Misión San José de Laguna

The San José Laguna Mission is one of several Spanish colonial churches that still stands in modern-day New Mexico. It was built in the late-seventeenth century by Spanish friars with indigenous labor. The objective for this type of settlement was to evangelize the native peoples, which here included the Kawaiks, teaching them about the Catholic church and European ways of life. Often, the priests who ran the mission forced the local communities to live, work, and worship there. Other times, the native people arrived willingly to seek refuge from warfare with other groups. Like many other structures in New Mexico, it was constructed with adobe and wooden ceiling beams. The white-washed appearance of the church was a later renovation.