Moises Solis retired Dec. 31 from La Purisima Mission State Historic Park after 35 years, leaving his mark as a rich and permanent part of history in the nearly 2,000-acre park.
While his official title was Maintenance Worker I, Solis was described as a vital employee who worked with the park’s many docents to bring the story of the mission alive for thousands of annual visitors, especially young students. In retirement he will continue that work officially as a docent.
Solis volunteered to maintain the park’s two-room blacksmith shop, where he performed the same duties as a docent and constructed the hardware for a yoke and the traditional adobe cooking fireplace, known in Spanish Colonial architecture as a “fogon.”
The blacksmith’s shop is among several buildings at La Purisima that have been restored to reflect their origin in the 1700s, according to www.lapurisimamission.org. Others include the church, more shops and living quarters.
Misión la Purísima Concepción de María Santísima (Mission of the Immaculate Conception of Most Holy Mary) was founded by Father Presidente Fermin de Lasuén on Dec. 8, 1787. It was the 11th of 21 Franciscan Missions established in Alta California.
Today the blacksmith’s shop houses the anvil used by Solis’ father in Mexico; the elder Solis was a practicing blacksmith, and his son described how he learned the trade at his father’s side.
Some people might consider a family heirloom too precious to donate to the public, but for Solis, sharing history is simply who he is.
Besides, he said, the anvil “doesn’t do any good sitting in a corner at home.” He takes it along on the docents’ outreach projects, and demonstrates its use to participants in the Student Learning History Days at the park.
These events are designed for fourth-grade students to interact with costumed docents and mission staff, and observe how corn is ground, tortillas made, and the art of candle-making and weaving. Just last Thursday, Solis participated in another such event for crowds of attentive fourth-grade students, demonstrating his skills as a blacksmith, using fire fueled by a bellows to hammer out a nail.
Solis calls the blacksmith shop his favorite location at the mission, for “it brings me memories of Mexico and my father.”
Born in Cadereytade QRO Mexico, Solis said he left his family and home in 1955 at age 18 to work in the United States as an immigrant farm laborer. Across California and the Southwest, he harvested various crops, among them citrus, grapes and lettuce.
Before starting work at La Purisima in April 1976 as a park aide, Solis worked at El Presidio de Santa Barbara State Historic Park, where he replaced old latches and other hardware, he said.
At the mission, Solis worked his way up to park maintenance assistant before becoming Maintenance Worker I, the title he held until his retirement.
During a typical work day, Solis would unlock buildings and restrooms for visitors and help feed the many animals that are kept at the mission.
His special projects included cleaning the historical aqueduct that winds through the park, making nails at the blacksmith shop and restoring buildings, flooring and walls damaged by the elements and time, Solis said.
Over the years, his specialty has been the hardware crucial to the mission’s history.
“I know how to make anything out of metal that’s related to the mission period,” he said, such as the hinges, locks and bells crucial to the park’s facade. “This is part of my culture, of Mexico.”
Solis will be honored Sunday, Jan. 22, during a retirement party to be held at the Lompoc Elks Lodge.
He has been made an “honorary docent” by the volunteers and docents with whom he worked over the years.
Solis is father to three, including his daughter, Victoria, with whom he lives, and has seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, he said, most of whom live locally.
Freelance writer Laurie Jervis can be reached at winecountrywriter@gmail.com.
