Society for Comparative Studies in Society and History

Colonial and Republican Missions Compared: The Cases of Alta California and Southeastern
Bolivia
Author(s): Erick D. Langer and Robert H. Jackson
Source: Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 30, No. 2 (Apr., 1988), pp. 286-311
Published by: Cambridge University Press
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Colonial and RepublicanMissions
Compared:The Cases of Alta
Californiaand SoutheasternBolivia
ERICK D. LANGER

Carnegie-Mellon University

ROBERT H. JACKSON

Universityof California, Berkeley

In LatinAmericamissions have traditionallyplayed a large role in conquering

and incorporatingnative populationsinto dominantsociety. Most studies of
the missionary enterprise have focused on the colonial period, when the
missions reached their high point. The Jesuit missions in Paraguayand the
Franciscanmissions of centraland northernMexico, for example, ruled over
vast territoriesand thousandsof Indians. Althoughthese institutionsand their
leadershave been widely studiedbecause of theirimportanceand visibility for
colonial Latin America, it is not often recognized that missions continuedto
play a crucial role in the frontierdevelopment of the region even after the
Spanish and Portuguesehad been driven from the continent. Throughoutthe
republican period, missionaries from many orders and creeds became crit-
ically importantactors who, to a large degree, determinedthe shape of rela-
tions between native peoples and national society. This is quite clear even
today in the Amazon basin, where missionariesoften providethe natives' first
exposure to Europeanizedsociety.
Simply to assume that the role and the effects of the missions have re-
mained the same since the colonial period is not plausible. Comparisons
between the colonial and national missions can be extremely fruitful, for in
this way we can begin to use our considerableknowledge of the colonial
missions to understandthe much less studied, but nevertheless extremely
important,missions of the republicanera. Because of the dearthof studies on
missions during the republican period, a number of interesting questions
remain unanswered. What differences or similarities are there between the
mission regimes before and after independence?How can these be accounted

The authorswould like to thankthe membersof the CMU HistoryFacultySeminar,who offered

many useful suggestions, and especially Peter Steams and KatherineLynch, who commentedon
all or portions of the manuscript.

0010-4175/88/2509-9321 $5.00 ? 1988 Society for ComparativeStudy of Society and History

286
 COLONIAL AND REPUBLICAN MISSIONS COMPARED 287

for? Whateffect did these changes have on the native societies with which the
missions came into contact?Whatdoes this tell us aboutthe naturenot only of
the missionary enterprisebut the types of societies from which these institu-
tions sprang?Finally, how does the natureof the missionaryenterprisereflect
changing policies toward Indians?
To gain an understandingof these issues, we have chosen to comparethe
Franciscan missions in colonial Alta Californiaof the eighteenth and early
nineteenthcenturies with those of southeasternBolivia duringthe republican
period, the late nineteenthand early twentiethcenturies. While there is much
regional variation rendering each experience unique at a certain level of
analysis, comparingmission systems in widely separatedareaswill illuminate
some of the more general similarities and differences that existed between
missionary systems of the two eras. On a more practicallevel, there is much
more informationavailable on colonial Californiamissions than on missions
in colonial Bolivia (then called Alto Peru), making comparisonswith Alta
Californiamore fruitful.' Althoughmuch changedwithin the Churchover the
centuries, concentratingon one order, the Franciscans,allows us to keep one
variable at least partially constant. Moreover, arguably no single religious
order, except perhapsthe Jesuit, was as importantas apostles to the heathenin
the Americas as the Franciscan.This was true for the colonial as well as the
republicanperiods. Five different but interrelatedissues, essential to an un-
derstandingof the mission regimes, create the basis for comparison. They
include the type of Indiansociety encountered,type of frontier,demographic
factors, acculturationof Indiansto dominantsociety and theireconomic role,
as well as Indian resistance to these changes.

INDIAN SOCIETY AND EARLY MISSIONIZATION

In Central Mexico the task of reorganizingthe Indian populationhad been

relatively easy, because the Indiansalreadylived in nucleatedsettlementsand
practiced sedentary agriculture.During the conquest period of the sixteenth
century the Franciscanmissionarieshad applied a thin veneer of Christianity
and often accepted the existing political structure,perhapsmerely replacing
local Indian nobles who proved difficult to manipulate.This system of indi-
rect rule reflected the effective limitations of Spanish control in the region.
With the rapid decline of the Indian population and the depopulation of
existing villages, it became necessary to reorganizethe Indians into larger
communitiesthat would facilitatethe extractionof laborand tribute.2This led
I The only exceptionally good treatment of the colonial Chiriguanos is that by Thierry
Saignes. See his "Une frontiere fossile: la Cordillere Chiriguanoaux XIII siecle," 3. Cycle
Doctorate, Ecole des HautesEtudes(Paris), 1974. A good summaryof muchof his dissertationis
contained in "J6suites et franciscainsface aux Chiriguano:les amgibuitesde la reductionmis-
sionnaire," Eglise et politique en Ameriquehispanique (16e a 18e siecles). Elementspour un
debat (Bordeaux, 1984), 133-59.
2 See CharlesGibson, TheAztecs underSpanishRule:A Historyof the Indiansof the Valleyof
Mexico, 1519-1810 (Stanford, 1964), passim.
288 ERICK D. LANGER AND ROBERT H. JACKSON

to a policy of congregaci6n, or resettlement, which was followed from the

late sixteenth century onward.
The situation in Alta Californiawas differentfrom that in CentralMexico,
although the Spaniardsused the congregaci6n policy there as well. The Alta
CaliforniaIndianswere not sedentaryagriculturalistsin the Europeanor Cen-
tralMexican sense. They lived in dispersedcommunities,which at times were
only seasonal settlements. The political structurewas loose and generally
centered on the village, althougha more complex political structurebased on
chiiefdomswas developing among the Chumashof the SantaBarbaraChannel
region. The different Indian groups based their economy on huntingand the
gathering of wild plants and seafood along the coast. One anthropologist,
however, has stressed their highly developed food resource management
skills, which, althoughnot agriculturein the conventionalsense of the word,
did ensure a steady supply of plant foods.3 The abundanceof food resources
supported one of the densest Indian populations north of Central Mexico.
The Indians of southeastern Bolivia can be divided into two separate
groups, the semisedentaryChiriguanosand Chanes, who practicedswidden
agriculturealong the fertile Andean foothills, and the nomadic hunting-and-
gathering tribes such as the Tobas and Matacos, who roamed the desolate
Chaco region. Both the agriculturalistsand huntersand gathererswere orga-
nized into loosely federatedregionalgroupswith no strongpolitical authority.
As in the case of California,the natives had a village-basedpolitical structure,
althoughthere existed loose regionalconfederationscenteredon a particularly
powerful chief. The Guarani-speakingChiriguanos invaded the Andean
foothills from moder-day Paraguayand subjectedmost Chanevillages in the
early sixteenth century, at approximatelythe same time as the Spaniards
conquered the Inca empire. They soon intermarriedwith the much more
numerousChan6s and incorporatedmany of them into their society. A new
hybridcultureemergedin which both Chiriguanoand Chan6culturalelements
intermingled.Unlike the Indiansof Alta California,the Chiriguanospresent-
ed a formidiblemilitarypower. They successfully resistedSpanishencroach-
ment, even forcing the famous Viceroy Francisco Toledo to retreatwith a
large expedition he had organized in the late sixteenth century.4

3 The ethnohistoricaland anthropologicalliteratureon the Alta CaliforniaIndiansis rich. See,

for example, Randy Milliken, "The Historic Indians of Santa Cruz Mission," in Robert H.
Jackson, Edna Kimbro, and MaryEllen Ryan, "'Como la sombra huye la hora': Restoration
Research, Santa Cruz Mission Adobe, SantaCruz Mission State HistoricPark" unpublishedms,
and Robert Gibson, "Ethnogeographyof the NorthernSalinans," Excavations at Mission San
Antonio: 1976-1978 Seasons, RobertHoover and JuliaCostello, eds. (Los Angeles, 1985). In an
article entitled "A Native AmericanAdaptationto Drought:The KumeyaayAs Seen in the San
Diego Mission Records 1770-1798," Ethnohistory28:4 (1981), 295-312, anthropologistFlor-
ence Shipek describedthe well-developed plant food resourcemanagementskills which allowed
populationdensities similar to early irrigationsocieties.
4 A useful, if somewhat dated, summaryof Chiriguanopolitical organizationand history is
 COLONIAL AND REPUBLICAN MISSIONS COMPARED 289

