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Franciscan Missions and Chiriguano Workers: Colonization, Acculturation and Indian Labor in Southeastern Bolivia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Erick D. Langer
Erick D. Langer*
Affiliation:
Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
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Extract

An earlier version of this essay was presented at the Symposium “Bolivia: Formation and Development of a Labor Force, 1600 to the Present,” organized by Ann Zulawski and Lesley Gill for the 45th International Congress of Americanists, Bogotá, Colombia, 1985. The author wishes to thank Robert H. Jackson, Brooke Larson, and Nils Jacobsen for their comments on the paper. Research funds were provided by the Social Science Research Council, Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Research Program, and the Inter-American Foundation.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 43 , Issue 3 , January 1987 , pp. 305 - 322
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1987

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References

1 Bolton, Herbert E. “The Missionas a Frontier Institution in the Spanish-American Colonies,” American Historical Review, 23 (Oct. 1917), pp. 42–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 Kiemen, Mathias The Indian Policy of Portugal in the Amazon Region, 1614–1693 (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1954).Google Scholar

3 For some recent efforts in this direction, see Hu DeHart, Evelyn Missionaries Miners and Indians: Spanish Contact with the Yaqui Nation of Northwestern Spain, 1533–1820 (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1981)Google Scholar and Saeger, James Schofield “Another View of the Mission as a Frontier Institution: The Guaycuruan Reductions of Santa Fe, 1743–1810,” Hispanic American Historical Review 65 (August 1985), pp. 493–518.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 For a fuller account of the colonization of southeastern Bolivia and the role of the Franciscans, see Langer, Erick D. “Rural Society and Land Consolidation in a Declining Economy, Chuquisaca, Bolivia 1880–1930,” Ph.D. Dissertation, Stanford University, 1984, pp. 175–234 Google Scholar and Fernández, Hernando Sanabria En busca de Eldrado: La colonización del Oriente boliviano (La Paz: Editorial Juventud, 1973), pp. 241–262.Google Scholar

5 See Langer, pp. 175–234.

6 See Langer, pp. 202–204. For the 1886 population figures, see José Cardús, O.F.M., Las misiones franciscanas entre los infieles de Bolivia: Descripción del estado de ellos en 1883 y 1884 con una noticia sobre los caminos y tribus salvajes (Barcelona: Librería de la Inmaculada Concepción, 1886), p. 242 Google Scholar; for 1912, see de Nino, Bernardino Etnografía chiriguana (La Paz.: Tipografía Comercial de Ismael Argote, 1912), pp. 78–79 Google Scholar

7 Martarelli, Angélico El colegio franciscano de Potosí y sus misiones, 2. ed. (La Paz: Talleres Gráficos “Marinoni,” 1918), p. 303.Google Scholar

8 The quote comes from Cardús, p. 49. The missionaries emphasized this defensive function in their reports to national authorities. For example, see Paoli, Rafael O.F.M., “Informe pasado por el R.P. del Convento de San Francisco relativo a las misiones del Gran Chaco,” in Ballivián, Manuel V. Memoria que presenta el Ministro de Colonias y Agricultura a la legislatura ordinaria de 1905 (La Paz: Taller Tipo-Litográfico de J.M. Gamarra, 1905),Google Scholar Publicaciones Oficiales, Biblioteca Nacional de Bolivia (hereinafter BNB), Sucre, Bolivia, pp. 84–85 (all governmental publications cited are located in BNB).

9 Sainz, Juan Manuel Memoria de Guerra y Colonización 1924 (La Paz: Tall. Intendencia de Guerra, 1924), p. 74.Google Scholar

10 For the colonial history of the missions among the Chiriguanos, see the important doctoral dissertation by Saignes, Thierry “Une ‘frontiere fossile’: la Cordillère Chiriguano au XIII siècle,” Ph.D. Dissertation, Ecole des Hautes Etudes (Paris), 1974.Google Scholar The anticlerical tendencies of the early republican administrations is described in Lofstrom, William Lee “The Promise and Problem of Reform: Attempted Social and Economic Change in the First Years of Bolivian Independence,” Ph.D. Diss., Cornell University, 1972.Google Scholar

11 República de Bolivia, Oficina de Inmigración, Estadística y Propaganda Geográfica, Censo de la población de la República de Bolivia según el empadronamiento de 1° de septiembre de 1900, vol. 2, 2. ed. (rpt.; Cochabamba: Editorial Inca, 1973), pp. 6–7, 42–43, 74–75.

12 Cardús, p. 41.

13 Nino, , Etnografía, p. 88 Google Scholar; de Nino, Bernardino Guía al Chaco boliviano (La Paz: Tall. Tip. de J.M. Gamarra, 1913), p. 45.Google Scholar

14 Jofre, Manuel O. hijo, Colonias’y misiones: Informe de la visita practicada por el Delegado del Supremo Gobierno, Dr. Manuel O. Jofre, hijo en 1893 (Tarija: Imprenta de El Trabajo, 1895), pp. 50,Google Scholar 63.

