Eusebio Kino was an Arizona cartographer
A glimpse at a Jesuit missionary and desert pioneer who is being considered for sainthood by the Catholic Church
Eusebio Kino was an Arizona cartographer, but he did much more than draw maps. He was a priest, a peacemaker, and a writer. People who study Kino’s legacy have described him as a “bridge builder of people and cultures.” Kino spent 30 years in the Sonoran Desert at the end of 17th century. In his work as a missionary, he is remembered as a dedicated humanist who sought to understand and defend the Native peoples he encountered. Today, more than 300 years after his efforts in this area, during a time of heightened tension along the U.S. - Mexico border, Kino’s spirit is invoked as a symbol of unity.
In 1965, Arizona placed a statue of Eusebio Kino in the U.S. Capitol building — an honor bestowed on exactly two people per state. Barry Goldwater, who would one day be memorialized as Arizona’s second statue, wrote a piece in 1966 detailing the historical and political momentum that resulted in the placement of Kino’s statue.
Dedication day for the Kino statue was February 14th, 1965. Here’s a portion of the dedication remarks read by Stewart Udall, an Arizona politician who was serving as Secretary of the Interior under President Lyndon Johnson:
… but the thought that I have to leave with you here today – I think we in Arizona can take special pride in this – is that among those that laid the foundations, the earliest foundations of this country, were men who came not to conquer, but to build. Men who were men of peace …
Eusebio Kino was born in Italy in 1645. As a young man, upon recovering from a desperate illness, he made the decision to become a Jesuit priest. His training included the study of “cosmography,” which included a rudimentary form of map-making. Kino had hoped to travel to Asia for missionary work, but then, when drawing lots with a fellow priest, he drew the short straw and was ordered to the New World, arriving in Mexico City in 1681.
A decade later, Kino made his way to present day Arizona. Along with a travel companion and under the guidance of Native Americans, Kino explored Central Arizona and made corrections to maps drawn by earlier Spanish explorers. For the first time, he correctly mapped where the Verde River meets the Salt River; as well as where the Salt River flows into the Gila River. He also mapped an accurate track of the lower Colorado River.
Padre Kino became most famous in the field of cartography for being the first to map out, and prove, that Baja California was a peninsula that connects by land to Mexico. The previous theory in Spain was that California was an island.
His 1701 map of the desert areas surrounding the upper Gulf of California was groundbreaking in its detail and accuracy. From the California Map Society:
Kino's map is a compendium of information. The configurations and latitudes of the major geographical features are essentially correct. Missions founded by Jesuits and Kino are located. The names of the Indian peoples are given and a large number of Indian villages are located.
Eusebio Kino might someday be a saint. Two years ago, Pope Francis declared Kino a “venerable” person, which is a necessary step towards canonization within the Catholic Church.
There are advocates for his cause. The Kino Heritage Society in Tucson recently held a Kino symposium on the “life and times of the illustrious Padre Eusebio Francisco Kino.” The society’s web page describes their mission, which is to promote Kino’s legacy through memorial events, educational ventures, and civil activities to “bring together diverse groups of people in the spirit of care and harmony.”
Sainthood for Eusebio Kino would not erase the uglier parts of the history of conquest, but it would elevate the story of a man whose aspirations for this place were much higher.
Sources:
“PEÑALOSA, CORONELLI, AND KINO: Early Cartographers of Arizona” by Jim Byrkit and Tom Jonas, The Journal of Arizona History 53, no. 4 (2012).
“Kino's Contributions to World Cartography” by Ernest J. Burrus, SJ, from the Kino Historical Society, modified from Burrus’s 1965 work, Kino and the Cartography of Northwestern New Spain
The Kino Historical Society has an incredibly comprehensive website, full of articles and links to resources: http://padrekino.com/