Only in the late seventeenth century, when the Jesuits established a mis-
sionary college in nearby Tarija, did a "spiritual conquest" proceed. Even
then, Spanish efforts were only sporadicallysuccessful. Essentially, the mis-
sions never took root until the republicanperiod, as periodic revolts, mes-
sianic movements, and invasions during the colonial period wiped out the
mission communities. The Chiriguanosdestroyedthe Jesuit missions in 1727.
The Franciscanstook over a portion of the Chiriguania in the wake of this
setback and after the Jesuit expulsion in 1767 remainedthe only missionary
order in the region. New revolts seriously threatenedthe missions again in
1796 and 1799. After the Franciscansfinally appearedto have mattersunder
control in the early nineteenth century, patriot guerrilla activity during the
protractedindependencewars (1809-1825) forced the friarsto leave. Even in
1810, at the apogee of the mission system, the establishmentshoused only
abouthalf of the estimated50,000 Chiriguanosin the region. In contrastto the
Chiriguanosand Chanes, the largely nomadic Chaco tribes were never effec-
tively incorporatedinto the colonial missions.5 The Franciscansdid not re-
sume their missionary activity until 1845.
The initial mission experience of the California Indians was essentially
different from that of the Chiriguanos.The Alta CaliforniaIndians, although
huntersand gatherers,lived primarilyin the relativelydensely settled valleys.
The Spanish policy of divide and conquer, coupled with the presence of
soldiers and material inducements, facilitated the peaceful conquest of Alta
California. The Franciscanpolicy of co-opting lineages and the Indians'per-
ceptions of the missionaries as powerful wizards also played a role. In con-
trast, large segments of the warlike Chiriguanossuccessfully resisted initial
Europeanencroachment.The missionaries had to enter Chiriguanoterritory
on the Indians' terms;althoughthe colonial Franciscansat times enteredwith
Spanish soldiers to congregatethe Chiriguanosand Chanes, Chiriguanomili-
tary prowess made Spanish bullying much less successful. As long as the
pressure from the Viceroyalty did not become overwhelming, the mission-
aries' hold over the indigenous populationproved tenuous.

THE MISSION FRONTIER

In 1769 the Franciscansestablishedthe first mission in Alta California.Dur-

ing the course of the next sixty-five years the Franciscansestablishedtwenty-
one mission communities and baptized some 90,000 Indians. The Spanish
governmentsponsoredthe establishmentof the missions underthe control of
the Franciscansas the only possible way to controlthe region and successfully

contained in Alfred Metraux, "Chiriguanoand Chane," Handbookof SouthAmericanIndians,

Julian Steward, ed. (Washington,D.C., 1948), III, 465-85. For a detailed treatmentof Viceroy
Toledo's failed expedition, see GuillermoPinckertJustiniano,La guerra chiriguana(SantaCruz,
1978).
5 Saignes, "Une frontiere," passim.
290 ERICK D. LANGER AND ROBERT H. JACKSON

undertakethe social and economic transformationof the Indian population.

Using Central Mexico as a model and the historical Spanish orientationto-
wards urbanpolities, the Crown envisioned that the Alta CaliforniaIndians
would be transformedinto a village-dwellingpeasantrythatwould supportthe
colonial order through the payment of tribute and the exploitation of their
labor. To achieve this goal, the Indians had to be gathered into nucleated
communities, congregaciones, and be introducedto an entirelynew economic
system and labor regime.
It was the job of the Franciscansto settle the Indiansin the new commu-
nities and guide the process of social change. The strongmissionaryimpulse
that helpedjustify Spanishdominionover the vast lands in the Americasgave
the colonial religious orders substantialleeway in establishingtheir own vi-
sions of a utopian Christiancommunity among the Indians. For the Fran-
ciscans in particular,the apocalypticimpulse, so strong among the first mis-
sionaries in New Spain, still had importanteffects in the eighteenthcentury.
Partof this impulse predicatedthatthe Indianswere a kind of religious tabula
rasa, who had to be converted to Christianitybut also protected from the
corruptionsof Spanishsociety.6 Thus, the missionariessaw themselves as the
protectorsof the Indians' spiritualwell-being througha policy of separating
their charges as much as possible from the colonists. The Spanish Crown
envisioned the eventual incorporationof the mission populationinto colonial
society, but only as a separate group with special discriminatorylaws that
placed the Indiansin a position akin to minors, withoutthe full rightsenjoyed
by those of Europeandescent.
While marginalto developments in CentralMexico, Alta Californiahad a
certain geopolitical importancewith an implied English and Russian threat.
Alta Californiain the hands of a hostile power could serve as a base for the
invasion of the importantnorthernMexican mines, a concern of the Spanish
Crown for nearly two hundredyears. It was with a sense of urgency that
visitador-general Jose de Galvez organized the 1769 "Sacred Expedition"
from Baja Californiato occupy the region. Alta Californiawas thus both a
missionary and militaryfrontier. In orderto secure effective control over the
region, the governmentestablishedmilitarygarrisonsat four key points along
the coast and promotednon-Indiansettlementin the region. The government
established three villages and encouraged colonists and retired soldiers to
settle at the presidios.
As HerbertBolton and others have emphasized,the mission system was an
integral part of the Spanish Crown's defense and colonization policies. In a
sense, one can envision the mission as an armof the state duringthe colonial
period. While missionaries, colonists, and government officials often dis-
agreed on colonial policy, the missions were very much "frontier institu-
6 John L. Phelan, The Millenial Kingdomof the Franciscans in the New World, 2d. ed. rev.
(Berkeley, 1970).
 COLONIAL AND REPUBLICAN MISSIONS COMPARED 29I

tions" that, in Boltonian terminology, helped convert, civilize, and exploit

the natives.7 It was logical for Spanishsoldiersto help in the foundationof the
California missions and, if need be, help keep order, lead expeditions to
capturemore Indians, and defend these establishments.The region, however,
held little attractionfor settlers from CentralMexico, and a marketeconomy
did not develop until after Mexican independence. In the meantime, the
mission economies sustainedthe region. It was not until ex-mission land and
labor became availableduringthe 1830s thatthe natureof the frontiersociety
changed.
In Bolivia, the friars from Tarijareopeneda mission at Itau only in 1845.
Over the next threedecades the Franciscansestablishedfive more missions. A
second phase of mission activity by the Potosi convent resultedin the estab-
lishmentof three missions between 1876 and 1893. By 1900, the high point of
the republicanmission system, almost 10,000 of the total Chiriguanopopula-
tion of approximately25,000 resided on the Franciscanestablishments in
southeasternBolivia.8
As in California, secular concerns, includingthe integrationof the Indians
into national society and concern about encroachmentby foreign powers,
played an importantrole in the creationof the new missions. By the middle of
the nineteenth century Bolivian society was slowly regaining its vigor after
the chaotic post-independenceperiod, and the state became concernedabout
establishing effective control in fringe areas. If the Chiriguanoscould not
become tax-paying farmers, at least they could become useful citizens as
laborers for the colonists settling the area. Also, although the region was
marginalat best to the Bolivian economy, the governmentfound it prudentto
assert control over the unchartedChaco, an area under dispute by Paraguay
and Argentina.
Militaryexpeditions aided in the establishmentof the Chiriguanomissions,
just as in California.Nevertheless, therewere importantdifferences. A formal
militarypresence in the Chiriguaniawas always transitory;troopsonly invad-
ed the region in response to serious uprisings that threatenedsettlers. The
Franciscansfollowed and laterestablisheda mission in the area. For example,
the Potosi Franciscansfounded San Pascual de Ivo in 1893, a year after a
majoruprisingin 1892. Similarevents led to the establishmentof the missions
in Boicobo (1875) and Machareti (1869). However, in all cases at least a
significant faction of the Chiriguanoshad requestedthe establishmentof the
mission. Since the friars were unable to count on the continuedpresence of
the military, they had to compromise with Indian leaders much more than

