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In the 17th century, Spain sent Jesuit missionaries to the Baja peninsula.  
They came to spread Christianity.  They did much more.  They came to a place populated by hunter-gathers who had lived in these dry lands for as much as 10,000 years.
They brought agriculture and ranching and forced people into these new modes of living.

In San Javier, about an hour by more-or-less paved road west of Loreto, are examples of the Jesuits’ successes.  The cathedral, though modest by European standards, is lovely set in a valley with permanent water.  The olive trees date from the 17th century.  Citrus blossoms scent the air. And, local people still center their lives around the activities and buildings introduced here so many years ago.

The living culture here is linked without doubt to 400 year old ideas – ideas which still seem to have meaning to these local people.  We see the same historical continuity at other centers of Jesuit proselytism here in Baja.

Since the opening of Highway 1, some 30 years ago, a different sort of missionary thrust has emerged here.  American style tourist developers have spread just about as far and wide as did those Jesuits on their donkeys and feet.

Our question is: “Do these modern missionaries have ideas with staying power comparable to those seed and donkey carrying Jesuits?”

We know that the godly details of religions are unbelievable  from a reality point of view.  But as ways to keep people going they have a long, effective history.  But what are the long term prospects of organizing us individuals a la capitalism?

Here in Baja we can see some of the playing out of capitalist development.  New capitalist things are often lovely, if not always loved. And not-so-new capitalist things are just discarded and are sinking into this desert by the sea.

400 years on, will the cathedrals be 800 years old with flowering jacurundas gracing their walls?  And what will this golf course look like 400 years from now?