In Capistrano, Swallows Return in Fewer Numbers

Around 8 a.m. next Saturday, Paul Arbiso, 92, the San Juan Capistrano Mission gardener and bell ringer, will haul the ropes hanging from three bronze bells on the ruins of the great stone church, and all eyes will look toward the heavens.

Not in supplication, however, but in search of the town’s legendary swallows. If myth and romance have their due, the migrating birds will return to Capistrano, as they have every other St. Joseph’s Day, in search of nesting sites on the arches, under the eaves and in hospitable nooks and crannies.

And while the numbers have been thinning in recent years, the celebration of their return continues each year, and festivities are planned from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. this year.

More Than Swallows

Once visitors have satisfied themselves with a look at the swallows, there will be music, dance, food, craft demonstrations and guided tours of the Mission buildings, many of which have been restored. Tickets are $2 for adults and $1 for children.

After Arbiso spies the first swallow and, in accordance to hoary custom, pulls the bell ropes, the four big bells in the New Church will ring in answer, followed by the chiming of all the other church bells in the town. Their deep, reverberating tones announce the “official” arrival of the swallows and toll a message of faith in an ordered future for a town that has grown without much long-range planning over the past decade.

Despite the note of optimism, however, the outlook for the swallows is not promising. The townspeople are expecting a flock of about 6,000 tourists, but possibly very few swallows.

Once a Nuisance

Several years ago, the migrating birds, which fly north over a period of several weeks from their wintering grounds in Argentina, used to descend on homes and businesses in such huge numbers that they were considered a nuisance. Now, to the residents’ embarrassment, they’ve become rather scarce.

“There are too many people here for the swallows,” explained Arbiso, who was born here in 1895 and has lived all his life in the shadow of the Mission. He has been a witness to Capistrano’s transformation from a rural village on the side of a grassy, windblown hill to back-to-back shopping malls and residential tracts.

“When we were kids,” Arbiso recalled, “all the swallows flocked together, thousands of them, making their houses everywhere. Now you hardly see them anymore.”

Because swallows build their nests under eaves and in small nooks, additional buildings would seem to provide more nest locations. Instead, development diminishes the food supply and nest-building materials.

Still, every year some swallows arrive, and already this month a few have settled in and built their nests on the mission’s convent building.

More will probably be sighted next Saturday and, on schedule, the bells will ring, signaling the opening of the daylong festival.

The day will start with Masses in the New Church at 7 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. The entertainment begins at 9:30 when a Mariachi band starts to play, and continues all day.

The Aztec dancers, a troupe of Native Americans from around Southern California, will perform dances, in costume, at 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. And at 12:15, Rafael Rene will sing “When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano,” the song written by his father, Leon Rene.

Throughout the day, the Juanino Indians will demonstrate basket weaving, bread baking and other crafts practiced or developed during the height of the Mission period, from 1769 to 1834.

During the day, visitors are free to wander about the mission grounds, or to join a guided tour. A Eucharistic Adoration in the New Church at 4 p.m. will close the day’s activities.

There are three churches on the mission grounds--the Serra Chapel; the New Church, built four years ago; and the great stone church, started in 1797 and destroyed (as were many other mission churches) in the great earthquake of 1812 when the roof fell onto the main aisle killing about 40 worshipers.

The last is the most interesting, for it was built in 1776, and is the only original mission church left standing in which Father Serra actually preached. Much of the original interior, decorated by the Indians, has been preserved.

During the celebration, hot dogs, doughnuts and soft drinks will be sold at stands in the parking lot, and local vendors sell sandwiches, snack foods and ice cream.

San Juan Capistrano is off Interstate 5 north of San Clemente. For information, call (714) 493-1424.