Guarani and The Jesuits of Latin America

Background:
The Jesuit Order of the Catholic Church was founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola in 1540. Ignatius at a young age was sent, by his father, to work as a page in the courts of the Spanish Royalty. Nonetheless, Ignatius, “naturally of a bold and aspiring disposition,” (Nicolini, 10), longed for a life with more adventure than that of a page and as such joined the military. During a siege of a castle in France, Ignatius was severely wounded and due to his injuries, was unable to continue serving in the military. While recovering from his injuries, a pious friend is said to have given him a copy of Lives of the Saints to read. “The strange adventures… the praise, the adoration, the glory ,” (Nicolini, 12) enthralled Ignatius and provided for him an opportunity to satisfy his desire for adventure through Sainthood.
This quest led Ignatius to delve into a long period of meditation and self-introspection where he created the motto which would help shape the order “Ad majorem Dei gloriam,” – For the greater glory of God. This thought represented the concept that he thought of himself as “ a General fighting for the Divine Glory,” (Nicolini, 16). Ignatius gradually gained followers and eventually, with the blessing of Pope Paul, the order was brought into being.
Since the early days of the order, missions (long trips abroad to create new followers) were of vital importance. It was only nine years after the founding of the order that the first mission to Latin America commenced (Klaiber, 1). In direct contrast to the actions taken by the Spanish and the Portuguese in the new world as described by Las Cases and other texts, the Jesuits, “came to accept a kind of cultural relativism.”
The Jesuit technique was to assume ‘a thousand masks’, being all things to all men and with “holy cunning” accepting the limitations imposed by the local situation. Rather than destroy and condemn what they found, they tried to reshape and reorient existing practices and beliefs in order to establish a common ground on which to begin conversion. Then, by slowly, proving the superiority of their own ideas, the Jesuits were able to work to win the souls of men with tact and forbearance, not with rudeness and impatience. (Duignan, 726)

They overran the country to a great extent, and wherever they could find an Indian, they overwhelmed him with so much kindness, showed him so much affection.. that these injured men yielded by degress to the fascination, and accustomed themselves to look upon a Jesuit as a protector from the oppressions of other Europeans. And protectors they were, and proved to be. (Nicolini 300).

This line of thinking allowed the Jesuits to create a “fantastic Indian State” in Paraguay (the area of the Rio Del Plata) which has been referred to as a “Forest Utopia” (Duignan, 729). It has been said that “Scarcity and hunger were unknown” in the Reductiones (the name given to the towns). Furthermore, Jose Carlos Mariategui, Peru’s leading Marxist, commented that “these Indian societies were the only places where the Indians were actually better off after the conquest” (Klaiber, 1).These establishments were in substance a self supporting commune where items that were needed for the community were made by the inhabitants and distributed equally among the people. Surplus goods were used in trade for European goods which were not available in the commune. Whatever remained was split between a minor tribute to the King of Spain and for the use of the Jesuit fathers (Nicolini 304).
However, by the Treaty of Madrid, signed in 1750, Spain and Portugal agreed to exchange possession of territory. The exchange took place as an attempt to free the area of contraband (Bacigalupo 10). It so happened that the exchanged territory included 7 Reductiones or camps.. The Portuguese then proceeded to demand that the camps be moved. The Guarani would not listen to the new legal “owners” and chose to stay instead. In turn the Spanish and Portuguese forces entered into a two year war with the Indians from 1754-55 where the Indians were routed. The alleged actions of the Jesuits in supporting the war and the damning testimony of Bernado Ibanez , a former Jesuit priest who had been removed from the order on two occasions led to the Jesuit expulsion from Latin America in 1767. The Jesuit, since its inception, “had never been popular”, were thought of as “haughty and intriguing”, and generally were despised for the power and the influence which they wielded. (Bacigalupo 2). As such, when the opportunity presented itself, Ibanez jumped and gave damning testimony,
“According to Ibanez, not least among the reasons for the order’s power was its wealth. Ibanez claimed that the Jesuits had an income of more than 1,000,000 silver pesos each year from the labor of Indians .. and paid only 20,000 in taxes and expense…. The Jesuits had at their direct command an army of Indians with the latest firearms”. It is also said that each Indian had to undergo military training. (Bacigalupo 15).
This testimony led to the expulsion of the Jesuits and the turning over of the Indians into the hands of the Crown as the Jesuits were accused of putting themselves above the Crowns of Spain and Portugal in their creation of an independent illegal state (Bacigalupo 16).







