Crowd Spots Swallows While Indians Protest

While a group of Indians protested what they consider their diminishing role at the Spanish mission here, nearly 8,000 people Monday crowded the bucolic gardens and courtyards of the 214-year-old landmark for the yearly return of the swallows.

Officially, the return of the swallows to their spring nesting grounds was declared at about 8 a.m. with the traditional ringing of the mission bells by Paul Arbiso, the 94-year-old patriarch of this historic South County town.

While Arbiso pulled on the ropes that sounded the ancient bells in the courtyard, a crowd of people anxiously looked up in the air and spotted a small flock of cliff swallows hovering above the mission ruins.

After the bell-ringing, visitors were treated to a morning of ethnic music, colorful dancers and a rendition of “When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano,” the 1939 song by Leon Rene. The song was performed by Rene’s son, Rafael.

Meanwhile, a group of Indians gathered behind the mission to draw attention to their differences with the Roman Catholic Church over preservation of ancestral lands and other issues.

“We don’t want to get pushed aside,” said David Belardes, chief of the 300-member Juaneno tribe, whose ancestors helped Spanish Franciscan Junipero Serra build the mission in 1776.

Church officials, however, challenged Belardes’ claims, saying that the Juaneno tribe has long had a traditional role at the mission and will continue to be an important part of its daily activities.

Belardes said that he and other Indians were angered over the recent departure of the mission’s business manager, a Juaneno Indian; the church’s sale of a parcel of land in downtown San Juan Capistrano that was once the site of the Juaneno pueblo, and the dispute over a church graveyard where many Juanenos are buried and which the tribe wants expanded.

“We have given our lives for generations in this town, this valley and this church,” Belardes said to reporters as about 100 people gathered to watch Indians from other tribes perform traditional dances inside the mission grounds. “I want to bring back the old ways, bring back some sense of our tradition.”

Belardes has waged a low-key war with administrators of the mission since January, when his cousin, Floyd Nieblas, left as the mission’s business manager. Belardes and Nieblas have claimed that Nieblas was dismissed unfairly. Church administrators have said that he quit.

Despite the differences, the Juanenos were invited to enter the mission grounds and join in Monday’s festivities, according to Brian McInerny, a spokesman for the mission. The Juanenos, however, declined.

Belardes said tribal members declined the invitation because they were told that they could not make speeches or “become political.”

“We were between a rock and a hard place,” Belardes said. “They wanted us to make like little Indians and behave and make like there is nothing wrong.”

Few of Monday’s visitors seemed aware of the protest behind the mission. Some had traveled thousands of miles to witness the swallows’ return from their winter haven in Goya, Argentina.

“We’re real excited to be here,” said Margaret Murray, who traveled almost 3,000 miles from Philadelphia to join the throng. By mid-morning, bird-watchers vastly outnumbered the swallows, which darted from tree top to belfry as entertainers played mariachi music and danced on a stage in the center of the main courtyard.

Some veteran swallow-watchers knew the best seats in the house.

Noah Clark, 13, and his mother, Celeste, sat on a stone bench a few feet from where Arbiso rang the bells, furiously taking photographs.

The occasion marked the seventh year in a row that the mother and son had made the trek from Santa Monica.

“I’ve been taking a picture of the bell-ringer every year,” Noah said. “I wanted to make sure I got a picture of him today, now that I am taller than him.”

Like other regular Swallow Day participants, Noah said that he has noticed the decrease in the number of swallows that return to Capistrano. This year, only a few dozen reportedly arrived by the time the festivities began.

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO SWALLOWS WEEK EVENTS Events schedule for Swallows Week in San Juan Capistrano

TODAY: The San Juan Capistrano Chamber of Commerce will judge the best beard and mustache during a contest held at Swallow Inn.

WEDNESDAY: Awards given to the best western motif displayed in a store in the business district. Employees are also encouraged to wear western clothes, and prizes will be given to the best-dressed cowboy.

THURSDAY: The Franciscan Plaza will be hosting this year’s hat contest in the Amtrak parking garage at night. Hat fans can win in a variety of categories--best mad hatter, best felt hat, best straw hat.

FRIDAY: Hoosegow Day, the most talked-about contest during Swallows Week. Chamber leaders will go from store to store in the downtown business district and check to see that everybody is bearded and wearing cowboy clothes. Failure to sport a hairy face will result in a lock-up in a 150-year-old hoosegow. Bail for being beardless will be the purchase of a “Smooth Puss” pin. Bail for non-western wear will be purchase of a Fiesta Garter.

SATURDAY: 32nd Annual Fiesta de las Golandrinas Parade. The 11 a.m. parade through the downtown business district will consist of Juaneno Indians, drill teams, flag routines, horse-drawn floats and marching bands.