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Just 9 miles south of Tucson inside Tohono O’odham Nation sits the oldest European-built structure in Arizona: Mission San Xavier del Bac. Back in the day, this is the northernmost outpost of New Spain (aka Mexico).
Although New Spain’s adventurer/conquistador Francisco Vázquez de Coronado would lead an early expedition through the area from 1540 to 1542, it’s Italy-born Jesuit Eusebio Kino who sets up this more permanent shop in 1687.

Kino wants to go to Asia, but gets assigned to New Spain instead. He makes the best of it, though, because from 1687 to his death in 1711, he takes more than 50 vacations.

These well-documented trips cover anywhere from 100 to 1,000 miles – all on horseback. His travels are immortalized in the epic 1977 film, “Kino: The Padre on Horseback” (aka “The Father Kino Story” aka “Mission to Glory: A True Story”). The film stars Richard Egan and a real Mexican (rather than a Hollywood one), Ricardo Montalban (see “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan”).

Father Kino is most likely the first European to visit the Tohono O’odham (which means, literally, “desert peoples”) in the village of Wa:k (“where water emerges”). “Wa:k” is pronounced “Bac” by non-Natives, which is where the “del Bac” comes from in the Mission San Xavier del Bac name.

In case you’re wondering or are not Catholic, Francis Xavier is a co-founder of the Society of Jesus (aka the Jesuits) in Europe and generally regarded as the “best missionary ever!” (he reportedly singlehandedly baptized 1 percent of Japan) – which is how he became a saint. In early 16th century Spain, his buddy and Jesuit co-founder is educator Ignatius of Loyola, who develops the concept of (and becomes the saint of) spiritual retreats. He’s also the patron saint of soldiers. And now you (sort of) know why there are hundreds of institutions worldwide with “Xavier” or “Loyola” in their names. But I digress.

Mission San Xavier del Bac is supposed to be one of the finest examples of the Mexican Baroque style in the United States. I’m still trying to figure out the difference between Spanish Colonial and Mexican Baroque. That particular art history class I took at the College of William & Mary did not stick.

Maybe Linda Ronstadt knows? The iconic singer does the voiceover for “Divine Mission: San Xavier del Bac,” a short video that plays on a loop near the gift shop. It documents the meticulous restoration of the church in recent years.

I was like, “Linda Ronstadt? – that’s odd,” but she was born in Tucson. I knew that she had several Spanish-language albums and, in the 1970s, was in a cover-of-People-Magazine-like relationship with California Governor Jerry Brown, but I did not know she was originally from Arizona. And now I know she dated comedian Jim Carrey and was engaged to Star Wars’ George Lucas for five years. Thanks Wikipedia!

I did not get my architecture answer from Linda, but I did learn a lot on this visit:

• Franciscans are known as the “gray robes,” while Jesuits are the “black robes” – both based on the friars horrific lack of fashion sense.
• The job of the missionary was to “civilize” the locals, and produce loyal new servants to the Spanish Crown. The Indian lifestyle choice of mobility (e.g. seasonal agriculture in the wet summer; hunt and gather in the dry winter) was condemned as “heathen vagabondage,” according to one wall placard.
• From 1700 to 1760, the Spaniards and the O’odham again generally got along. But then silver is discovered in the area, and all hell breaks loose. Funny how a little greed changes everything.