Body:
The story of the Guarani Indians and the Jesuit Reductiones, in what was called Paraguay at the time, has three main points which can be tied into human and civil rights discourse in the region. The original actions of the Spanish and the Portugese upon arrival in the new world, the “kindness” showed by the Jesuits in their creation of the camps, and the apparent disregard the Jesuits showed towards the “legal” authorities of the region.
The actions of the Spanish and the Portuguese upon arrival in the new world cannot be called anything short of barbaric. Through the stories told by Las Cases, we have a great example of the ability of humanity to disregard the value of human life. The thought that the natives of the land were savages or non-human was used to justify the actions taken against them. However, from a scientific point of view, it has been said that we can deemed a being to be a member of a species if and when two beings can create offspring together. As such, as children between the Europeans and the Natives were possible, it is relatively difficult to argue the natives were not human and as such, worthy of the rights which would be afforded humans by documents such as the Magna Charter. Furthermore, even if the right to life was not guaranteed by a specific document, many people, including the authors of the American Bill of Rights, have argued that such basic rights are self-evident and as such they would exist without having been written down. This was a return to the original rights discourse of “might makes right”.
In apparent contrast, the Jesuits in Latin America showed a greater respect for the concept of human and civil rights. The goal of the Jesuits in coming to the new world was at least, in part, to attempt to Christianize the natives who were present. The use of what is called today “cultural relativism” to attempt and find some common ground on which to begin a relationship with the natives rather than dominating them with might, showed a greater respect for their common man. It acknowledged that the Jesuits did not have the right to enslave the natives and teach western European thought as it, by nature, was superior. The Jesuits also provided a protected community where the natives could be free from the life of slavery or death that was promised to them by the Spaniards or the Portuguese. A system of government was set up and persons were able to enjoy property of their own, rights which are commonplace and considered fundamental to the societies of the present day. (Nicolini 304)
However, while the Jesuits did provide a community where life was considered to better for the natives (Nicolini 300), it has also been said that the natives in these camps were slaves nonetheless.
“To keep these people in such a state of dependence and submission, the Jesuits secluded them from the right of the world. No individual could leave the Reduction without permission, and no European was allowed to visit these Reductions unaccompanied, or to have free intercourse with the inhabitants. The knowledge of any other than the native language was altogether banished, and aversion and prejudices against the Europeans as carefully cherished as in ancient Egypt.” (Nicolini 305).

While it could be argued that the Jesuits were taking a paternalistic point of view to try and protect the natives from those people who had enslaved and killed many races in the area, these facts indicate that the Jesuits remained to consider themselves superior to the Natives where such a consideration may not have been appropriate. The thought can be summed up in the thought “What right did the Jesuits have to do that?”.
Similarly it has been said of the Jesuits in the writings of Nicolini and Bacigalupo that the Jesuits thought themselves to be superior to most people in the world with their intellect and power with the Holy Father in Rome. While the Jesuits, as a Catholic religious order of priests, served ultimately the Catholic God and from an earthly perspective the Pope, they seemed to pay little attention to the persons and kings who had legal title over the lands in which they operated; as described by Bernado Ibaned de Echavarri in his reports on the actions of the Jesuits in Latin America. Bernado described a society which paid 2% taxes to the legal owners of the land. Furthermore, the society, which did not know the language of the Kings and which was forbidden to know the language, maintained a standing army which has been compared to that of the Swiss (the elite papal guard) in terms of skill (Bacigalupo 15). It is worth repeating that the final excess funds went back to Jesuits from the economy in the camps. The Guarani and the Jesuits appear to have made their own social contract with themselves and did not think to ask permission from those who had claim to the land. Furthermore, the Jesuits, with their intellect and wisdom, should have been able to foresee what would happen to their Reductiones as they were constructed and should have thought about who was really injured by their loss, and that was the Guarani.
The story of the Jesuits and the Guarani shows some overall progress in terms of human rights in Latin America in that a society did exist where violence, slavery and death were not the norm. However, the society did not last in the area of violence and death in the long run due to the inability of the Jesuits to protect the Guarani from the political and economic climate of the world.




