Respect or weakness? The Jesuits in the Tarahumara

Abstract

This work is partially the product of the research "The Jesuit Missions in New Spain, 1575 - 1767", of historiographical and cultural anthropological approach, whose main objective is to comprehend the life in the missions. It seeks to answer questions such as: what was the relationship between the missions and the authorities? Regarding the aspects of the primitive culture of Tarahumara that were not lost: such preservation was due to the failures of the missionaries or due to their consent? The sources used are firsthand, Jesuit, ecclesiastical and civil. I will resort to fieldwork in communities as well.
In present-day Mexico, the Raramuri or Tarahumares, who have inhabited the northern part of the Sierra Madre Occidental, is a group which retains their original culture almost intact, despite the Jesuit missionaries worked with them during two centuries. While it is true that the missionaries succeeded in grouping them, they did so in small communities and not in villages or towns as they did regarding other groups. Even today, their religious beliefs are remarkably syncretic and practiced outside any Orthodox Church: a good example is the mission of Santa Maria de Cuevas (Chihuahua), which preserves original paintings that show how Jesus is escorted by the Sun and Moon, the gods of the raramuri myths.