Many studies have been written concerning the mission. Generally, these choose the areas where the mission was relatively successful. This article is interested in one area, where the mission was not successful: eastern Peru. Neither Spain nor the Catholic Church was able to gain the permanent allegiance of the natives of that region. Certainly the failure cannot be totally ascribed to a lack of effort. Members of every religious order, Augustinian, Dominican, Franciscan, Jesuit, and Mercedarian, were employed by the crown. None reported more than the most modest and temporary successes. The Franciscans tried most of all and lost more than seventy-eight priests at the hands of the natives. For that reason, they are singled out in this study. Failures sometimes can teach as much as successes.

When, in the year 1670, Afonso Furtado de Castro do Rio de Mendonça became governor-general of Brazil, and assumed the responsibilities of the highest office in the colony, the search for El Dorado was already something of a recognized pursuit on the part of many government officials and of many enterprising colonists. The existence of rich deposits of gold, silver, and precious stones within the confines of Portuguese America was pretty generally taken for granted; and numerous people were periodically diverted from agriculture, which early formed the basis of much of colonial wealth, to follow the will-o’-the-wisp of hidden treasure into the wilderness. The appeal of the unknown was, of course, enormous, and the vision of El Dorado had become fixed in many minds, especially after the news of Spain’s good fortune in Peru and Terra Firma was spread. With geographical knowledge as piecemeal and as imperfect as it then was, it was no difficult matter for a credulous age to suppose that by penetrating the jungle areas westward from the sea the Portuguese might in some way tap the sources of Spain’s Andean mines.

A Social History of colonial Latin America should endeavor to trace the patterns of behavior of the various social groups within the society. Group behavior can be viewed from a number of different perspectives. Among the more important variables are political behavior, economic behavior, social behavior and religious behavior. Religious participation and involvement is one of the more interesting of these variables, especially in Latin America, where the Catholic Church has traditionally been a social institution powerfully affecting all others. The Church and the upper social groups have often functioned in a symbiotic relationship one to another, with the Church providing a measure of social prestige and temporal power in exchange for economic and/or political support. This essay, based on a study of 178 wholesale merchants, seeks to interpret the relationships established between the Church and the economically and socially powerful merchant group in late eighteenth century Buenos Aires. At the same time, the essay attempts to illustrate that in studying the religious participation of a specific social group, the role of religion as an indicator of social prestige and power becomes dramatically apparent.

The Important Role of the religious orders in the evangelization and colonization of Spanish America is recognized by all historians. In both Mexico and Peru the Franciscans, Dominicans and Mercedarians were the earliest friars upon the scene. They traveled down from Panama to Tumbez and to San Miguel de Piura in Peru as early as 1531 when the conquest of that country was scarcely under way. Those were heroic days, when men braved the incalculable terrors of the unknown, the hostility of the natives and the rigors of extreme altitudes swept by angry winds and snows in the bitterness of winter.

This essay deals with the lore of the military profession in Latin America in two ways. First, it presents a general introduction to militarylore, its applications to the study of military-civilian relations and its limitations as a research tool. Second, it presents an application (with obvious limitations) of concepts discussed in part I to a case study, part II: the lore of the Chilean Army officer class in the twentieth century. I am convinced that militarylore as defined and discussed herein is an especially fertile field for research in the study of the interaction between the armed forces and state, nation and society.

Terminology used in the following pages is for the most part selfexplanatory and free from neologisms, jargon and “sociologese.” There are, though, some terms which merit clarification, not because of their vagueness, but so that they not be confused with similar terms. There is, I believe, a decreasing tendency to generalize about military-civilian relations; clarity is important.

He aquí una figura menos conocida, pero que es sin embargo un exponente más de la sabia y prudente conducta del Catolicismo en un terreno en que prejuicios sectarios quisieron y aun de vez en cuando tienden a querer representarlo como una fuerza retardataria del brillante desenvolvimiento científico-natural de nuestros días.