Annotated Bibliography:
1)

Nicolini, G.B , History of the Jesuits: Their Origin, Progress, Doctrines, and Designs, George Bell & Sons, London, 1893.

This 400 page novel by Nicolini is mostly a historical document which looks at the Jesuits from their beginnings with an extensive backstory into the life of St. Ignatius of Loyala and his thoughts, philosophies, and affect on the order. Nicolini paints a very militaristic point of view on the Jesuits, that they were the Soldiers of Christ in an attempt to push back the wave of Protestantism in the world and to expand Catholicism around the globe. Nicolini provides a balanced and in depth story of the Jesuits in an attempt to portray them both as the intelligent, caring people who joined the order but also provided evidence of some obvious flaws and errors in their ways when they attempted to pursue their power too far. Nicolini provided mostly negative descriptions of the life in the Reductiones focusing on the lack of rights afforded to the Natives.
2)
Klaiber, Jeffrey, S.J. , The Jesuits in Latin America: legacy and current emphases. Thomas Gale & Goliath, 2005.

This article, written for the International Bulletin of Missionary Research, provides a short history of the Jesuits as people who established schools and universities in the area of Latin and South America since the 1540’s. Klaiber provides positive information regarding the lives in the Reductiones, stating that “hunger and scarcity were unknown (Klaiber ,1). Klaiber acknowledges that the Jesuits may have practiced paternalism with respect to the Natives, however he does not mention that the paternalism, with respect to language and freedom, may have been a tool or instrument used by the Jesuits to maintain their position of power which was providing the order with significant funds and power.
3)
Bacigalupo, Mario Ford, Bernado Ibanez de Echavarri and the image of the Jesuit Missions of Paraguay, The Americas, Vol 35, No. 4, April 1979, pp 475-494.

Bacigalupo provides an account of the fall and expulsion of the Jesuits in Latin America in 1767 with respect to the actions surrounding the 1750 Treaty of Madrid and the Reductiones and the war with the Guarani. Bacigalupo argues that it was the damning testimony of Bernado Ibanez de Echavarri, a twice removed Jesuit priest who gave the proof to the courts of Europe that the Jesuits were involved in the uprising and as such were a direct threat to the crown. Bacigalupo does not provide any information as to how credible the testimony of Ibanez is with respect to the fact that as a twice removed member of the order, Ibanez would most likely harbor ill-feelings towards the Jesuits and easily could have allowed that to influence his testimony. Furthermore, Bacigalupo does not highlight the thought that the Jesuits were not popular in the eyes of many Europeans for their use of “cultural relativism” when recruiting new members. This “cultural relativism” approach enraged many Europeans who wished to see the order fail.
4)
Duignan, Peter, Early Jesuit Missionaries: A Suggestion for Further Study, American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 60, No. 4 (Aug, 1958, pp725-732)

This article provides an in depth account of how the Jesuits were successful in the creation of the Reductiones. It describes a passive approach of showing kindness to a people who had been subject to violence and slavery. It describes an accepting approaching where customs of the natives were merged with customs of the Jesuits in order to better understand the natural law. In this article Duignan appears to be describing the actions of the Jesuit Missionaries in line with the current day notion of Cultural Relativism.




















Bibliography:
Bacigalupo, Mario Ford, Bernado Ibanez de Echavarri and the image of the Jesuit Missions of Paraguay, The Americas, Vol 35, No. 4, April 1979, pp 475-494.

Duignan, Peter, Early Jesuit Missionaries: A Suggestion for Further Study, American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 60, No. 4 (Aug, 1958, pp725-732).

Klaiber, Jeffrey, S.J. , The Jesuits in Latin America: legacy and current emphases. Thomas Gale & Goliath, 2005.

Nicolini, G.B , History of the Jesuits: Their Origin, Progress, Doctrines, and Designs, George Bell & Sons, London, 1893.

Las Casas, Bartolome de. A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies. Trans. Nigel Griffin. London: Penguin, 1992. 3-70


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