Pasado y Presente: Los jesuitas en la Misión Nahuel Huapi (1670-1674 Y 1704-1717) y la devoción mariana

Abstract

Near Nahuel Huapi’s lake, the Jesuits of the Araucanía founded a mission as an extension of the Chiloé missions, to gain lands and subjects on the other side of the mountain. They did it in two stages: 1670/1674 and 1703/1717. In this work, we will present two significant issues that projected into the present: the martyrdom of the Jesuits of the Nahuel Huapi and the devotion of the Virgin Mary. The martyrdom of P. Mascardi transformed into martyrs their successors, according the present narratives contradicting the original documents. The mission under the advocation of the Virgin was the key in relation to the patronage, the titles and the iconography. The survival of her image in the fire that destroyed the mission and her "discovery" in the present, developed into an emblem of "colonial Christianity" replete with the "blood of martyrdom", which forwards the last colonial Jesuit.