San Junípero Serra was fatigued from a long ride. On one side of him was a leather-jacket Spanish soldier. On the other was a Tongva interpreter from Mission San Gabriel. Behind them were dozens of cattle destined for the newly founded Mission San Juan Capistrano.
Along the way, Serra and his companions noticed a number of Acjachmen from the village of Alauna shouting at them. Serra’s apprehensions started to rise when he saw they were armed with bows and arrows. The Acjachemen numbers swelled to the point of blocking the road, cutting off Serra and his companions.
Everything slowed to a halt. The dust kicked up by the animals began to rise. Serra and the soldier pleaded with the interpreter to intervene. He shouted in his native language that they should be allowed to pass. But he didn’t understand the responses of the Acjachemen on the road, who spoke in an unfamiliar language.
In a last-ditch effort to restore calm, the interpreter yelled that there were other Spanish soldiers in the area who were ready to fight if they or the cattle were harmed. On hearing this, the people blocking the road backed down, indicating that they understood the interpreter even if he didn’t understand them. Before the adrenaline and pounding of hearts had time to moderate, Serra had pivoted into his duties as a benevolent missionary. He called the once threatening Acjachemen over, blessed them with the sign of the cross, and distributed gifts of glass beads.
The year 2026 marks 250 years since this scene occurred in 1776 in today’s O’Neill Park, near Arroyo Vista Street. You can hike along the same trail today, that winds along the mesa above Trabuco Creek. This was the original Camino Real, the pathway connecting San Diego and Monterey at the beginning of the Spanish period. The first overland expedition under Gaspar de Portolá travelled this same road in 1769. So, too, did Juan Bautista de Anza in 1776, just months before the incident between Serra and the Acjachemen.
It is due to Anza’s use of this road that we know the origin of the name “Trabuco.” A diarist with the Anza Expedition, Father Pedro Font, wrote that “the ‘El Trabuco stream’” was “given this name on the first expedition [under Portolá] because they lost a blunderbuss at this place.” A blunderbuss was an early short-barreled firearm, somewhat like an early shotgun. It has never been found.
When we see images of the Anza Trail Color Guard, it is worth imagining them in the natural setting of O’Neill Park. They were there 250 years ago. And from the mesa peering down on the oaks and sycamores in the canyon bottom with “Old Saddleback” rising mightily behind, you can well imagine them being there today.
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30892 Trabuco Canyon Rd, Trabuco Canyon, CA 92679