7 The classic articleon this is HerbertE. Bolton, "The Mission as a FrontierInstitutionin the
Spanish-AmericanColonies," American Historical Review, 23:1 (1917), 42-61.
8 Republicade Bolivia, Oficina de Inmigraci6n,Estadfsticay PropagandaGeografica, Censo
de la poblaci6n de la Replblica segun el empadronamientode 1 de septiembrede 1900, 2d. ed.
(Cochabamba, 1973), I, 42, 74-75.
292 ERICK D. LANGER AND ROBERT H. JACKSON

duringthe colonial period. It was clear to the missionariesthat, althoughthey

had asked for the missions voluntarily,the Chiriguanosdid so as a last resort
to prevent the settlers from taking away all their land and forcing them to
work on their estates.9
By the republicanperiod, in any case, the strong religious impulse of the
colonial period had spent itself. The Franciscansthemselves had become
more pragmaticin their approach,and republicangovernments,imbuedwith
many elements of liberal thought (which saw the separationof the mission
Indians from national society as anathema),could not permitthe creationof
missionary-ledutopian "Indian republics." Instead, the state codes regulat-
ing mission activities incorporatedregulationsthat permittedthe free circula-
tion of outsiders on mission property. The goal, at least in theory, was to
integratethe Indiansas soon as possible as full citizens into nationalsociety. 10
The connections between Church and state in republican Bolivia were
much more tenuous than during the colonial period. During the early nine-
teenth century the struggles between the Papacy and the fledgling republics
over Churchautonomyand the role of the regularclergy led to the separation
of the state and the Roman Catholic Church.This was especially true for the
regularclergy, who were seen by the early liberal statesmenas economically
unproductivemembers of society with vast wealth that, because it remained
outside the market, did not aid in the development of their country. Thus,
when the national governments finally permittedorganized missionary ac-
tivity to proceed again, the missionaries were not as closely linked to the
governmental enterprise as during the colonial period. In most cases the
Franciscans who came to take over the old monasteries were foreigners,
primarily Italians, whereas in the colonial period virtually all friars were
Spaniards.While the missionarygoals of the colonial periodhad not changed
substantially,the relationshipbetween Churchand state had. As a result, the
military in particulardid not have the same close relationshipto the mission-
aries as had been the case duringthe colonial period. There were a numberof
reasons for this. In Bolivia, as elsewhere, anticlericalgovernmentsduringthe
early republicanperiod often converted monasteriesinto barracks,creating
the basis for subsequentantagonisms as the friars tried to recover their old
buildings in the second half of the nineteenthcentury.' As mentionedabove,

9 Bernardinode Nino is especially emphaticon this point. See his Etnografiachiriguana(La

Paz, 1912), 116. Also see Angelico Martarelli,O.F.M., El colegiofranciscano de Potosi y sus
misiones, 2d. ed. (La Paz, 1918), 257.
O1See, for example, Alejandro Ercole, O.F.M., Reglamento de misiones de infieles en el
territorio de Bolivia (Sucre, 1871). Article 27, for example, reads: "The missionaries [Padres
Conversores],with the consent of the Mission Prefect, will attemptthroughall possible meansthe
assimilation of the customs of the neophytes to the other Christiansof the Republic" (p. 23).
11 For the anticlericalism of the early republican regimes in Bolivia, consult William L.
Lofstrom, The Promise and Problem of Reform:AttemptedSocial and Economic Change in the
First Years of Bolivian Independence(Ithaca, 1972).
 COLONIAL AND REPUBLICAN MISSIONS COMPARED 293

of course, the state's fiscal problems often precludedsupplyingthe missions

with soldiers even if the Franciscanshad so desired.
As the Spanish Crown had done throughoutSpanish America in the early
conquest period of the sixteenth century, the republicangovernmentin the
late nineteenthcentury gave the responsibilitiesof explorationand conquest
of the Chaco to private military enterprise. In the 1890s the government
permitteda wealthy private individual to explore the Chaco and establish a
series of forts in returnfor extensive land grants, some rifles, and ammuni-
tion. The settlers who established the Chaco forts never constituteda disci-
plined militaryorganizationand were never called upon by the Franciscansto
maintainorder on the missions. In any case, most militarycolonists fled the
brutalconditions of the Chaco frontierafter a short period. Also, they were
more disposed toward the viewpoints of the spontaneoussettlers, who often
saw the missionaries as obstacles to obtaining Indian labor as cheaply as
possible.12 The governmentsent regularmilitaryunits into the Chaco only in
the late 1920s. These soldiers manned forts far to the south and east of the
missions and had little to do with the Chiriguanos.
The establishmentof the missions among the Chiriguanoswas thus much
more related to the pressures exerted by settlers than outrightmilitary con-
quest. In fact, the Indianuprisingsin the late nineteenthcenturywere the last-
ditch defenses against the penetrationof mestizo colonists and their herds of
cattle, which in turn provoked retaliationby columns hastily organized by
provincial officials from among local settlers. Only after the middle of the
nineteenth century, when the silver mining boom led to greaterdemand for
cattle and the settlers finally achieved a cleat military advantage with the
arrivalof technologically superiorweapons such as Winchesterrifles, did the
balance shift decisively in favor of the colonists. Even then, in the long
interludesbetween uprisingsthe settlers advancedprimarilyby herdingtheir
cattle onto the Indians'unfencedcorn fields, forcingthe Indiansto retreatinto
the remote recesses of the Andeanfoothills. It was the reactionto this type of
colonization that promptedmany Chiriguanogroupsto seek the protectionof
the Franciscansand preserveat least some of their land and thus their subsis-
tence base.13
While the Chiriguanosrealized some benefit from the establishmentof the
missions, other ethnic groupsdid not. Thus, the Franciscans'policy of volun-
tary commitment failed when they applied it to the Toba Indians. Primarily
huntersand gathererswho had periodically raided settlementson the fringes
of the Chaco since colonial times, the Tobas refused to work for the white
man for any length of time. Since their territoriesincluded some of the most
desolate and infertile expanses of the Chaco, possessing little attractionfor
12 Erick D.
Langer, "Rural Society and Land Consolidationin a Declining Economy: Chu-
quisaca, Bolivia, 1880-1930" (Ph.D. diss., StanfordUniversity, 1984), 182-226.
13 Ibid. Also see BratislavaSusnik, Chiriguanos, I (Asunci6n, 1968).
294 ERICK D. LANGER AND ROBERT H. JACKSON

even the most resolute settlers, the Tobas did not experience the same land
pressureand saw little need for the missionaries.Thus, San Antonio and San
Francisco Solano missions, establishedalong the Parapetiriver to attractthe
Tobas, failed to prosper.Despite Franciscanobjections, the governmentsecu-
larized these missions in 1915.14
The mission frontiersof colonial Californiaand republicanBolivia exhib-
ited similaritiesand differences. In both cases the missions served as a means
of establishing a degree of hegemony over previously uncontrollednative
populations. The motivationsfor both, beyond spiritualconsiderations,con-
sisted in large partof a desire to guardeconomicallyunattractiveand sparsely
settled regions from foreigners. Missions, which were expected to become
economically self-sufficient soon after their foundation,were relatively cost-
effective ways of assertingcontrolover these types of marginalareas. In both
cases militaryexpeditions led to the establishmentof missions. Only in Cal-
ifornia, howevc,, did the state maintainpermanent,albeit small, garrisons.A
number of factors explain this difference. In all probabilitythe menace of
invasion by otherpowers in Alta Californiawas much largerthanthe threatof
invasion in southeasternBolivia. Distances between Californiaand centersof
Spanishpower also were much greaterthanin Bolivia, which necessitatedthe
establishmentof garrisons.Perhapsthe greaterfinancialresourcesthatcoloni-
al New Spainpossessed at the end of the eighteenthcentury,so well described
by Alexandervon Humboldt,and the long-establishedpolicy of placing gar-
risons on the northernfrontierwere additionalreasons. The Bolivian state, on
the other hand, did not achieve real prosperityuntil after most of the Chi-
riguaniahad alreadybeen colonized in the late nineteenthcentury. Even then,
it left military colonization to private enterprise, which in the long term
proved a failure.15
The differing levels of coercion available to the missionaries had a pro-
found impact on the establishmentsof the missions. While in Californiathe
missionaries could select where they would found a mission based on their
own assessment of the numberof natives, water resources, and agricultural
potential, the Franciscansin Bolivia a centurylatercould only build a mission
where the Indiansthemselves requestedtheirpresence. This led to a muchless
systematic missionization effort and a less harsh mission regime than their
brethrenhad established a century earlier in California.

