FLASHBACK TO THE MISSION OF SAN IGNATIO

While we were in Iguazu, my physicist and I rented a car and drove 150 km in the dumping rain to the Jesuit Missions of San Ignacio.  Fortunately, it was sunny by the time we arrived and we were able to enjoy the adventure.

If you have not seen The Mission (1984) with Robert DeNiro, Jeremy Irons, Liam Neeson, and Aiden Quinn, please rent it now.  Not only does it have all those young hunky actors, it also stars amazing Iguazu Falls.  It is a beautiful retelling of the Jesuits in South America.

Meanwhile, here is Catbird's condensed (and possibly slightly biased) history lesson: Often when we hear about Christian Missions, my physicist and I feel the need to make immediate acts of contrition (and we aren't even Catholic), but as missions go, this Guarani/Jesuit  village seems to have been more collaboration than exploitation.  We figured two lone Jesuit priests must have been pretty special to get the chiefs on board and to get them to build the church even before they built their own shelters!  Ultimately, over 5,000 Guarani lived here, giving up their river migrations and learning to farm.  In addition to their own plots of land, they also farmed community plots, and built a hospital and a home for orphans and widows.    

Partially Reconstructed Entrance to the Church

By joining together, the Guarani could repel raids from the north set on capturing the Indians to use as plantation slaves. The Jesuits and the Guarani learned each other's music and instruments and knitted them together into some beautiful sounds.  Oh, it was lovely.  But it all ended badly, of course, when Spain and Portugal got pissy about their colonies needing slaves, and the Pope got worried that the Jesuits had waaaaay too much autonomy.  The Jesuits got yanked, the villages raided, and the Guarani were made slaves, killed, or slipped back into river life.  In other words, after a brief period of lovely cooperation, productivity and spiritual growth, fear and greed prevailed.  Again. 

photo from the interpretive center

Restoration/archeological excavation of the Mission at San Ignacio began in the 1940s, then stalled, and has picked up again since becoming a World Heritage Site in 1983.

Indicative of their mutual respect, on the entrance to the church there is a Guarani angel carved on one side and a Jesuit angel carved on the other.

  
Mark Twain once said "I don't know about Christianity--it's never been tried."  I think he must not have known about San Ignacio.