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Tucson, Arizona  Thursday, 16 January 2003

In Kino's footsteps

Italian descendant sees what mission founder started

Touring Mission San Xavier del Bac on Wednesday, Claudio Chini said he was filled with a surge of pride and joy, a fitting reaction for a collateral descendant of the Rev. Eusebio Francisco Kino.
 

By Eric Swedlund
ARIZONA DAILY STAR

Touring Mission San Xavier del Bac on Wednesday, Claudio Chini said he was filled with a surge of pride and joy, a fitting reaction for a collateral descendant of the Rev. Eusebio Francisco Kino. Chini, a sixth generation descendant of Kino's brother, visited the church known as "The White Dove of the Desert" to attend a Mass and receive a flag of the Tohono O'odham Nation. 
 On May 3, 1681. Eusebio Kino- born Eusebio Francesco Chini - landed at Veracruz Mexico. Kino, a Jesuit priest, established 12 colonial missions in what he called Pimería Alta - the land straddling the present-day Arizona - Sonora border. Chini, Kino's great - great- great - great-grandnephew, said through an interpreter that he was proud to be in the church and visit the area where his  ancestor accomplished so much. Chini, a retired train company director from Italy, is in Arizona for the first time as part or a Cultural Exchange in conjunction with the art exhibit "Homage to Father Kino" - A Cultural Exchange Among the United States, Mexico and Italy." 
 The exhibit is being held at El Centro Cultural, 40 W. Broadway, through Jan. 31. 
 Chini said he learned a lot about the history of the church and Kino's ministry, and was finally able to appreciate  firsthand the integration of different people here.
 Henry Ramon, vice  chairman of the Tohono O'odham Nation. called Chini's visit unbelievable and said that for tribal members it is  "something that 

they will cherish the rest of their lives." 
 "To me, it's something way beyond greatness that I will treasure Ramon said.
 Ramon presented Chini with the Tohono O'odham Nation's flag. It will be taken to Segno; the Italian village  where Klno was born, and placed in a museum there that is dedicated to the late priest. Chini gave to Ramon a book of photographs of the mountains around Segno where Kino's family still lives.
 Kino was born in 1645 and arrived in the village of Bac, near What is now Tucson, in 1692. He made plans for a church in 1700, but nothing was  completed by the time he died in 1711. 
 Jesuit successors built the first church in 1756, a simple adobe structure with a flat roof. Franciscans built the current mission from 1783 to 1797. After the presentation and a Mass said by Bishop Manuel  D. Moreno, Chini spent time with Tohono O'odham seniors,  exchanging wishes for good health and happiness and signing autographs. 
 Chini will return to Tucson in June with people from Segno so that they, too, can visit the mission and meet the Tohono O'odham people. 

Contact reporter Eric Swedlund at 629-9412
 or  
Swedlund@azstarnet.com 

Copyright © 2003 Arizona Daily Star