March 11, 2019 – March 13, 2019

The mission at San Ignacio Miní was built in 1666 and is one of many missions built by the Jesuits in what the Spanish called the Province of Paraguay, an area which today includes parts of Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil. The Mission was built with the aim of converting the local Guaraní people to Christianity, but it also protected the people from ongoing wars and from the slave trade. The Mission was abandoned after the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767, destroyed, along with about 30 other missions in the area, by later invaders and was soon after overcome by the rainforest. Restorations of the site began in 1940.

The Guaraní people still live in this area of Argentina, with the province having been named Misiones after the large number of missions in the area. The neighbouring country of Paraguay has an even larger population of Guaraní people, with more Paraguayans speaking and understanding Guaraní than Spanish. As we walked back through the town to our camper we wondered what it would be like to live next to this grandiose reminder of a brief and important part of one’s past that was so different from all that preceded it. Besides the brutality and violence also associated with the history of these missions, there was also this tremendous blossoming of talent and artisanship combined with knowledge transfer and innovativeness.