Here’s a Change That Respects Tradition : A new bell ringer takes over from his grandfather at Mission San Juan Capistrano

In a land where today’s hot restaurant is tomorrow’s empty shell, and those here longer than a year are considered old-timers, there is a solid, reassuring feel to the news that the ringer of the bell at Mission San Juan Capistrano is only the third man to hold the job in more than a century.

Last Sunday was the first time that Michael Gastelum, 39, rang the bell to mark the annual return of the swallows. Fittingly, he is the grandson of Paul Arbiso, who rang the mission bells for approximately 70 years, until his death last November at age 99. Arbiso was born near the mission, baptized on the grounds and learned the job of bell ringer from a Native American named Acu, who is thought to have been the first person formally designated as bell ringer at the mission. That was in the mid-1800s.

The mission is an important part of Orange County’s history, a 219-year-old brick legacy of the Spanish settlements. Unfortunately, its venerable status does not exempt it from vulnerability to earthquakes: Mission officials have been trying to raise millions of dollars for needed improvements.

The swallows once were lured by hundreds of nests they built after their annual migrations from Argentina. But most nests were destroyed when work to upgrade structures to increase their resistance to earthquakes began six years ago. Mission officials tried innovative lures for the birds, including clay replica nests and releasing thousands of insects.

Last Sunday, the appointed date of March 19, the swallows returned--and so did thousands of visitors. Their admittance fees helped with the fund-raising for earthquake-proofing. The crowds were not notably lessened by the absence of “celebrities” like Jerry Mathers and Ruth Buzzi, imported in the past to try to increase the turnout. The mission’s administrator got it right when he said people don’t come to the mission to see the celebrities: “The swallows are the celebrities.”

Arbiso, too, was an attraction, if not a celebrity, a bell ringer representing a link to the past and a man often pointed out to visitors. Gastelum roomed and worked with his grandfather for years and learned the right way to ring the bells, for funerals or weddings or the swallows’ return. Showing a nice respect for tradition, Gastelum said he expects to be at the mission for the rest of his life.