Bibliography

The following are books that are reasonably (in theory) accessible to the layman. If you're after scholarly texts and primary sources, that's another matter entirely. For these, send me an email.

Accurate books on the Chiquitania are notoriously difficult to find, and harder still in English. (The vast majority are in Spanish, followed by German and French.)

The task is complicated by the fact that there is no single, comprehensive treatment that incorporates the Chiquitania's cultural, economic, historical, and religious components together and addresses the matter from a holistic approach, although Querejazu's massive Las Misiones Jesuíticas de Chiquitos comes close, albeit treating only the Chiquitos missions, and almost exclusively during the Jesuit era. On the whole, the literature is highly compartmentalised, with each work focusing on one or two areas and scarcely mentioning (let alone synthesising) the others. It also needs to be remembered that some volumes are more reliable that others: even the best tomes contain some errors, and scholarship on the Chiquitania has not progressed evenly across all areas.

It should be noted as well that the works of early historians such as Gabriel René Moreno (see especially his Catálogo del Archivo de Mojos y Chiquitos, 1888), Plácido Molina Mostajo (Historia del Obispado de Santa Cruz de la Sierra: Capítulos relacionados con la cuestión del Chaco Boreal, 1936), and Enrique Finot (Historia de la Conquista del Oriente Boliviano, 1939), whilst very important, are not as historically accurate as once thought.

Nonetheless, for those interested in reading more on this beautiful land, there are several volumes well worth tracking down. Most are not available outside of Bolivia (except through certain academic sources, such as the University of Texas' LANIC system), but they are given here regardless; they are hard to find even in Bolivia, but ocassionally are available in better bookstores.

Usually the parish office in any of the major towns of the Chiquitania will carry at least one or two of the books listed below. In Santa Cruz, Los Amigos del Libro (3.3327937) and Librería de Verbo Divino (3.3352179), both located on Calle Ingavi - the latter just a few doors down from the cathedral's side entrance - are excellent sources. There is also a small bookstore on the first floor of the Casa de Cultura's side entrance (at Calle Junín 141) that frequently has several paperback titles available.

General Overviews of the Chiquitania
If there is a single, must-have book on the Chiquitania, it is the above-mentioned Las Misiones Jesuíticas de Chiquitos, a monumental work edited by Pedro Querejazu, and published in 1995 by Fundacion BHN. However, at more than US$250.00, it's rather steep. It is in Spanish only.

Chiquitos: A Look at its History, by the late Alcides Parejas (perhaps Bolivia's foremost historian of the Chiquitania and certainly its most prolific) with assistance from Virgilio Suárez, published in 2004 by APAC's Fondo Editorial, is a good starting point for most readers, and costs only US$11.00. There are both English and Spanish versions available.

One other work may be classified as a general treatment: the Spanish-only Reseña Histórica Social y Económica de la Chiquitania (by Oscar Tonelli Justiniano, published in 2004 by Editorial El País). This is the only work I have come across that covers the Chiquitania to any extent in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Historical Overviews
Historical accounts of the Chiquitania invariably focus on the early Colonial and Jesuit mission eras. Serious studies of the Chiquitania after the secularisation of the Chiquitos missions are literally non-existent. However, there are some excellent titles out there, mostly in Spanish, covering roughly the two centuries between the foundation of Santa Cruz de la Sierra (1561) and the expulsion of the Jesuits (1767).

One appropriate for first-time readers is Mariano Baptista Gumucio's Las Misiones Jesuíticas de Moxos y Chiquitos: Una Utopía Cristiana en el Oriente Boliviano (Centro de Estudios Sociales, 2003 [3rd ed.]). As its title indicates, it also covers the hostory of the Jesuit missions in the Moxos.

Another is a short but well-documented historical account of the Catholic Church in the area, La Iglesia en Santa Cruz: 400 Años de Historia 1605-2005, by Fr. Roberto Tomichá, OFM, published by Editorial Verbo Divino in 2005. And at just US$2.00, how can you possibly go wrong? Its chronological focus spans far more years than that of most accounts, and it does treat the region (i.e., the entire department of Santa Cruz) as opposed to merely the Jesuit settlements.

Tomichá also wrote the amazing La Primera Evangelización en Las Reducciones de Chiquitos, Bolivia (1691-1767) (published in 2002 by Universidad Católica Boliviana). This is an outstanding work, easily the best-researched account of the Chiquitos reducciones and gathered mostly from period sources, many of them overlooked by earlier researchers. It is historical in the sense that it treats the Jesuit missions era, although its primary purpose is to illustrate the role that the Chiquitano had as protagonists in the evangelisation of the region.

With the above caveats in mind, the best work on the subject - including non-Jesuit territories - from a purely historical perspective is by Fr. Antonio Menacho, S.J. An expert on the Jesuit missions, his Por Tierras de Chiquitos (published in 1991 by the Society of Jesus) is easy to grasp for all audiences and a peerless work of great accuracy and detail, replete with numerous primary source quotes and an excellent bibliography.

