The Memory Keepers - Larry K. & Lorna Collins, Authors

"What is he doing here?"  I heard as I worked in the padre's quarters shortly after Maria and I were married.  "Tomas helps me."  The padre's voice was firm.  "I can no longer walk the grounds and warehouses, and he is good at ciphering.  Among other tasks he totals the mission products for my reports to the governor."  "Well, I'm here now, and I will take care of the mission property.  Too many Indians are employed."  He took off his jacket and laid it over a chair.  Then he turned to me.  "You may be able to help me in other ways.  Show me to the guest quarters.  My family of twenty-two will arrive in a few days.  They will require adequate accommodations."

Tomas has just met the new majordomo that would be taking over the mission.  And take over is exactly what he did as well as just about run it into the ground.  All work that the Padre and the Indians done over the years storing up grains, wine and cattle will no longer be controlled by the Padre but by Santiago Arguello with the work being done by the Indians as he makes his own family comfortable.

In the 1800s Indians were not allowed to be taught reading and writing but Fray Barona saw something in Tomas that prompted him to teach the young boy in secret, allowing him to help with the record keeping at the mission.  Unknown to Tomas, this would later lead to a future unexpected by most Indians of that time. 

I'm from the South and the southern history tells of the slaves and eventually their freedom but we're taught very little about the Indians and the slavery they actually lived through.  Even more so, we hear very little about the Southwestern Indians that were in a fact, slaved by the Spaniards/Mexicans.  This book has become an eye opener for me.  I've found it quite interesting to read their trials as they go from the uneducated to educated.  As they go from what were called property owners but the slavery that went along with that ownership in the form of all proceeds going to the government.  And as they evolve in their freedom as they become citizens of the United States when California becomes a state. 

This has been a very enjoyable reading in history but it has also been a heart touching reading as I followed the family of Tomas' mother as she lives in her old native ways and his father as he tries to bring her into the newer ways of the mission.