Pedro Font (1737–1781) was a Franciscan missionary and diarist.

Biography

He was born in 1737 in

Girona Girona (officially and in Catalan language, Catalan , Spanish: ''Gerona'' ) is a city in northern Catalonia, Spain, at the confluence of the Ter River, Ter, Onyar, Galligants, and Güell rivers. The city had an official population of 103,369 in ...

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the north ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. Font received his training at Querétaro Missionary College. From 1773 to 1775, he served at

Mission San José de Tumacácori Mission San José de Tumacácori ( ood, Cemagĭ Gakolig) is a historic Spanish mission preserved in its present form by Franciscans in 1828. History Mission San Cayetano del Tumacácori was established by Jesuits in 1691 in a location near a Soba ...

in Pima Country. He was the chaplain of

Juan Bautista de Anza Juan Bautista de Anza Bezerra Nieto (July 6 or 7, 1736 – December 19, 1788) was an expeditionary leader, military officer, and politician primarily in California and New Mexico under the Spanish Empire. He is credited as one of the founding fa ...

's expedition that explored

Alta California Alta California ('Upper California'), also known as ('New California') among other names, was a province of New Spain, formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but ...

from 1775 to 1776. Font authored the diary ''With Anza to California'', the principal account of the expedition. While a member of the expedition, Font created one of the first maps of

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland. San Francisco Bay drains water from a ...

in early 1776. He also identified the site for the proposed

Mission San Francisco de Asís Mission San Francisco de Asís ( es, Misión San Francisco de Asís), commonly known as Mission Dolores (as it was founded near the Dolores creek), is a Spanish Californian mission and the oldest surviving structure in San Francisco. Located i ...

, which would be established later that year by Fathers

Junípero Serra Junípero Serra y Ferrer (; ; ca, Juníper Serra i Ferrer; November 24, 1713August 28, 1784) was a Spanish Roman Catholic priest and missionary of the Franciscan Order , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size ...

and

Francisco Palóu Francesc Palou (in Catalan) or Francisco Palóu (1723–1789) was a Spanish Franciscan missionary, administrator and historian on the Baja California Peninsula and in Alta California. Palóu made significant contributions to the Alta California ...

. Font was also involved in the excommunication of then-military governor

Fernando Rivera y Moncada Fernando Javier Rivera y Moncada (c. 1725 – July 18, 1781) was a Mexican-born soldier of the Spanish Empire who served in The Californias (''Las Californias''), the far north-western frontier of New Spain. He participated in several early ove ...

, whose use of force on a neophyte is described in detail in ''With Anza to California''. Font later served at Mission Santa Teresa de Atil, Mission Santa Maria Magdalena,

Mission San Pedro y San Pablo del Tubutama Mission San Pedro y San Pablo del Tubutama is located in Tubutama, Sonora and was first founded in 1691 by Father Eusebio Francisco Kino. Father Antonio de los Reyes on 6 July 1772 submitted a report on the condition of the missions in the Upp ...

and La Purísima Concepción de Caborca prior to his death at the ''visita'' of San Diego del Pitiquito in 1781. In 1777, Pedro Font's map named the mountain range currently known as the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...

. Font described the

California grizzly bear The California grizzly bear (''Ursus arctos californicus'') is an extinct population or subspecies of the brown bear, generally known (together with other North American brown bear populations) as the grizzly bear. "Grizzly" could have meant "gri ...

, writing, "He was horrible, fierce, large, and fat." Font interacted with Native Americans and observed

homosexual Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to peop ...

behavior and saw a great need for Christianity to eradicate these "nefarious practices." quoted in

Legacy

Font Street, in San Francisco's

Parkmerced Parkmerced is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California, designed by architects Leonard Schultze and Thomas Dolliver Church in the early 1940s. Parkmerced is the second-largest single-owner neighborhood of apartment blocks west of the Mississi ...

neighborhood is named for him.''The Chronicle'' 12 April 1987 p.7 It intersects Arballo Drive ironically, as Arballo Drive is named for Senora Maria Feliciana Arballo, whom Font did not like. "Two centuries ago Font got in a huff over the actions of the young widow Senora Arballo, who, after a particularly difficult day of the journey, entertained the travelers and herself with 'the scandal of the fandango which lasted very late,' wrote Font. That wasn't all, he wrote indignantly "She sang some verses which were not at all nice."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Font, Pedro 18th-century diarists Franciscan missionaries Spanish Friars Minor 18th-century Spanish Roman Catholic priests Roman Catholic missionaries in New Spain People in colonial Arizona 1737 births 1781 deaths