Ruinas jesuíticas, paisajes de la memoria

"This book tries to understand how we change the uses and meanings of the Jesuit missions of Paraguay since it began its enhancement, in the mid-1970s." (HKB Translation) --Page 14. This work explores the path followed by the Jesuit missions of Guarani from its foundation, in the 17th and 18th centuries, to the present. In that extensive period the condition of the buildings built by Jesuits and indigenous people was transformed. If in the past they were tools to Christianize the native population, today they are a valuable cultural heritage protected by their artistic and architectural characteristics. Through an approach from history and ethnography, this book reveals that, far from being dead sites, the material remains of the missions are spaces full of senses, anchoring multiple voices that face each other in the eternal dispute to define the meanings of the past. There are many actors involved today in this bid: national states, international organizations or the Catholic Church, but also subjects whose voices are less sonorous, including inhabitants of the villages where the heritage is located, peasants of the region and indigenous communities of Guarani. Author Maximiliano von Thüngen holds a PhD in history from the University of Cologne and a Master's degree in social anthropology from the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (Argentina Campus). He currently lives in Berlin.