15 Unity between different groups of Chiriguanos had always been tenuous; however, before the advent of the missions, the chief, or tubicha, could rely on solidarity within his own village. This was not the case once the village moved to a mission, when they were split into opposing camps of converted and unconverted. Bratislava Susnik also makes this point. See her Chiriguanos, vol. 1 (Asunción: Museo Etnográfico “Andrés Barbero,” 1968).

16 Nino, , Etnografía, p. 304.Google Scholar

17 Martarelli, pp. 209–210.

18 Nino, , Etnografía, p. 309.Google Scholar

19 Ballivián, Manuel V. Memoria que presenta el Ministro de Colonización y Agricultura al Congreso ordinario de 1908 (La Paz: Tall. Tip. de J. Miguel Gamarra, 1908), p. 19.Google Scholar

20 Martarelli, p. 210.

21 Nordenskiöld, Erland lndianerleben: El Gran Chaco (Südamerika) (Leipzig: Albert Bonnier, 1912), p. 152.Google Scholar

22 Nino, , Etnografia, pp. 306,Google Scholar 309.

23 Martarell, p. 210; Nino, , Etnografia, p. 304.Google Scholar

24 La Faye, Julio Memoria que presenta al Honorable Congreso Nacional de 1912 el Ministro de Guerra y Colonización, Coronel Julio La Faye (La Paz: Talleres Intendencia de la Guerra, 1912), pp. 113–114.Google Scholar

25 Corrado, Alejandro M. El colegio franciscano de Tarija y sus misiones (Quaracchi: Tipografía del Colegio de San Buenaventura, 1884), p. 503 Google Scholar; de Nino, Bernardino Tres escritos del R.P. Prefecto de Misiones, Fray Bernardino de Nino, O.F.M. (Potosí: Tipografia “Católica,” 1918), p. 22 Google Scholar; Fernando, Quiroga S., Informe de la Prefectura y Comandancia General del Departamento de Chuquisaca (Sucre: Imprenta Bolivar de M. Pizarra, 1896), p. 85 Google Scholar; Censo de 1900, vol. 2, pp. 42–43.

26 Jofre, pp. 51–52.

27 Nordenskiöld, p. 152.

28 Ochoa, José Vicente Memoria del Ministro de Instrucción Pública y Colonización Dr. José Vicente Ochoa, presentada al Congreso Nacional de 1895 (Sucre: Tipografía Excelsior, 1895), p. 144.Google Scholar

29 Nino, , Etnografía, p. 116.Google Scholar

30 Araníbar, Isaac Memoria que presenta el Congreso Ordinario de 1909 el Ministro de Colonización y Agricultura D. Isaac Araníbar (La Paz: Tall. Tip. Lit. de José M. Gamarra, 1909), p. 39.Google Scholar

31 General Rodríguez, José E. A través de Bolivia (Buenos Aires: Imprenta López, 1925), pp. 16–17.Google Scholar

32 Ochoa, , Memoria 1895, p. 144 Google Scholar; Nino, , Etnografía, p. 302.Google Scholar

33 Ochoa, , Memoria 1895, p. 144 Google Scholar; La Faye, , Memoria 1912 p. 113.Google Scholar

34 Ballivián, Manuel V. Memoria que presenta el Ministro de Colonización y Agricultura Señor Manuel Vicente Ballivián al Congreso Ordinario de 1907 (La Paz; Imprenta El Comercio de Bolivia 1909), pp. 40–41.Google Scholar The Chiriguanos feared the rubber enganchadores; for their impressions of the rubber regions, see Nordenskiöld, pp. 298–300.

35 Gutiérrez, Néstor Memoria de Guerra y Colonización (La Paz: n.p., 1914), p. 141 Google Scholar; for the Del Castillo case, see Notaría de Hacienda y Minas (Sucre), 1912:4, 5, 1913:2.

36 For conditions on haciendas in the region, see Langer, pp. 212–222.

37 Araníbar, , Memoria 1909, p. 39.Google Scholar

38 de Nino, Bernardino Continuación de la historia de misiones franciscanas del Colegio de P.P. F.F. de Potosí, 2. ed. (La Paz: Talleres Gráficos Marinoni, n.d.), p. 105.Google Scholar

39 Healy, Kevin Caciques y patrones: Una experiencia de desarrollo rural en el sud de Bolivia (Cochabamba: Ediciones El Buitre, 1982)Google Scholar; also see Sanjines, Alfredo La reforma agraria en Bolivia (La Paz: Editorial Renacimiento, 1932), p. 277.Google Scholar

40 Nino, , Etnografía, pp. 237,Google Scholar 78.