Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
the Guaraní to speak Spanish and only sought to change those aspects of Guaraní
culture - polygamy and occasional cannibalism - that clashed with Catholic teach-
ing. Each Guaraní family was given a house and children were schooled.
The typical reducciónconsisted of a large central plaza, dominated by the
church and colegio,which housed the priests and also contained art workshops
and storerooms. The houses of the Guaraní occupied the rest of the settlement in
neat rows; other buildings might include a hospital, a cotiguazúthat housed wid-
ows and abandoned wives, and a cabildo(town council building) where the Guar-
aní's chosen leader lived.
The settlements were self-sufficient; the Guaraní were taught agriculture and
food was distributed equally. As time went on and the missions grew, wooden
buildings were replaced by stone ones and the churches, designed by master ar-
chitects with grandiose utopian dreams, were stunning edifices with intricate
baroque stonework and sculpture comparable with the finest churches being built
in Europe at the time.
Indeed, the missions' most enduring achievement was perhaps artistic. The
Guaraní embraced the art and music they were introduced to and, interweaving
European styles with their own, produced beautiful music, sculpture, dance and
painting in 'Guaraní baroque' style. The Jesuits' religious music strongly attracted
the Guaraní to Catholicism.
However, mission life necessarily had a martial side. Raiding parties of bandeir-
antes(armed bands) from Brazil regularly sought slaves for sugar plantations, and
the Jesuits were resented by both Spanish and Portuguese colonial authorities.
There were regular skirmishes and battles until a notable victory over an army of
3000 slavers at Mbororó in 1641 ushered in a period of comparative security.
The mission period came to an abrupt end. Various factors, including envy from
the colonial authority and settlers, and a feeling that the Jesuits were more loyal to
their own ideas than those of the Crown, prompted Carlos III of Spain to ban them
from his dominions in 1767, following the lead of Portugal and France. With the
priests gone, the communities were vulnerable and the Guaraní gradually dis-
persed. The decaying missions were then ruined in the wars of the early 19th cen-
tury.
The 1986 film The Missionis about the last days of the Jesuit missions. Most in-
triguing is the casting of a Colombian tribe, the Waunana (who had had almost no
contact with white people) as the Guaraní.
Almost nothing remains of several of Argentina's 15 missions, but those well
worth visiting include San Ignacio Miní in San Ignacio, Loreto and Santa Ana;
Yapeyú; and Santa María la Mayor. The fabulous Paraguayan missions at Jesús de
Tavarangüe and Trinidad can be easily visited on a day trip too. There are others to
visit not too far away in southern Brazil.