DEMOGRAPHIC PATTERNS

Demographic decline was clearly the most importantfactor that affected

virtually all other aspects of life on the Alta Californiamissions. The Indian
14 See Bernardinode Nino, O.F.M., Las tres misiones secularizadas de la Provincia de
Cordillera (Tarata, 1916).
15 Alexandervon Humboldt,Political Essay on the Kingdomof New Spain, JohnBlack, trans.
(London, 1811). The fiscal weakness of the nineteenth-centuryBolivian state is especially
apparentin its greatrelianceon Indiantributefor revenue. See Nicolas SanchezAlbornoz,Indios
y tributos en el Alto Pert (Lima, 1978), 187-218.
 COLONIAL AND REPUBLICAN MISSIONS COMPARED 295

populations living in the Alta Californiamission communitiesproved to be

unstable and faced chronically high death rates that wiped out population
gains throughnaturalreproduction.Infantand child mortalityrates remained
high, and more than half of the childrenborn at the missions did not survive
beyond age ten. As a consequenceof the high deathrates, the friarsattempted
to repopulatethe mission communitiesby congregatingpagans from the hin-
terland, motivated, in part, by the need to maintaina sufficiently large labor
force. Mission populationsfluctuatedwith the success and failure of outside
recruitmentand the high mortalityrates.16
Because of the unstable reproductionrates of the mission populations,the
numberat a given mission fluctuatedwidely; it increasedonly duringperiods
of successful recruitment,or declined when the Franciscanscould no longer
bring in recruits. In the case of San Luis Rey mission (established 1798), the
missionariesconvertedIndiansat increasingdistancesfromthe mission center
and organized more distant groups into separate communities in the hin-
terland. San Antonio de Pala was such a communityorganizedin 1816 with a
population of up to 1,300. The total population of the mission, including
subsidiary settlements, fluctuatedbut continued to increase until seculariza-
tion. 17 San Jose mission (established 1797) evidenced a patternof two phases
of conversion. The first phase resulted in the congregation of the local
Ohlone/Costanoanpopulation, and the second phase consisted of large-scale
recruitmentamong Central Valley groups.18Finally, the populationof San
Carlos mission (established 1770) grew as long as the missionariescongre-
gated recruits from the hinterland.After 1795, however, the numberof re-
cruits dropped, and the mission populationbegan to decline in total numbers,
a patternthat continued up to secularization.19(See Figures 1 and 2.)
16 See SherburneF. Cook, The ConflictBetween the CaliforniaIndiansand WhiteCivilization
(Berkeley, 1976); idem, The Population of the CaliforniaIndians 1769-1970 (Berkeley, 1976);
SherburneCook and Woodrow Borah, Essays in PopulationHistory (Berkeley, 1979), III, 177-
311; Robert H. Jackson, "Disease and Demographic Patterns at Santa Cruz Mission, Alta
California," Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology,5:1-2 (1983), 33-57; Jack-
son, "DemographicChange in NorthwesternNew Spain," TheAmericas, 41:4 (1985), 462-79;
Jackson et al., "Como huye," esp. 12-35; and Jackson, "Gentile Recruitmentand Population
Movements in the San Francisco Bay Area Missions," Journal of California and Great Basin
Anthropology, 6:2 (1984), 225-39.
17 Zephyrin
Engelhardt, O.F.M., San Luis Rey Mission (San Francisco, 1921), 220; and
George Beattie, California's UnbuiltMissions: Spanish Plans for an Inland Chain (Bakersfield,
1935), 31.
18 Jackson, "Gentile Recruitment."
19 Robert H. Jackson, "Patterns of DemographicChange in the Missions of Central Alta
California," Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology,forthcoming. Demographic
patterns, established during the colonial period, did not change immediately with Mexican
independence. Since Alta Californiawas extremely isolated and the Mexico City governments
weak, the missions continuedmore or less as before until secularizationin 1833 by a short-lived
liberal government. As elsewhere in Latin America, the independencemovementdid not bring
about a complete rupturein colonial relations;the division between colonial and republicaneras
in certaintypes of activities is at times hardto make. For this reasondemographicpatternsin Alta
Californiadid not change substantiallyuntil secularizationand are included in the discussion of
the colonial missions.
296 ERICK D. LANGER AND ROBERT H. JACKSON

Epidemics periodically hit the populations of the New and Old Worlds. In
many cases population growth through natural reproduction made up the
losses from epidemics. Chronically high mortality rates in the California
missions, especially high patterns of infant and child mortality, greatly re-
duced the ability of the Indian populations to stabilize. Indian women pro-
duced children, but most died before reaching adulthood, making mission
Indian populations highly unstable. Evidence suggests that the heavy mor-
tality was not completely biological; the stresses of cultural change played a
role as well.
The history of the Chiriguano missions does not show the same horrific
pattern of drastic demographic collapse. On the one hand, because the attack
on the Indian world views and living conditions did not initiate major change,
the stress that accompanied the switch from village to mission life was much
smaller among the Chiriguanos than in California. Prolonged contact with
whites meant that the Indians had for the most part been exposed to Eurasian

Populationof San LuisRey Mission

3000-

P - /
o
P -
u /

a -
t
i
0 -
n

' ' ' ' ' '

o ' ' ' '' '' ' '
' ' ' '' ' ' ' ' '' ' ' ' '' '
34
1798 1834
Year
FIGURE1. Populationof San Luis Rey Mission. Source: Informesanuales, found in Archivo
General de la Naci6n, Mexico City, Ramo Misiones, t. 2 and Ramo Provincias
Internas,t. 19; Archivo Historico de Hacienda, Mexico City, "Documentos parala
Historia de Mexico," 2. serie, t. 2; and Santa BarbaraMission Archive-Library,
Santa Barbara,California.
 COLONIAL AND REPUBLICAN MISSIONS COMPARED 297

Population of San Jose Mission

p
0
p
u

a
t
i
0
n

1797 1840
Year

FIGURE2. Populationof San Jose Mission. Source: See Figure 1.

diseases and developed some resistance. Nevertheless, mission populations

were apparentlymore susceptible to epidemics, simply because of the pres-
ence of large numbersof Indianscrowded together. Thus, between 1880 and
1886, for example, a smallpoxepidemic killed at least 300 Indiansresidenton
the three missions run by the Potosi Franciscans.20However, because Chi-
riguanoshad bettersanitaryhabitsthanthe invadingsettlersand bathedthem-
selves every day, presumablythe incidence of certaintypes of diseases was
lower than among whites. Unfortunately,detailed demographicrecords are
not available. The best publishedevidence, from the 1900 census, provides a
crudeage pyramid.At least by thatyear no effects of an age-specific epidemic
that would show a discerniblegap at certainages was evident. Although it is
difficult to present statistically significant informationbecause the numbers
for each age category were small, the structureof the age pyramidsuggests
that the mission populationswere more or less stagnant.21
By the early twentiethcenturythe Franciscans,who had access to modem
medical knowledge, began to vaccinate their charges at the outbreakof an

20 Martarelli,El colegio franciscano, 195.

21 Censo de 1900, I, 2-3, 42-43.
298 ERICK D. LANGER AND ROBERT H. JACKSON

epidemic. The settlers did not avail themselves of this service. ErlandNor-
denskiold, a Swedish anthropologistwho touredthe areain 1909, commented
on the consequences of a smallpox epidemic:
Whensmallpoxragedin the region,FatherBernardino preventedthe influxof the
disease in the mission [Ivu] with the vaccinationof all the residentIndians. ... As a
resultof thevaccinationsnobodydiedin Ivu, whiletheterriblediseaseragedterribly
amongthe whitesa few miles fromthe establishment. It almostservedthemright.
Onceone [of the settlers]diedof smallpox,the corpsewas laidon a tabledecorated
withpaperflowersanda crucifix.Aroundthis [corpse]the otherpigs got drunkand
drankso manyobligosuntiltheyalsolayon thetable.Alonein thevillageof Cuevo60
diedwithina shorttime.22
out of 200 inhabitants

