Nuestra Señora del Buen Consejo

History and Background
It needs to be stated from the start that the ephemeral settlement of Nuestra Señora del Buen Consejo (Our Lady of Good Counsel) is not recognised by any historians except Oscar Tonneli Justiniano Bruno as a legitimate Jesuit reducción. And for a very good reason: It wasn't one in any real sense.

Nonetheless, it deserves some mention, as it possibly would have become a full-fledged mission - and a very important one at that - had the Extrañamiento not been carried out the same year the settlement was established.

Citing an obscure document (Paraguay Católico) located in the Academy of History in Madrid, written in 1769 by the Jesuit historian Fr. José Sánchez Labrador and sent to Tonneli by a friend, in his introduction to the article (which appeared in Santa Cruz's El Deber newspaper on 7 September 1997, Tonneli notes that Sánchez Labrador, Fr. José Chueca, and a few Guaycuru companions set out from the reducción of Santo Corazón de Jesús on 9 December 1766, en route to the Jesuit mission of Belém.

Belén itself was founded in 1760 by Sánchez Labrador on the east bank of the Río Paraguay, north of Asunción, on the way to the Chiquitos settlements. Sánchez Labrador's intent was to found a mission roughly half-way between Santo Corazón and Belén, somewhere to the southeast of modern-day Puerto Suárez, and quite possibly very close to Mutún. Great idea, but poor execution. Had it happened, the Jesuits would have at last realised their dream of a string of reducciones stretching from San Xavier in the west all the way to almost Asunción,

Where Sánchez Labrador was headed: Belén, Paraguay

Tonelli does a splendid job of making the case, primary through etymological evidence, for Nuestra Señora del Buen Consejo's location. Unfortunately, the case for it having been a reducción is without merit. It was indeed "founded" (according to Labrador's report) on 29 June 1767 by himself and Cuecha, but "provisionally located" is a more apt phrase. Eckart Kühne, perhaps the greatest scholar of the Chiquitos missions alive today, put it this way (in a letter sent to me in 2008):

"It seems to me quite evident that Buen Consejo was not established..., there were only a cross and a provisional chapel, and it was decided (but not yet executed) to build some provisional shelters and open some chacos for the people that would come to prepare the establishment of the village. And above all: There was no Jesuit missionary resident in Buen Consejo yet. And anyway, looking at the character of the culture of the Guaicurús or Mbayas [a sub-group of the Guaycuru] and at the geographic situation, it is not at all probable that this would have been a successful foundation, even if the Jesuits had not been expelled. In San Juan Nepomuceno, another foundation by Sánchez Labrador, with Guaná Indians, the cross was erected in 1762 yet untll 1767 the mission was still not established."

Perhaps most difficult to accept is Tonelli's claim that there was an expulsion inventory (which by law all of the Jesuit missions had to record upon the departure of the Jesuits) for Nuestra Señora del Buen Consejo. Incredibly, he does not cite the source for this inventory, which, if it existed, would be huge news in the tiny community of Chiquitos scholars, as it would indicate that the site had indeed been a full-fledged settlement. As Kühne notes, "If there was an expulsion inventory, it must be together with [those of Belén] and not with [those of] Chiquitos [as those of Chiquitos have been recovered]." No one has ever found this elusive record and Tonelli is mum on the subject these days. It is inconceivable that a brand-new mission's closing inventory would have been overlooked, especially when the Extrañamiento occured less than four months after Buen Consejo's supposed establishment.

Did Nuestra Señora del Buen Consejo exist? Yes. Was it a true Jesuit mission? No, not even close. And doubt remains as to whether it ever would have been permanently settled. But for the record, it's included here anyway. So now you know.