Tubac History: Where Anza Prayed
An artist's depiction of Juan Bautista de Anza with his soldados de cuera in front of the lime-plastered Spanish colonial military chapel of Santa Gertrudis gearing up for an expedition.
The Church of Santa Gertrudis de Tubac
Iglesia de Santa Gertrudis de Tubac as it appeared in the late 1850s depicted by Phocion R. Way. Notice the white lime plaster pieces eroding away and the window over the doorway's similarity to the facade of the Tumacacori mission.
The site of Santa Gertrudis de Tubac today, St. Ann’s Roman Catholic Church. The present church was built between 1910-1912.
Tubac, Arizona History
Tubac, Arizona's Saint Ann's Catholic Church is situated on top of the site of Anza's 18th-century Santa Gertrudis de Tubac adobe church.
Walking around the church today you’ll notice it is built on an earth mound. The earthen mound is not natural, but rather the collapsed walls of the original Anza adobe church. Prior to St. Ann’s, there was even another chapel built on this site around the turn of the 20th century. However, this middle church quickly was damaged by a storm, paving the way for the current temple to be constructed.
Location of Santa Gertrudis de Tubac on 1767 Map of San Ignacio de Tubac by José de Urrutia. Map: British Library.
On the key of the above map, a note written in Spanish explains that the construction of the adobe chapel was finished (by December of 1766) at the expense of the commander of the Presidio San Ignacio de Tubac, Juan Bautista de Anza II.
Anza had been appointed in 1760 at age 25 as the post commander after the death of Tubac's first captain Juan Tomas de Belderrain. Belderrain died of a wound from a poisonous arrow inflicted during campaigns against the Seri (Comcaac) tribe and is buried in the nave of Guevavi's mission (near Nogales, AZ). Anza brought his brother-in-law, Joseph Manuel Diaz de Carpio to Tubac from Chihuahua to serve as the post's first chaplain at Santa Gertrudis.
Tubac Hacienda, a depiction by Phocion R. Way, 1858.
Santa Gertrudis was in complete ruins by 1900. According to reminisces of Willam Lowe, an early Tubac resident in a 1940s interview, the crumbling walls and foundations served as a playground for the nearby school and even a pigsty.
~~~~
Sources:
Bents, Doris W. The history of Tubac, 1752-1948. Master's Thesis. The University of Arizona, 1949. https://repository.arizona.edu/handle/10150/553779.
Dobyns, Henry F. Tubac Through Four Centuries. The Arizona State Parks Board, 1959. https://parentseyes.arizona.edu/tubac.
Duffen, William A., and Phocion R. Way. “Overland Via ‘Jackass Mail’ in 1858: The Diary of Phocion R. Way (Part III).” Arizona and the West 2, no. 3 (1960): 279–92. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40167036.
“Education.” Tubac Presidio State Historic Park and Museum. Accessed November 2, 2021. https://www.tubacpresidio.org/education.
"St. Ann's Church (Tubac).” Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain. Accessed October 29, 2021. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:St._Ann%27s_Church_(Tubac)#/media/File:Tpshp-st-anns-church.jpg.
“San Ignacio De Tubac.” National Parks Service. U.S. Department of the Interior. Accessed October 29, 2021. https://www.nps.gov/tuma/learn/historyculture/san-ignacio-de-tubac.htm.
~~~~
Take the fast track to understand Tubac, Arizona in person on Borderlandia’s Tubac’s Heritage Tour.
Did you like this article? Then, you’ll really like our digital magazine! Sign up here for your free gift.