Despite the enlightenedpolicies regardinghealth, the missions still experi-

enced a relative loss in population. In additionto the increasedpossibility of
contagion, many Indians left the missions to search for jobs elsewhere. In
1892 a census by a special governmentalagent sent to inspect the missions
revealed that approximatelyone thirdof the baptizedpopulationcould not be
accounted for by the friars. Beginning in the last two decades of the nine-
teenth century, increasing numbers of Chiriguanosmigrated to the sugar
plantationsof Jujuyprovince in northernArgentinato work as wage laborers.
Althoughat first this migrationwas seasonaland apparentlycondonedby both
missionaries and government officials, by the twentieth century the trickle
had turnedinto a torrentand many Indianspreferredto remainin Argentina,
where they were treatedwell and received higherwages than in Bolivia. This
greatly alarmedthe settlers, who relied on Chiriguanolaborfor agriculture,as
well as the government, which had envisioned the missions as instruments
that would stabilize the Indianpopulation.23
On the other hand, the mission populationsgrew during periods of open
warfare as Indians sought refuge in the missions from the depredationsof
settlers. Populationlevels returnedto normalonce the countrysidereturnedto
a more peaceful state and the refugees left. This occurredespecially during
the conflicts of 1874 and 1892, when Indiansas well as white families fled to
the relative safety of the missions.24 Thereafter,the demographictrend was
downward, with migrationcomposing a significantdrainon the Indianpopu-
lation. Since there were no militaryexpeditionsto bring in new Indiansas in
California,the Franciscansdid not have the meanswith which to replenishthe
22 ErlandNordenskiold,Indianerleben:El Gran Chaco (Siidamerika),Carl Auerbach,trans.
(Leipzig, 1912), 158-59.
23
Complaintsabout migrationto Argentinawere common among missionariesand govern-
ment officials. See, for example, Rafael Paoli, O.F.M., "Informepasadopor el R.P. Guardian
del Convento de San Franciscorelativo a las misiones," in Manuel V. Ballivian, Memoriaque
presenta el Ministrode Colonias y Agriculturaa la legislaturaordinariade 1905 (La Paz, 1905),
91-94, Biblioteca Nacional de Bolivia (Sucre) (hereinaftercited as BNB); and Julio A. Gutier-
rez, Delegaci6n del Gran Chaco (Previsidnpara su conservaci6ny defensa) (SantaCruz, 1980),
32-33.
24 HernandoSanabriaFernmndez, Apiaguaiqui-Tumpa:Biografia del pueblo chiriguanode su
tiltimo caudillo (La Paz, 1972), 160.
 COLONIAL AND REPUBLICAN MISSIONS COMPARED 299

Populationof TiguipaMission

P
0
p
u
I
a
t
i
o
n

IIIIIIIIIIII
II IIII III iiIIllIlII
l,,,,,,,,,,,,,lr1926
1872
Year

FIGURE
3. Populationof Tiguipa Mission. Source: PedroZarate,et al, Limitesentre las Provin-
cias del Azero y de Cordillera. Variosdocumentosconsernientesa la cuesti6n(Sucre,
1882), CuadroNo. 5; AlejandroM. Corradoand Antonio Comajuncosa,El colegio
franciscano de Tarijay sus misiones (Quaracchi,1884), 503; Doroteo Giannecchini,
O.F.M., Diario de la expedici6n exploradoraboliviana al Alto Paraguay de 1886-
1887 (S.M. de Los Angeles (Asfs), 1896), 24; FernandoQuiroga, Informe de la
Prefecturay ComandanciaGeneral del Departamentode Chuquisaca(Sucre, 1896),
85, BNB; Censo. . . de 1900, 2, 75; Nino, Etnografia, 102; N6stor Guti6rrez,
Memoria de Guerray Colonizacidn1915 (La Paz, 1915), 31, BNB; PedroGuti6rrez,
Memoriade Guerray Colonizacidn1925 (La Paz, 1925), 78, BNB; ManuelMendieta
S., Tierra rica, pueblo pobre: Por nuestrasfronteras (Sucre, 1928), 41.

mission population. Thus, the missions underwenta gradualbut inevitable

populationdecline. Mission Tiguipa(established1872) in 1880 contained917
souls. Twenty years later the mission population stabilized around 800; in
1927 therewere still 464 Indiansleft. Machareti(establishedin 1869), always
the largest mission, had 3,326 Indianinhabitantsin 1880, 2,020 in 1892, and
1,289 in 1927.25This populationdecline was much less rapidthanin the Alta
Californiamissions. (See Figures 3 and 4.)
25 For Tiguipa, see AlejandroM. Corradoand Antonio
Comajuncosa,El colegiofranciscano
de Tarija y sus misiones (Quaracchi, 1884), 503; Censo de 1900, II, 75; Manuel Mendieta S.,
Tierra rica, pueblo pobre: Por nuestrasfronteras(Sucre, 1928), 41. For Machareti,see Corrado
and Comajuncosa,El colegiofranciscano, 503; FernandoQuirogaS., Informede la prefecturay
Comandancia General del Departamento de Chuquisaca (Sucre, 1896), 85, BNB; Mendieta,
Tierra rica, 41.
300 ERICK D. LANGER AND ROBERT H. JACKSON

Population of Machareti Mission

p
0
p
u
I
a
t
i
o
n

Year

FIGURE4. Populationof MacharetiMission. Source: Zarate,et al, Limites;Corradoand Coma-

juncosa, 503; Quiroga, 85; Censo . . . de 1900, 74; Nino, Etnografia, 101; N.
Gutierrez, 32; P. Gutierrez, 78; Mendieta, 41.

ACCULTURATION AND ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION

The principalgoal of the colonial missions vis-a-vis the Indianswas to trans-
form a semisedentarynonagriculturalpopulationinto a sedentaryagricultural
peasantry. In order to achieve this goal the missionaries as agents of the
Crown had to reorganize the social and economic structureof the Indian
population, destroy the old religion and replace it with Catholicism, and
create a new labor regime. The mission communities, as much as possible,
were to be self-sufficient in basic foodstuffs, so it was necessary early on to
begin agriculturalproduction.This meant that the friars had to organize the
mission population for communal work in the fields. The transformationof
the adult populationinto agriculturallaborersplayed an importantpartin the
acculturationprocess. More acculturatedfamilies also worked plots of their
own on their own account. Most mission production,however, was commu-
nal. Furthermore,the mission economies aided greatlyin the Spanishoccupa-
tion of Alta California. The missions provided basic foodstuffs, crude tex-
tiles, and leathergoods to the militaryat a nominalcost, thus greatlyreducing
 COLONIAL AND REPUBLICAN MISSIONS COMPARED 301

the expense of the Crownof maintainingthe militarypresencein Alta Califor-

nia.26After the difficult initial period, the mission economies largelyfinanced
the continued occupation of the region.
The organizationof the labor force involved the Alta CaliforniaIndiansin
new and more sustainedforms of labor, and the reversalof sex roles in labor.
In order to enforce the labor regime and the general sense of discipline and
morality that the Franciscansattemptedto create in the mission community,
corporalpunishmentwas used.27 Some apologists for the mission system and
the Franciscanshave attemptedto dismiss the importanceof the use of corpo-
ral punishments by calling attention to similar practices in contemporary
Europe, but the real reactionby the Indiansbeing whipped is the only gauge
for the psychological impact of the practice. As anthropologistFlorence
Shipek has pointed out, the public whippingof a high-statusindividualcaused
humiliation and disaffection among the Indians, and probably affected the
statusof the person whipped. The assignmentof menial laborto a high-status
individualwas also takenas an insult or a degradingact.28The social implica-
tions of whipping and other forms of corporalpunishmentmust be added to
the physical pain and humiliationof being punished.
The missionaries, supportedby the military,engineereda drasticchange in
authoritystructures.In order to sustain the new economic system, mission-
aries instituteda regimentedlabor regime enforced by corporalpunishment.
This regime was apparentlyeffective; a friarstationedat SantaCruz wrote in
1814 that "the Indians of this Mission . . . profess . . . the virtue of obe-
dience. . . . It is certain that the gardener, if he knew his job very well, would
put the plants in the ground with the roots up, if the Father [missionary]so
ordered. And when he wants to punish them, he need do no more than order
them to undress in order to execute it, and they receive their lashes." Other
accounts stress the use of bells to regulatethe work day, meals, attendanceat
mass, and sleep at night.29
The second major aspect of the acculturationprocess was the attempted
transformationin the world view of the Indians. The evidence is contradicto-

