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The Jesuit Missions - Their History The first Jesuit missionaries arrived in what is now Bolivia (then known as Upper Peru) in 1572, having moved eastward from the Viceroyalty of Peru, where they had been established since 1568. They were preceded by other orders, amongst them the Augustinians, Dominicans, Franciscans, and Mercedarians. The Jesuits had petitioned the Spanish Crown for permission to enter its holdings in the New World for three decades before it finally was granted in 1566 by Phillip II, while the Portuguese King John III had given them leave to enter Brazil in 1549. For the first hundred years or so, the Jesuits invariably accompanied the Spanish military and were residents of its scattered garrisons. They were not authorized to establish frontier settlements without approval of the civil authorities, which, needless to say (given the authorities' suspicions of the Jesuits' motives) never happened. These early missionaries were almost exclusively native Spaniards. For the most part, they attended to the spiritual needs of the colonists in the arid Altiplano, around Lake Titicaca, and in the cities of La Paz, Potosí, and La Plata (present-day Sucre), where they established chapter houses, churches, and schools, the earliest being that of La Paz, built in 1572 (although not opened until a decade later). In 1587, three Jesuits reached the remote far eastern outpost of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, at that time located near present-day San José de Chiquitos. (It moved to its present location in 1621.) The following year, the Jesuit Fr. Diego Martínez began sporadic evangelisation of the nearby Itatine tribe. Other tribes, almost of them lingustically part of the Chiquitano (also known early on as Gorgotoqui) or Tupi Guaraní groups, soon were converted, with only the Chiriguano showing consistent hostility. The first chapter house in Santa Cruz was set up in 1592, and in 1605, the settlement was elevated to the ecclesiastical status of a bishopric (what we would call a diocese now). For many years, the Jesuits continued their peripatetic work in the region alongside the other missionary orders. Nowadays you won't find many Jesuits in the Chiquitania (although there are a few there). The Franciscans have been the main influence since 1931 - they were present in neighbouring Chuquisaca Department and throughout the Chaco from as far back as 1540 - and continue to staff the Apostolic Vicariate of Ñuflo de Chávez (headquartered in Concepción) and the recently erected Diocese of San Ignacio de Velasco (as well as other area parishes, including Ascensión de Guarayos) to this day. An apostolic vicariate is similar to a diocese, except that for various reasons - scarcity of clergy or other resources, huges distances, and so on - it is administered directly by the Holy See through an apostolic vicar (whose responsibilities and powers are very similar to those of a bishop or archbishop). Nearly a century passed before the Jesuits grudgingly were given the go-ahead to expand into the Chiquitania (originally including the area now known as the Gran Chaco as well). They were already a force to be reckoned with throughout Upper Peru and elsewhere in the Viceroyalty of Peru. They had established no less than 29 settlements in Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay alone (which had a total population of more than 100,000 native inhabitants in 1742). In Bolivia, they had been successful as well, with 30 villages established in the west and far northern reaches of the territory by 1705. Another 16 towns had been established between 1682 and 1715 to the northwest of Santa Cruz, amongst the Moxos and Guarayos regions. It is mute testimony to the indomitable courage and faith of the Jesuits - and the peoples they sought to convert - that of all the missions established in these areas, only those of the Chiquitos have survived, and they flourish to this day. The others have long been reduced to ruins.
The were two raisons d'être for the missions. One, clearly, was a spiritual impulse: to catechisise and peacefully convert the various indigenous peoples to Christianity. The second was politically motivated. Since the mid-1600s, Portuguese slavers from Brazil, known as bandeirantes or mamelucos, had been encroaching ever deeper into Spanish territory. In fact, shortly after San Xavier, the first mission, was founded, they made an appearance there but were defeated. Spain needed to shield its rich territories to the west and south - and their inhabitants, Spanish and Amerindian alike. The notion of a string of strategically placed missions throughout the Chiquitania proved to be a very easy idea to sell to the colonial authorities. Although the Jesuits were active on the fringes of the region for more than a century before, they did not establish any settlements in the Chiquitania itself until 31 December 1691, when Fr. José de Arce and Br. Antonio de Rivas founded the first reducción (settlement) of San Francisco Xavier de los Piñocas (now San Xavier) for the Piñocas, a sub-group of the Chiquitano. Arce - although based in Tarija and nominally answerable to authorities in La Plata (better known now as Sucre) – was interested in establishing missions that would link Santa Cruz and points west to Paraguay. After all, it was his primary mandate. But ironically, he never intended to enter the Chiquitania per se, but rather the territory to the southeast, which was home to the hostile Chiriguano and was geographically closer to Paraguay. However, en route to that region the year before, he and his companions, Frs. Miguel de Valdeolivios and Diego Centeno, were befriended by a group of Chané near Santa Cruz. Nearly dead of thirst, the three priests remained with their benefactors for three days and vowed to repay their kindness. At that time, the tribe’s leader, the cacique Tambacura, was imprisoned in Santa Cruz and condemned to death. After his sister make the case for sparing his life with the Jesuits, the group traveled to Santa Cruz, argued successfully to have Tambacura’s sentence overturned, and secured his freedom. The timing was ironic: Governor Agustín Arce (no relation to the Jesuit Fr. Arce) previously had asked the authorities in Peru for Jesuit missionaries (there being none in the area) for the nearby Chiquitano, who had journeyed several times to Santa Cruz to petition him directly. While in Santa Cruz, Fr. Arce and his companions witnessed the forced march of some 300 Chiquitano who had been captured by Portuguese slave traders and sold into slavery. They were destined for the faraway mines of Potosí – and almost certain death. This terrible sight convinced Arce that his lot lay with the Chiquitano, not the Chiriguano. Returning immediately to Tarija, Arce had no trouble convincing the new Jesuit provincial, Lauro Núñez of his change of heart. Núñez approved the venture and authorized a grand total of six Jesuits to convert both the Chiriguano and the Chiquitano tribes, covering an area roughly the size of Alaska. The original mandate to find a route between Santa Cruz and Asunción remained in place as well. In 1691 then, Arce and Centeno set out again for Santa Cruz, accompanied this time by Br. Antonio de Rivas. This route initially was opened by Arce and his companion Fr. Blende in 1715. However, en route to Santa Cruz from Asunción later that year, they were killed by hostile Payagua whilst still in Paraguay. Upon receiving notice of the same, the Viceroyalty of Peru promptly ordered the route closed, and contact netween the two missions areas for the next several decades was by way of Asunción to Tarija to La Plata/Sucre and thence finally to Santa Cruz. Ten more reducciones followed (including the short-lived San Ignacio de Zamucos), with Santo Corazón de Jesús de Chiquitos (now simply Santo Corazón) the last, in 1760. (The short-lived mission of Nuestra Señora del Buen Consejo, founded just three months before the expulsion in 1767 near present-day Puerto Suárez, is not included in any list of these reducciones, as its existence was ephemeral.) Ironically, the long-anticipated route between the Chiquitos missions and those of the Guaraní had been opened by Father José Sánchez Labrador only the year before. These settlements occured over two distinct periods: the first five between 1691-9, and the remaining six between 1721-60. They were prone to everything from attacks by hostile tribes to fires, floods, plagues, famines, even slave traders. Several had to be re-founded. That they even survived is a miracle. A list of these settlements and their founding follows. Jesuit Mission Settlements (Reducciones) in the Chiqu |
