San Jose del Cabo, Baja, Mexico — INDEPENDENCE CHRONICLES

As it is time to restock provisions on the Independence, we begin to think about a trip to Costco in San Jose del Cabo. It is only a two and half hour drive from La Paz, so we rent a car and stay the night in the sweet town and shop the following day. It just so happens that our friends Chris and Keith are flying into the San Jose del Cabo airport later that afternoon.

According to San Jose del Cabo Guide.com, Spanish sailors in the 17th and early 18th centuries would anchor their galleons at the entrance of the the mouth of the Rio San Jose in Estero San Jose to get fresh water. Evidently, as this became the norm, English pirate raids became a bit of a problem and so the Spanish felt it was time to create a permanent settlement in the Cape region. It was also a means to an end of the Guaycura and Pericu Indian uprisings that were threatening the Spanish missions of the north. After several years of battles between armed Spanish troops and the local populations (1723 to 1729) , Jesuit Padre Nicholas Tamaral founded Mission San Jose del Cabo in 1730. Padre Tamaral and the Pericus Indians lived alongside one another until the Padre denounced polygamy, which was a long tradition in the Pericu society. Padre Tamaral punished a Pericu Shaman for violating the anti-polygamy decree and the Pericu Indians rebelled and burned the mission in October of 1734 and Tamaral was killed in the attack. The Spanish then built a presidio/fort to protect its population and mission from further Indian and pirate attacks. The native Indian population in the area was virtually extinct by 1767 due to European diseases or in battles with the Spanish. After the Mexican War of Independence (freedom from Spain 1810-1821) there was then the Mexican American War (1846-1848) where Mexican Naval officer Jose Antonio Mijares won the battle against the U.S. marines on the frigate Portsmouth. The town plaza in San Jose del Cabo is named for Mijares and this is where the current mission is located, built by the farming communities in the 1930’s to the 1940’s.

San Jose del Cabo did not become a popular tourist destination until the sportfishing community discovered its bounty in the 60’s and 70’s. The main street to the town plaza was just paved last year.