26 Robert H. Jackson, "Population and the Economic Dimension of Colonization in Alta

California:A Study of Four Mission Communities," manuscript.
27 Ibid.; Cook, The Conflict, 91-101; and Jackson et al., "Como huye," 16-18.
28 Florence Shipek, "California Indian Reactions to the Franciscans," The Americas, 41:4
(1985), 480-92. For an apologetic view of the Franciscans, see the works of Francis Guest,
O.F.M.
29 Marcelino Marquinez, O.F.M., and Jaime Escude, O.F.M., Santa Cruz, 30 April 1814,
"Los MinistrosEvangelicos y PredicadoresApost6licos de la Misi6n de Sta Cruzen la California
Septentrional, sin embargo de sus cortas luces de sus pocos afnosque tienen de residenciaen la
America, y del breve tiempo que en esta peninsula han executado su ministerio, respondencon
aquella santa sencillez que hace su caracter, a las 36 preguntasde que se compone el inter-
rogatoriohecho en Cadiz de orden del Consejo de Regencia a los 13 de agosto de 1813 .. ,"
quoted in Jackson et al., "Como huye," 17, also see 16-18.
302 ERICK D. LANGER AND ROBERT H. JACKSON

ry, but it does appearthat the Franciscanswere able to stampout some of the
pagan practices. At the same time limited syncretismmay have occurredin
the mission communities.With the exceptionof a few individuals,most of the
Franciscanmissionariesprobablyhad no more than a vague idea of the Indi-
ans' world views. A questionnairesent to the friars in 1813 by the Spanish
governmentsustainssuch an interpretation.The missionariesat San Fernando
mission in southernAlta Californiaknew the existence of five deities among
the local Indians, and the spiritual importanceof a type of dance.30 The
missionaries at San Juan Capistrano, also in southern Alta California, re-
portedthat "we do not know whetherthey adorethe moon or the sun."31 The
Franciscans at San Antonio missions noted that "formal idolatry was not
known to them, not even in theirpagan state, nor aftertheirconversionto the
faith. All on that subject said about the savages may be said to be pure
superstition. "32
Several points need to be made to clarify the questionof the persistenceof
the old world view and syncretismin the missions. The mission populations
were not homogenous. Because of high mortality rates, the missionaries
broughtpagans to the missions as late as the 1830s. At the same time there
was a continuallygrowing numberof individualsraised in the missions from
birth who received extensive instructionin Catholicismbut who at the same
time had exposure to the old beliefs from recentconverts. It also appearsthat
a wall of silence surroundedthe true natureof the old beliefs; the mission-
aries, if they were so inclined, only received a vague notion of the full extent
of the Indian world view.
In some cases the personalityof the missionarymay have played an impor-
tant role in the persistence of former practices. In 1816, when a Russian
expedition visited San Francisco mission, the friars staged an Indian dance,
which has been preservedin a sketch drawnby a memberof the expedition.
The commanderof the Russian expedition noted that "on Sunday when the
service is ended, the Indiansgatherand dance. Half the men adornthemselves
with feathersand girdles ornamentedwith feathers, and with bits of shell, or
they paint their bodies with regularlines of black, red, and white. The men
dance six or eight together, all making the same movements, all armedwith
spears."33 In contrast, at nearby Santa Clara mission, the Franciscanspre-
sented a different attitude towards Indian dances. In response to the 1813
questionnairethe missionaries wrote that "the most dominant vices of the
30 Zephyrin Engelhardt, O.F.M., Mission of San Fernando Rey (Ramona, 1973), 28-29.
31 Zephyrin Engelhardt, O.F.M., San Juan Capistrano: The Jewel of the Missions (Los
Angeles, 1922), 59.
32 ZephyrinEngelhardt,O.F.M., San Antoniode Padua: TheMission in the Sierras (Ramona,
1972), 33.
33 Quoted in Paul Johnson, ed., The California Missions: A Pictorial History (Menlo Park,
1979), 140.
 COLONIAL AND REPUBLICAN MISSIONS COMPARED 303

Indians are first fornication, second theft, fighting, and the dance [danza o
bayle], and in the women abortion."34
In a recent study of the Yucatec Maya, Nancy Farrissdiscussed the extent
of syncretism, the merging of elements of Catholicismand traditionalMaya
religion. One clear example is the persistenceof the cult of saints, in which
the Indians identified traditionalMayan gods with a particularsaint of the
village.35 A similarprocess might have begun in the Alta Californiamissions,
althoughthe evidence there is limited. The Indiansviewed the Franciscansas
witches with powerful magic; they probablymade efforts to use the priests as
intermediarieswith the spirit world.36 At the same time, the missionaries
made a conscious effort to stamp out idolatry, such as in the case of the
traditionaldances. The destructionof the Indian populations living on the
missions in the long runprecludedany meaningfulconversionto Catholicism,
or any large-scale effort at syncretism.
The position of the Franciscansin republicanBolivia was much weaker
than in Alta California. This was reflected in the missionaries' inability to
extracta large surplusfrom the Indians, and it made the process of accultura-
tion less severe. Unlike colonial California, where the missions were largely
self-sufficient financiallyand helped maintainthe militarygarrisons,the Boli-
vian missions barely covered their own expenses. For example, in 1892 the
Tiguipa mission had net earnings of only 148 Bolivianos. Only the most
prosperousand populous mission, Machareti, in the late nineteenthcentury
was able to contributea bit over 1,000 Bolivianos yearly to the missionary
treasury. The earnings came principally from the cattle herd of 2,000 head
that belonged to the mission.37
The Franciscans in republican Bolivia did not control the labor of their
charges to the same extent as the friars in California. While they apparently
did occasionally farm out workers to neighboringsettlers, the only firm re-
quirementswere that the Indiansherd the mission's cattle and work the fields
that supplied food for the establishment. Since agriculturewas part of the
Chiriguanoheritage, unlike in California,the mission regime did not radically
alterwork patterns.The friarsacceptedthe traditionaldivision of laboramong
the sexes, where men hunted, herded cattle, and cleared and tilled the land,
while women and children helped harvest the crops. Also, many Indian
34 Ms. Magin Catala, O.F.M., and Jose Viader, D.F.M., Santa Clara, 4 Nov. 1814, "Re-
spuestas que los PPS Ministrosde la Mn de Sta Clarade la Alta Californiadan al interrogatorio
del Gobiero comisionado por el Yllmo Sr. Obispo de Sonora, y circulado por el R.P. Pte de
estas Ms y Vicario Foraneo de este distrito Fr. Jose Sefan," Santa BarbaraMission Archive
Library, Santa Barbara,California.
35 Nancy Farriss, Maya Society under Colonial Rule: The Collective
Enterpriseof Survival
(Princeton, 1984), 286-354.
36 Shipek, "California Indian Reactions," 482-83.
37 Manuel O. Jofre, hijo, Colonias misiones:
y Informede la visita practicada por el Dele-
gado del Supremo Gobierno, Dr. Manuel 0. Jofre, hijo en 1893 (Tarija, 1895), 59, 67-68.
304 ERICK D. LANGER AND ROBERT H. JACKSON

groups, under the leadership of their village chiefs, at times worked tem-
porarilyfor settlersin the region and, when they joined the Franciscans,were
familiar with the labor requirementsof the mission crops.
The mission laborregime accustomedthe Chiriguanosto the type of work
that was also required on the settlers' estates. Similar to the surrounding
haciendas, the friarshandedout coupons at the end of each day for the amount
of work each Indian had done. At the end of the week the mission laborers
could redeem their coupons for merchandise,such as textiles, hats, tobacco,
axes, and knives.38 Labor for the mission fields usually did not entail more
than a few days' work each week. The rathersmall laborrequirementsleft the
mission Indianssufficient time to grow cash crops and raise cattle on mission
grounds, which they often sold to merchantswho passed along the mission
trail. By 1918 the mission prefect assertedthat the MacharetiIndians'cattle
herds were more numerousthan those the mission itself owned.39Many also
went to work as wage laborerson neighboringestates for short periods of
time. While it is difficult to correlatemarketparticipationwith acculturation,
the Chiriguanos'voluntaryintegrationinto the monetaryeconomy probably
led to greater acceptance of new living patternsthan the friars' conscious
attemptsto inculcate the adults in Western ways.40
Unlike the friars in colonial California, in Bolivia the Franciscansdid not
insist on the conversion of all adults. In fact, most Indiansnever converted.
At best some received baptism on their deathbed. This had been part of the
deal that the friars struckwith the Chiriguanos.Insteadof attemptinga mass
conversion of the Chiriguano,the Franciscanshad to be content with educat-
ing the children over the age of seven in the mission schools, where they
presumablywere broughtup in the Catholic faith. Nevertheless, while at the
mission even the adults had to follow certain codes of behavior that went
against traditionalways. Although this rule was often more honored in the
breach than obeyed, the Indians were prohibited from drinking alcoholic
beverages and from holding their "idolatrous" festivals that previously
helped cement social and political relations within each group and between
different tribal units.
As in California, the mission regimes in Bolivia differed from establish-
ment to establishment, but the Franciscans'basic philosophy changed over
time. The missionaries from Potosi attemptedto preparethe Chiriguanofor
integrationinto nationalsociety, whereas the friarsfrom Tarija, active much
earlierin the missionaryenterprise,triedto segregateandprotecttheircharges
from Spanish society in the traditionalmold of royal policy duringthe coloni-

