Spanish Trail Day at Agua Mansa Cemetery Revives Story of Inland Empire’s First Pioneers and Trujillo Adobe
3 min read
Photos by Daphne Marquez: Guest Speaker and President of Spanish Town Heritage Foundation Nancy Melendez, discussing Lorenzo Truillijos venture through the Old Spanish Trail.
The annual Spanish Trail day held at Agua Mansa Cemetery connected locals to the history of the first Inland Empire Pioneers who settled in La Placita de los Trujillos and Agua Mansa.
La Placita de los Trujillos was one of the first settlements in the Inland Empire, across from the settlement of Agua Mansa. Within La Placita de los Trujillos was what is now known as the Trujillo Adobe, which is the last standing adobe from the early settlement.
President of Spanish Town Heritage Foundation and Guest Speaker at the event, Nancy Melendez said, “We started this event (since 2016) because we wanted to share the story about not only the Trujillo Adobe, but about the Agua Mansa pioneer cemetery and the twin settlements of La Placita de los Trujillos and Agua Mansa.”
Melendez continued on with the essentialness of sharing history “In history books, we tend to get one version of history… and what we see in our textbooks often don’t reflect the true composition of our communities and the significant contributions made by groups in the community.”
The event is hosted by the San Bernardino County Museum, who manages the Cemetery as a historic site, the Spanish Town Heritage Foundation was also a part of the event with their educational booth and presentation.
San Bernardino County Museum’s Curator of History, Drisel Perez, said “There’s so much lore surrounding Agua Mansa’s Pioneer Cemetery that I think sometimes we forget to honor the lives and the history here. These were pioneering communities, so it’s important to remember them and to know that without them, we wouldn’t be here celebrating this event, preserving history.”
As you walked towards the chapel, a variety of activities and information booths were outside which included a coloring/flower making station, a snack/drink booth, the Spanish Town Heritage Foundation information station and the Mission Inn Museum booth.
Mission Inn Foundation and Museum Curator Daniela Guzman, and Associate Curator Arman Agahi, ran a booth to promote the upcoming Mission Inn Museum located in Riverside. Agahi said, “The Agua Mansa Bell was actually part of the Mission Inns collection, so seeing that being returned and being a part of a celebration is this long standing tether of museum preservation life as well as the actual community.”
One of the attendees, Madison (pictured), brought her family to the event because her daughter faces Benign Neutropenia, a condition that doesn’t allow the production of white blood cells, which makes her prone to bacterial and fungal infections.
While Madison’s daughter is now facing treatment, the family takes advantage of the ability to leave the house, she said “She’s been in a bubble, like she can’t go out, she can’t have no contact with anybody else. So now that she’s doing those injections now we are able to take her out and go and explore and appreciate the things that we wouldn’t be able to do.”
Once locals and community members had left the chapel and checked out the booths the event had to offer, they left with newfound appreciation for the rich history that the Pioneers of La Placita de los Trujillos and Agua Mansa had to offer.
