Michael T. G. Yepes

Child of Europe Michael T. G. Yepes

Child of Europe is a novel about the Jesuit Enterprise, which laid the ground for modern California. In the center of the story is the figure of Carlos Galante, S. J. surrounded by Central European Jesuits who were the key missionaries in Baja California towards the end of the 18th century. The novel follows Charles Gal¡ntay (in Spanish known as Carlos Galante) from childhood through his adult years. We first encounter 12-year-old Charlie as he?s about to leave home for school, and at the end we meet him again when he returns to Hungary as a former member of the now suppressed society. By then, he?s a discarded exile from Italy and the Papal Domains. In between, we see Charles/Carlos as a theology student in M©xico, an explorer and missionary in California, and ? after the expulsion ? meet him as an agent of the General of the Jesuit Order. Finally, we witness as Charles, now a prisoner, shares in the fate of the Company?s elite corps. Gal¡ntay?s letters, the ?Introductions? and the various Interludes, plus the Prologue and Epilogue, are all part of the novel. In the Society of J©sus Enlightenment Europe sent some of its ?best and brightest? to California ? and they were defeated. But did they really fail?