Their Return’s an Easy Tale to Swallow

Oblivious to the clanging bells of Mission San Juan Capistrano, men who looked as if they had stepped straight out of a Clint Eastwood Western began filling the ever-rowdy Swallows Inn bar as early as 6 a.m. Thursday.

They were the locals. And, well, quite truthfully, they didn’t much care to partake of the celebration announcing the return of the bar’s namesake: those tiny birds that each year migrate from Goya, Argentina.

But that doesn’t mean bartender Willie John Largey, 57, didn’t get inquiries. Pouring bourbon with one hand and answering the phone with another, he bellowed into the receiver: “The swallows are here, and the swallowers are also here. Which ones do you want?”

Not half a block away, in the sanctuary’s “Mission Control”--or pressroom for the day--volunteers also answered phone calls, and these came from around the world.

The questions were all the same. Callers asked if the swallows came back to San Juan Capistrano on March 19, the Roman Catholic holiday known as St. Joseph’s Day.

Of course. Did anyone think they wouldn’t?

At 8:26 a.m., Paul Arbiso, 91, the official swallows spotter for the past four decades, rang the mission’s bells upon seeing the famous birds. Although he had been looking for the swallows since 7 a.m., Arbiso’s timing was on par with previous years. It was so predictable that at 8:22 a.m. Thursday, a newscaster for KWIZ “Yes-No” radio station told his listeners, “The swallows--I think they’ll be back in eight minutes.” Close enough.

“Those that come early are the scouts. And any that arrive tomorrow are stragglers,” mission tour guide Ray Brucks said.

Thursday was definitely the day for the official swallows’ return. At stake was tradition and the expectations of about 6,000 tourists, who had arrived to greet the birds with the tapered wings.

“Did they arrive? Did the miracle happen?” James Hardy, 52, of Danville, Ill., asked other visitors.

“Yes, I saw four of them,” Sharon Gomez of Cypress told him.

Wife’s Ambition

“It’s been one of my wife’s life ambitions to come see the swallows,” Hardy explained while standing in line to buy a sweet Indian fried bread.

“That’s true,” his wife, Sharon, confirmed.

Gomez, on the other hand, has lived in Cypress for 22 years. But she had managed to miss the annual festivities until Thursday, when she brought an out-of-town Catholic friend, Pat Salvatore, who Gomez thought would enjoy the historic mission.

“I don’t like birds, so it’s been very difficult for me,” Gomez explained.

Although there were plenty of pigeons and other birds on hand, it was hard to spot the swallows around the mission Thursday. With increasing urbanization, the birds have found other spots in town where mud is more readily available for their nests, said Suzann Benchetler, a mission tour guide.

Freeway overpasses are a favorite for the swallows. So is the Mission Viejo Mall. And so is Debbie Jordan’s condominium. “You can always tell when they come back because of the splatter of bird doo,” said Jordan, 31, who decided to forgo the annual festivities at the mission because, although “very nice,” they’re definitely “for the tourists.”

‘Hoosegow Day’

Ray Drusky, 61, felt the same. That’s why, while others were listening to Arbiso clanging the mission’s bell at 8:26 a.m., Drusky was drinking a cup of coffee at the Swallows Inn bar.

“People are out there at 6 a.m. to look for the swallows, and they ask when do the swallows arrive? I say, ‘as soon as a crowd arrives,’ ” said Drusky, who for years served as the “sheriff” of the annual Fiesta Assn. “Hoosegow Day,” another event in the two-week long festival.

(Anyone walking the streets of San Juan Capistrano today without a western outfit, a beard, or a button--which he or she can buy for $1--runs the risk of being “arrested” and thrown in jail. It’s all part of the Hoosegow Day fun, and bail will get people out of the slammer.)

During Thursday’s celebration, Rafael (Googie) Rene was on hand to sing the song his father, Leon, composed: “When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano.” He also sang an updated version of the song that brought fame to the tiny birds, the mission and the city. It was a “rap” version worthy of the best break dancers.

But it was the stuff of traditions that caused all the fuss. Even if there are fewer swallows coming to the mission each year, Benchetler said, “I think the tradition will stay alive. People like traditions.”

“It’s a nice story,” said Brucks, of the mission’s volunteer group. People want to believe that the swallows, which in October journey the 6,000 miles back to Argentina, arrive each year exactly on March 19, he explained.

Some Were Cynical

“There is no Santa Claus? You don’t want to believe that!” he said.

Some were cynical about the birds’ clockwork instincts; others were convinced.

To Norma Gillis of Concord it didn’t matter. She said celebrating her 55th birthday Thursday with her family at the mission, and on the day the swallows return, was “a dream fulfilled.”

Arbiso, the nonagenarian, put it this way: “When I was a kid, my grandmother said: ‘Get up, the swallows are coming.’ And I asked her, ‘Did you see them?’ And she said, ‘No, but this is the day they come.’ This is the day they return.”