38 A. Thouar, Explorationsdans L'Ameriquedu Sud (Paris, 1891), 227.

39 Bernardinode Nino, O.F.M., Tres escritos del R.P. Prefecto de Misiones, Fray Bernar-
dino de Nino, O.F.M. (Potosi, 1918), 16.
40 See Erick D. Langer, "FranciscanMissions and ChiriguanoWorkers:Colonization, Ac-
culturation, and Indian Labor in SoutheasternBolivia," The Americas, 42:1 (1987), 305-22.
 COLONIAL AND REPUBLICAN MISSIONS COMPARED 305

al period, as exemplified by the Jesuit missionaries in Paraguay.41Also,

strategic considerations played a role. Where the mission remained in an
exposed position along the frontierand contact with unintegratedtribes was
frequent, the traditionalstructureof the village remainedstronger.For exam-
ple, in Machareti, on the frontierof the unconqueredChaco hinterland,the
mission was not divided into two sections for the neophytes and heathen.
Instead, there were two separate settlements for Tobas and Tapietes. The
numberof convertedat Macharetialways remainedsmall, and the traditional
chief, who acted as intermediarybetweenthe mission, otherChacotribes, and
unconqueredChiriguanoswho lived beyond the effective reach of national
society, continued to wield considerablepower.
As can be expected, the childrenin school became the most acculturatedto
Westernways. The friarscut them off fromcontactwith theirparentsas much
as possible. They wore Westernclothes, learnedSpanish, music, and perhaps
writing, as well as artisan skills beyond the normal Chiriguanosubsistence
skills, such as brickmaking,tailoring, shoemaking, and carpentry.The mis-
sionaries often farmed the children out to the households of neighboring
settlers to work and earn money wages. In this way they hoped to wean the
next generation away from traditionalculture and promote their integration
into the national economy.42
The short-termeffects on the Indians'world view were much less severe in
republican Bolivia than in colonial California. Only in the long term, by
convertingthe childrento a differentfaith and lifestyle, did the friarshope to
change Indianculture. In this they were successful, for amongthe generations
who went to the schools there developed a separate mission culture that
combined certain traits of old Chiriguanovalues with the Franciscanworld
vision. By this time the friarshad become much more sensitive to indigenous
cultureand, if they did not condone its religious content, at least made efforts
to understandit. Indicative of this new attitude is the sensitive Chiriguano
ethnographypenned by Fray Bernardinode Nino.43
Another importantfactor in the acculturationof the Chiriguanoswas the
settlementof mestizos and whites in the mission communities.Unlike those in
California, where only soldiers and friars lived permanentlyat the missions,
the Franciscan establishments in republican Bolivia included many non-
Indiansas well. Tradersoften came by the mission and sold theirgoods to the
natives; this was a practiceexplicitly sanctionedin the mission codes promul-
gated by the Bolivian government. Moreover, neighboringlandownersbuilt
their homes as close as possible to the missions to enjoy protectionfrom the
raids of unfriendly Indians as well as employ the labor of the mission resi-
41 Lorenzo G. Calzavarinimakes this
argumentin Naci6n chiriguana:Grandezay ocaso (La
Paz, 1980), 247.
42 Langer, "Franciscan Missions."
43 Nino,
Etnografia.
306 ERICK D. LANGER AND ROBERT H. JACKSON

dents. As a result, despite the concertedoppositionof the friars,race mixture

was common as non-Indianstook Chiriguanowomen as concubines.44The
resultingchildrendid not become partof traditionalChiriguanosociety but, as
the years passed, became an increasingly importantsector of the mission
population.
The process of acculturationand economic integrationof the mission Indi-
ans was fundamentally different in Alta California than in southeastern
Bolivia. The Californiamissions provided a surplusthat covered many ex-
penses for the Spanish soldiers stationedon the frontier.The need to pay for
militarycosts requiredthe mission regime to exploit Indianlabormore heav-
ily than mere subsistenceneeds would have demanded.Acculturation,which
to a large extent meantthe accustomingof huntersand gatherersto the regular
rhythmsof an organized agriculturalcommunityrun accordingto European
methods, thereforehad to be quick and ruthless. This was not the case for the
Chiriguanos.For one, they alreadywere agriculturalists.Moreover, the mis-
sionaries in Bolivia were never requiredto do more thanbreakeven and thus
limited themselves to using mission Indian labor to cover minimum needs.
The deal that the Franciscans struck with the Chiriguanos, by which the
Indians maintainedmuch of their political and cultural autonomy, made it
unlikely that they would have submittedto a harsh regime such as in Alta
California.

REPRESSION AND RESISTANCE

The key to demographicpatternsof the Alta Californiamissions was the

recruitmentof non-ChristianIndians, which in turnwas closely relatedto the
question of Indianresistanceto the mission regime. The Spanishgovernment
established four presidios in Alta California:San Diego (1769), Monterey
(1770), San Francisco (1776), and Santa Barbara(1782). The total military
garrison in the region never totaled more than 400 soldiers. The standard
practice was to station a guardof some five soldiers at each of the missions.
The question remains as to how such a small garrisonwas able to maintain
control over a numericallymuch largerpopulationfor sixty-five years.
During these years there were only two majorarmeduprisings:a revolt at
San Diego mission in 1774 thatcan be characterizedas an exampleof primary
resistance to the Spanish presence, and the 1824 Chumashrevolt which in-
volved Indians living at several missions. First, it can be argued that the
Spanishdependedon a system of divide and rule, favoringthose Indianswho
provedto be pliant. These Indiansprobablygained statusthroughtheirspecial
relationshipwith the missionaries, who were generally regardedby the Indi-
ans as powerful witches.45 Michael Cratonand others have describeda sim-

