was known for his work as a

bell ringer A bell-ringer is a person who rings a bell, usually a church bell, by means of a rope or other mechanism. Despite some automation of bells for random swinging, there are still many active bell-ringers in the world, particularly those with an adv ...

at the mission, as an

artisan An artisan (from french: artisan, it, artigiano) is a skilled craft worker who makes or creates material objects partly or entirely by hand. These objects may be functional or strictly decorative, for example furniture, decorative art ...

, a

flutist The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with Reed (instrument), reeds, a fl ...

in a native orchestra that would play at the mission, a sheep shearer, and for his knowledge of the

Juaneño language The Acjachemen (, alternate spelling: Acagchemem) are an Indigenous people of California. They historically lived south of what is known as Aliso Creek and north of the Las Pulgas Canyon in what are now the southern areas of Orange County and t ...

and village sites, including

Puvunga Puvunga (alternate spellings: Puvungna or Povuu'nga) is an ancient village and sacred site of the Tongva nation, the Indigenous people of the Los Angeles Basin, and the Acjachemen, the Indigenous people of Orange County now located at Californi ...

. He was also the source of the story of the mission's swallows in St. John O'Sullivan's ''Capistrano Nights'' (1930). He was referred to locally as "Acǘ," a

nickname A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is ...

that was reportedly given to him as a child by his parents.{{Cite book , title=Capistrano Nights , publisher=Wildside Press , year=2007 , isbn=9781434489722 , pages= , orig-date=1930

Life

Gracia Cruz was born at Mission San Juan Capistrano in 1848. He lived his whole life in the town and had relatives in the native village of

Temecula Temecula (; es, Temécula, ; Luiseño: ''Temeekunga'') is a city in southwestern Riverside County, California, United States. The city had a population of 110,003 as of the 2020 census and was incorporated on December 1, 1989. The city is a t ...

. His father, Lázaro, was a bell ringer at the Mission, and he inherited this position from him. His father taught him how to ring in regard to various events, including for feast days and other public occasions. In December 1907,

Alfred Kroeber Alfred Louis Kroeber (June 11, 1876 – October 5, 1960) was an American cultural anthropologist. He received his PhD under Franz Boas at Columbia University in 1901, the first doctorate in anthropology awarded by Columbia. He was also the first ...

recorded that "it was found possible to spend a short time with an elderly Juaneño called Jose de Gracia Cruz, born at the Mission and living almost within hail of it and the present railroad station. The vocabulary obtained from him is obtained below." The

vocabulary provided by Grácia Cruz included numbers, family members, relationships, body parts, natural phenomena, animals, actions, and more. Later in his life, he was asked by St. John O'Sullivan why he had not become wealthy from his work as a sheep shearer, leading a sheep shearing band from Rincon and Pala. Grácia Cruz responded: "It is not good for an Indian to be rich, padre. There are not any rich Indians. It would not do, padre. A rich Indian is proud; he won't take orders from you or any American; but when all his money is gone... he is very humble." Historian Lisbeth Haas argued that Grácia Cruz used

double meaning A double entendre (plural double entendres) is a figure of speech or a particular way of wording that is devised to have a double meaning, of which one is typically obvious, whereas the other often conveys a message that would be too socially ...

in this reply, stating that "the irony escaped the priest" who saw Gracia Cruz as a "child of the mission." In ''Capistrano Nights'' (1930), Grácia Cruz is noted as having replied to the question of "How are you?" as "Very sad, patron. Because, patron, I am very old; also I am very poor, for God does not help me. I am now working these fifty years, and I have no money." After many years of his work throughout his life, Grácia Cruz died in 1924. His nephew, Paul Arbiso, became the bell ringer at the mission some time after his death.

Legacy

The publication of O'Sullivan's ''Capistrano Nights'' (1930) memorialized Grácia Cruz's life in print, which was reprinted numerous times following its original publication.

References

Acjachemen California Mission Indians 1848 births 1924 deaths People from San Juan Capistrano, California