Junipero Serra

“At last, in Steven W. Hackel’s Junípero Serra, we have an intelligent and authoritative biography of the founder of California. Hackel’s engaging narrative deftly transports us to the end of the 18th century and the frontier of the Spanish Empire. His Serra is neither sinner nor saint, but rather a devout idealist who quietly helps unleash powerful forces of social change. Junípero Serra is an essential contribution to the history of the West.”—Héctor Tobar, author of The Barbarian Nurseries

“Steven W. Hackel’s stunning biography so fully recreates Father Junípero Serra’s eighteenth-century life that one can almost feel the passionate certitude and searing drive that Serra employed to convert so many native Californians to Christianity and the cultural destruction and human emptiness that Serra’s success unleashed upon them after his death. Hackel’s exhaustive research quietly magnifies the measured judgments that propel this compellingly intimate, yet historically expansive biography. It surpasses anything ever written about the West Coast’s most potent and controversial ‘founding father.’” —Jon Butler, author of Awash in a Sea of Faith

“Steven W. Hackel’s well researched and elegantly written biography steers clear of both celebration and condemnation of Junipero Serra. Delving into the medieval and early modern history of Spain, Mallorca, New Spain, and the Catholic Church, Hackel breathes life into Serra the child, the young priest, the professor, and the tenacious Franciscan missionary. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of California and for lovers of biography.” —Sylvia L. Hilton, coauthor of Nexus of Empire

“It’s the rare scholar who can peel back hundreds of years of time to so carefully reveal the complex stories of Franciscan, indigenous, Spanish, New World, and Mallorcan history. Steven Hackel fits the bill perfectly, and in this rich portrait of Father Junípero Serra, we see entire worlds collide, overlap, and forever influence one another. As complex and remarkable as the times in which he lived and shaped, Serra has long deserved a careful, smart, and judicious study, and now we have it.”—William Deverell, chair, USC history department, and author of Whitewashed Adobe: The Rise of Los Angeles and the Remaking of Its Mexican Past

“Junípero Serra was a man for all seasons: a saint as well as an ogre, a ‘founding father,’ an agricultural visionary, and a merciless imperialist—in short, a figure whose legacy is nothing if not polarizing. Steven Hackel is a courageous biographer. His portrait of the Franciscan priest who invented California doesn’t shy away from controversy: it is as evenhanded as it is humane. It proves, yet again, that this nation wasn’t only built by Puritans; it was also shaped by Spanish conquistadors, explorers, and missionaries whose choices continue to define us in countless ways. All this to say that I read Hackel’s reconsideration with admiration: he is a worthy successor of Hubert Howe Bancroft and David Weber.” —Ilan Stavans, general editor of The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature

"Steven W. Hackel’s Junípero Serra is both a compelling narrative and a comprehensive study of the complexities of Serra’s life and the transformative events of his time. Hackel’s mastery on classic and modern sources, as well as his ability to locate new archival materials, has allowed him to fully reconstruct Serra’s personal and intellectual backgrounds. This book is the new cornerstone for the examination of Serra’s context and legacy. A masterpiece.”—Jose Refugio de la Torre Curiel, author of Twilight of the Mission Frontier