Misiones Province - Christians and American Indians fight against Europe

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Misiones Province - Christians and American Indians fight against Europe

The region of Misiones in north east Argentina is most well known for the waterfalls of Iguazu - a river over a mile wide falling several hundred metres into the basin of the valley below. The area is sub-tropical rain forest on the border with Brasil, and contains an extraordinary variety of animal life - butterflies, monkeys, birds of prey, lizards. OVer 400 species can be found in the national park around the falls.

Much less well known, however, is the history of the Jesuit missions which were built in the region - and the impact they had on the lives of the Guarani Indians in the years of the Spanish conquest.

In the years between 1625 and 1767, thirty of these missions were built in the province that is now Misiones and on the far side of the River Parana in modern day Paraguay. The jesuits had come to South America in search of converts, and greater freedom to practice their strict branch of Catholicism than was possible in Europe.

Before the arrival of the Europeans, the lands had been occupied by the Guarani Indians for around 700 years. They had made their way down from the Amazon region of Brasil in canoes made of wood and skins. On reaching the Iguazu Falls they had abandoned the boats, climbed down the steep waterfall cliff face, built new canoes and continued down river.

A hunting, gathering, farming people, they were travelling in search of The Land Without Evil, a place promised to them in their native religion. This was both a physical place on earth and a state of being - on reaching a certain level of spiritual perfection, the soul would pass into this land but without dying. They knew that death was inevitable but did not fear it. Their main religious ritual was the prayer dance, a sacred rite, which was thought to bring the mind closer to this state of perfection.

The conquistadores had much less spiritual goals in mind for the Guarani. Slave traders from Brasil entered the forests, captured the Guarani Indians and sold them in the markets of nearby San Paulo. The Indians turned to the Jesuit missions for security and were given a safe haven there.

For many years conflict continued between the Jesuit missions and the slave traders. More than once many of the missions were attacked by the slave traders. It was easier for them to raid these places where the Guarani were congregated together than try and hunt them in the jungle. Each time a mission was destroyed, the Jesuits moved on and built another one a few miles away.

Many of the Jesuits were highly skilled artisans and labourers from Europe, and they taught these crafts to the Indians: masonry, weaving, baking, carpentry, cabinet-making, farming. One of the Jesuits´greatest skills was the design of musical instruments, and the beauty of these unfamiliar sounds made a particularly powerful impact on the Guarani.

Jesuits and Indians worked together on the land at the missions, producing and selling their goods. Some of this was common church property, but Indians were also given their own land to work and provide food for themselves.

Opposition to the missions grew. Not only from slave traders, but farmers and plantation owners. The missions were depriving thier own lands of cheap labour, and providing an economic alternative to thr own goods in the market places of the region. They continued to apply political pressure on the missions, but the Jesuits continued to operate - and more and more Indians came to live and work on the missions. Many of them believed them to be their promised Land Without Evil.

In 1767 political pressure finally succeeded. The Spanish and Portuguese had the Jesuits expelled from South America. The missions were transferred to other religious orders such as the Franciscans and the Dominicans. But many of the Indians departed, and the buildings fell into ruin and disrepair - either crumbling in the forest rains or dismantled to enable their stones to be used in other buildings.

Only a few of the sites remain in a recognisable condition - a couple in Argentina and a few in Paraguay. The Guarani continue to live in the region, still carrying on the traditions and beliefs from centuries earlier.

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