Christened San Juan del Puerto by the Spanish in 1587, the Mocama town of Alimacani included the longest occupied Franciscan mission in Florida outside of St. Augustine (1587-1702).
One of Alimacani’s most notable foreign residents was Fray Francisco Pareja. Between 1603 and 1627, this Franciscan missionary published a series of religious writings and a dictionary in the Timucuan language. Though Pareja was long seen as the accomplished authority who wrote these books, it now appears that the actual authors of the Timucuan texts were Mocamas themselves. Newly uncovered evidence reveals that Mocama ghost writers altered many of the Catholic passages written by Pareja to accommodate the culture of a Timucuan audience.
For the first time in perhaps 250 years, now you can hear what Mocama sounds like thanks to the work of Dr. Broadwell