El gran predominio de las ciencias naturales en su amplio concepto que abraza también a las matemáticas en nuestros días ha producido un espejismo que lleva a las mayorías a reconocer ese campo como antono-másticamente la CIENCIA.

Más aun, como una resultante, para muchos las ciencias que pudiéramos llamar del espíritu como la teología, metafísica, derecho a historia han venido a ser para ellos como ciencias de segunda categoría y en gran parte se las considera como campo especial para inteligencias menos avanzadas o para personas que por profesión están más en conexión con esos estudios.

The celebration of the centennial of the Brazilian Republic (1889-1989) was marked by a few events of academic or civic nature and no enthusiasm whatsoever. It has been observed that the bicentennial of the French Revolution aroused more interest in the people of Brazil. The reasons for this are not difficult to understand. Two seem to have particular relevance. First, is the recent memory of a military regime (1964-1985) in the minds of the people. The proclamation of the Republic on 15 November 1889 is generally held to be the making of the Brazilian military; it would be somewhat embarrassing to celebrate the actions of yesterday's enemies.

The second reason relates to the disappointment felt among the populace with the New Republic—the name given to the civilian government inaugurated in 1985. The New Republic rode in on the crest of huge mass demonstrations, the most impressive ever to take place in the country. These people called for the end of military rule and the direct election of a civilian president. In 1985 a civilian president took over, although not chosen by direct election, and a constituent assembly drafted a new constitution. Freedom of the press was restored and the people lived in great hope that a new era had finally dawned for the nation. Four years later, in 1989, a new constitution was in effect, and the fundamental precepts of a democratic system—the executive, the legislature, and the judiciary branches of government; a free press; multiple political parties; and a politicized populace—were all in place.

In 1850, after four terms in the United States Congress as a Whig from the Dayton, Ohio district, Robert Cumming Schenck decided not to run for reelection. Despondent over the recent death of his wife, Schenck yearned for a restful stay in a warmer clime. Consequently, he applied for a diplomatic post, the customary reward for loyal party service. President Millard Fillmore, a fellow Whig, obliged Schenck with an appointment as Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary to Brazil. A railroad promoter, land speculator and politician, Schenck had few formal qualifications for diplomatic service other than the confidence of Secretary of State Daniel Webster and a fluent command of the French language. These were, however, more substantial assets than most nineteenth century American diplomats could boast, and to them Schenck added a brisk, businesslike manner, immense energy and a certain gruff charm.

In the history of Spain's spiritual conquest of the New World, a definite cycle of enthusiasm may be observed. In the seventeenth century, for example, there was a noticeable falling off of Spanish missionary effort in the direction of the tribes yet to be converted. It is interesting to speculate on the causes of this phenomenon. An obvious cause, and certainly a contributing one, lies in the very nature of man. Human endeavor in the temporal order tends now to wax, now to wane in enthusiasm, and since the mission effort in question was human as well as divine, this cycle would tend to appear here as well. Around midcentury this problem of lessening enthusiasm became acute.

In Shakespeare’s play, Pericles, the leading character interrogates a woman whom he does not know is actually his daughter, Marina. In his excitement, King Pericles asks:

Whereupon Marina replies:

How ironic that Shakespeare’s Marina bears a resemblance to the well-known Aztec princess, Malinche, also known as Marina. For the researcher engaged in telling the history of Malinche, there exists an inherent case of mistaken identity in particular indices and annotations to documents that are relevant to her history—a mistake as perplexing and deceptive as if to “seem like lies disdained in the reporting,”

From the Early Days of the conquest of the River Plate up to our times, there have been numerous religious of the Order of St. Francis who have occupied episcopal sees in what is today the Argentine Republic, but not one of them has filled such glorious pages of the history of this country as Fray Fernando Trejo y Sanabria. Only one has come close to imitating his intense and extraordinary labors, and that was Fray Martín Ignacio de Loyola, Bishop of Asunción del Paraguay between 1602 and 1606, an epoch when all the Argentine coastland belonged to the Asunción Diocese.