Dr. Eckart Kühne, the colleague and protégé in many ways to the seminal work of Hans Roth, is responsible for much primary research on the Chiquitos mission culture and its architecture. He wrote the definitive and much-needed biography of the great Jesuit Fr. Martin Schmid, so important in the history of the Jesuit missions, Las Misiones Jesuíticas en Bolivia: Martin Schmid 1694-1772. Misionero, Músico y Arquitecto entre los Chiquitanos, published in 1996.

Werner Hoffman's Las misiones jesuíticas entre los Chiquitanos (1979) and Vida y obra del P. Martin Schmid (1981) are also recommended reading, although a bit dated given the discoveries made by Roth and Kühne during the restoration of the Jesuit templos.

Finally, the first two parts of my work on the history of the Chiquitania, which as with any other book on the subject, treats principally the Jesuit missions, are avalable here as .pdf downloads. These are the only English-language titles that treat the topic; a third installment will be added in late 2011.

A Brief History of the Jesuit Colonial Missions of Chiquitos (rev. May 2011)

The Long Silence: The Jesuit Colonial Missions of Chiquitos After the Extrañamiento

Cultural Overviews
Misiones Jesuíticas, by Jaime Cisneros and Hugo Richter (published in 1998 [2nd ed.] by Industrias Offset Color S.R.L.) is a lovely coffee table-size work, with Spanish and (atrocious) English text. It focuses on the art, architecture, and daily life of the Chiquitos missions.

Chiquitos: The Utopia Endures, by Willy Kenning and Raúl Arrázola (published in 2003 by Willy Kenning Edición y Fotografía) is another oversized photoessay treatment of the Chiquitania. There is side-by-side Spanish-English text, and the focus is more the geography and daily life of the area, as seen through the eyes of Bolivia's best-known photographer.

A great online synopsis of the Chiquitos missions' musical heritage is Gauvin Alexander Bailey's "Missions in a Musical Key", originally published in the Jesuit magazine, The Company, in 2003. Surprise! It's in English, too.

Somewhat apart from these works but largely cultural in scope is Richard Gott's Land Without Evil: Utopian Journeys Across the South American Watershed (published in 1993 by Verso Books). Whilst not as accurate as one would wish for, and treating of sections of Brazil and Paraguay as well, it is engaging reading and offers a decent recapitulation of four centuries of history, albeit with a gloomy prediction..

Provincial Overviews
Provincia Velasco, edited by Jaime Cabello and published in 2005 by Organización y Gestión del Destino Turístico Santa Cruz (OGD-SCZ) and CEPAD is a Spanish-language work that provides useful overviews of Velasco Province, with much interesting information on its four main municipalities: San Ignacio de Velasco, San Miguel de Velasco, San Rafael de Velasco, and Santa Ana de Velasco. There are no other provincial overviews in existence.

Guidebooks
Guidebooks to Santa Cruz - the department and city - are usually an admixture, often hilariously so, of fantasy and fallacy. And yet every year another self-appointed "expert" comes out with one. The key here is to remember that the city is growing at a phenomenal pace (in spite of a less than healthy economic infrastructire and outlook), and literally hundreds of establishments change names, go under, move, spring up, or otherwise change each year. In the Chiquitania, however, things are a little different, and change is not quite the constant it is in la gran ciudad. All of which means that for almost any guide, you can disregard the parts that focus on Santa Cruz (unless you enjoy getting lost in foreign cities) whilst referring to those that deal with the hinterland, and then be prepared for a big letdown as most of the text is recycled and rarely updated. Yet a few guidebooks do stand out from the rest, at least where the Chiquitania is concerned. Some of these are the following.

Santa Cruz Turístico, by APAC Fondo Editorial, published in 2002. It's US$7.00 and although technically out of print, available in person at APAC's offices (Avenida Busch 552, 3.3332287). The current edition is in Spanish only.

Destino Turístico Santa Cruz Bolivia, published in 2005 by OGC-SCZ. This is marginally the best of the lot, and it shouldn't run you more than US$10.00, which is overpriced, but hey, government functionaries need that extra cash to dig up yet more texts they can copy shamelessly from others. You can pick it up at OGC-SCZ's offices on the fifth floor of the Torre CAINCO, at Avenida Las Américas 7 (3.3392925).

The Official Tourism Travel Guide of Santa Cruz Bolivia, by Bismark A. Cuéllar. The third edition was published in 2009. It's far from official, and riddled with English so poorly translated as to make parts of it incomprehensible. Notwithstanding, it does contain some really useful material on the Chiquitania, and at 517 densely packed pages, well...Bismark's heart was in the right place. You can call him at 3.3496264 (or email him) and order a copy (US$20 or so).

If you want to travel light and prefer to concentrate on the city of Santa Cruz and the province as a whole online, Charis Barks' Web site, BoliviaBella.com, is remarkable. And in case you can't find what you're after on her site, Charis herself is a wealth of information on all things Bolivian.

And of course, then there is the best travel guide of all, Footprint's Bolivia (if purchasing it in Europe) or Bolivia (if purchasing it in North America). If you are considering a trip to Bolivia, let alone the Chiquitania, do yourself a favour and buy the most accurate and up-to-date guide. Bolivia is consistently rated the best travel guide to the country by travellers and in-country experts alike.