44 Susnik, Chiriguanos, I, 61-64.

45 Shipek, "California Indian Reactions," 480-92.
 COLONIAL AND REPUBLICAN MISSIONS COMPARED 307

ilar pattern in the British West Indies with the slave driver gaining status
within slave society because of the position given to him by whites.46 We
must also rememberthat the mission Indian populations included different
ethnic groups and individuals from villages who were long-standingrivals,
making a combinationfor armed resistanceunlikely.
Given the position of the missions on the frontier,perhapswe should ask
why any revolts should have occurred. In a recent study of the colonial
experience of the Yucatec Maya, Nancy Farrissarguedthat the existence of
an open frontierenableddisaffectedindividualsto escape the colonial regime.
In the Yucatan the open frontierprobably accounts for the lack of a major
armedrevolt until the 1840s.47 Similarly, an open frontierexisted in Califor-
nia, where large-scale fugitivism was also a chronic problem.48Evidence
from one mission, Santa Cruz, seems to indicatethat in the last few years of
the mission era most of the fugitives were recent recruits.49The evidence
suggests that the least assimilatedtendedto escape and resist more frequently
than those who had been on the missions for some time or had been born into
the mission system.
New patternsof resistance emerged when the Franciscansin the northern
Alta Californiamissions began recruitingthe Yokuts and otherCentralValley
Indian groups for the missions. The new recruitsfrequentlyescaped to the
CentralValley. Spanish and Mexican authoritiessent punitive expeditionsto
the area to recapturethe fugitives, punish the Indianshiding them, and in the
process forcibly relocate CentralValley Indiansto the missions. The expedi-
tions, which essentially became slave raids, in turnprovokedresistanceby the
Central Valley Indians. To combat the Spaniardsand their mission Indian
auxiliary troops, the Central Valley Indians reorganizedtheir societies and
began to use horses in warfare. By the 1820s Indiansfrom this region began
raiding the coastal strip.50
The Bolivian missionaryregime was essentially differentfrom that of Cal-
ifornia in the lack of effective mechanismsfor repression. This, as we have
seen, was apparentboth in the large-scaleemigrationto Argentinaand in the
fact that the majorityof adult Chiriguanosremainedheathens althoughthey
lived on the missions. Unlike those of colonial California, the republican
missions in Bolivia were voluntaryregimes that relied on the willingness of
the Indiansto stay. This did not mean thattherewas no resistance.Those who
refused to adhereto the missions' rules simply left and went to Argentina,to
46 Michael Craton,Testingthe Chains:Resistance to Slaveryin the British WestIndies (Ithaca,
1982), esp. 52-60.
47 Farriss, Maya Society, 67-78.
48 Cook, The Conflict, 56-64.
49 Jackson et al., "Como huye," 18-21.
50 See, for example, Cook, The Conflict, esp. 245-51; Sylvia Broadbent, "Conflict at Mon-
terey: IndianHorse Raiding 1820-1850," Journal of CaliforniaAnthropology,1:1, 86-101; and
Jackson, "Gentile Recruitment."
308 ERICK D. LANGER AND ROBERT H. JACKSON

neighboringhaciendas, or to the few remainingfree villages in the remotest

sections of the region. Unfortunately,the numberof Indianswho resisted in
this manneris not known. Also, many parentsattemptedto keep their school-
age childrenfrom the friarseven thoughthey had enteredthe missions on the
condition that their children would attend mission schools. Although wide-
spread, this type of resistancewas in the long runineffective once the mission
population stabilized and the friars got to know their charges. The mission-
aries kept much of the native authoritystructureintact and let the old chiefs
mete out most justice. As in California,the friarsused corporalpunishment,
but apparentlyprimarilyon the childrenenrolled in the mission schools. The
missionaryhad greatestauthorityamong the neophytes, who lived in separate
compoundsin most missions. Even there, the neophytesannuallyelected their
representatives,althoughthe list of candidatesfirst had to be approvedby the
resident friar.51
The Franciscansduring the republicanera tried to build in a number of
positive incentives for the natives to remain;for example, they regulatedthe
amount of wages paid to the neophytes by the colonists and sanctionedany
settler who abusedworkersfrom the missions. This workedfairly well for the
Chiriguanos,althoughthis was insufficientto stop the outmigration.Howev-
er, the voluntary natureof the mission regime proved its effectiveness, es-
pecially during the various uprisings. Although a numberof Indians left to
join the villages that organized active resistance to the colonists' encroach-
ment, most mission Indians threw their lot in with the settlers and helped
suppress the uprisings. Thus, the missions helped exacerbate the always
importantregional rivalriesbetween variousChiriguanovillage alliances and
accelerated the conquest of the Chiriguania.

CONCLUSION
The mission regimes of colonial Californiaand republicanBolivia exhibit a
numberof strikingsimilarities.In both cases, the missions served as "frontier
institutions" in three ways. They helped consolidate Europeancontrol over
large stretches of sparsely populated frontierover which the state had only
weak control. The policy of establishing missions was the most efficacious
way of controlling large extents of territorywhere there were insufficient
numbersof settlers to provide an adequatecounterweightto native society.
Not surprisingly,the state permittedthe establishmentof missions along ill-
defined borderareas as a hedge againstthe penetrationof threateningforeign
powers.
Second, the missions in both cases created Indian labor pools that served
the manpowerdemands of the surroundinglandowners.This was extremely
importantin the context of a frontier society, where otherwise any native
51 For a more detailed
analysis of Indian resistance on the Bolivian missions, see Langer,
"FranciscanMissions."
 COLONIAL AND REPUBLICAN MISSIONS COMPARED 309

worker, with few needs beyond subsistence, might have simply disappeared
into the still unconqueredportions of the frontier. While in neithercase the
attempts to maintain a sufficiently large labor force were completely suc-
cessful, in Californiadue primarilyto high mortalityand in Bolivia because of
outmigration, the missions kept a larger proportionof the indigenous labor
force than otherwise would have been the case.
Third, the missions had a powerful impacton native societies by exposing
them to European society. In the case of California, exposure to European
diseases perhapshad the greatesteffect, althoughthose who survivedalso had
to cope with the imposition of a radicallydifferentworld view and dissimilar
patterns of work. In southeasternBolivia, acculturationamong adults was
limited primarily to a partial integrationinto the monetary economy. Only
with the children, who were separatedfor most of the day from their parents
and forced to attend mission schools, did the friars have any long-term
success.
Nevertheless, there are importantdifferences as well. Some of them arose
because of the differences in the natureof Indiansociety ratherthan changes
from the colonial to republicanperiods. This is an importantfactorthat at all
times must be considered. Societies of hunters and gatherershad the most
difficult time adjusting to the mission regime, which perforce relied on an
agriculturaleconomy to sustain itself. Thus, in California,the natives had to
be forced into new and strangepatternsor residence and work. The psycho-
logical shock inherent in the brutal wrenching from one culture to another
undoubtedlycontributedto the appallinglyhigh mortalityrate in the colonial
missions in California. In turn, agriculturalsocieties like the Chiriguano
adjustedquickly to the much smaller changes in their daily routines;subsis-
tence activities remained essentially the same.
The length of time exposed to Europeansociety before missionizationalso
was an importantdifference and is more closely related to distinctions be-
tween the colonial and republicanmissions. Missions during the republican
era tended to establish themselves among native populationsthat alreadyhad
had some contact with Europeanizedsociety, whereas during the colonial
period missionarieswere often the first whites the Indianshad ever seen. This
difference was especially importantwhen consideringdemographicpatterns.
Combined with the psychological shock, the rapid spread of disease to the
unexposed Indian population crowded into a relatively small space wreaked
havoc on Indianpopulationsof California. In addition, the poorly organized
native societies, with no experience in dealing with the Europeans,fell quick-
ly to the virtual slaving expeditions to restock the mission populationsin the
last decades of the mission regime. In contrast, the Chiriguanos, who had
been exposed to the Spaniardssince the sixteenth century, had built up re-
sistance to Eurasiandiseases by the republicanera. Thus, althoughhere too
the collection of large numbers of natives on the missions facilitated the
3IO ERICK D. LANGER AND ROBERT H. JACKSON

spreadof diseases, the natives were probablyno less immunethan the neigh-
boring colonists. The use of vaccinations in the twentieth century possibly
made the missions healthierplaces to live than were the nearbytowns. More-
over, lengthy exposureto Europeanways had accustomedthe Chiriguanosto
differentculturalpatterns;the Indiansundoubtedlyhad adoptedsome of these
patterns in their continual struggle to remain free from white domination.
The major issues that differentiatedcolonial and republicanmissions and
were based largely on changes within the dominantsocieties were the terms
upon which the Indians accepted the missions and, correspondingly, the
nature of the internal mission regimes themselves. The California Indians'
forceful concentrationinto missions contrastssharplyto the voluntaryaccep-
tance of the Franciscansby the Chiriguanos.In a sense, however, the Chi-
riguanos' invitationsto the missionarieswere also forced, since they had the
choice of either living under the relatively benevolent paternalismof the
missionaryor the considerablyharsherregime of the frontierhacienda. Nev-
ertheless, some Chiriguanosat least had this choice, whereasthis was much
less common for the CaliforniaIndians. The existence of choices in the case
of the Chiriguanosof course had to do with the particularhistoricalcircum-
stances that arose in nineteenth-centurysoutheasternBolivia. The Indians'
ability to resist encroachment,which they had done since the sixteenth cen-
tury, gave them time to make these choices. Experiencewith the missionaries
during the colonial period undoubtedlyplayed a role in the decision to ap-
proach the Franciscansas the last resort to completely losing their ancestral
lands to the invading colonists. The friars, who did not dispose of the aid of
the military in establishingthe missions as in colonial times, had to compro-
mise with the Indians. Since therewere no forcedconversions,the Chiriguano
adults remained heathens; the Franciscans were only able to convert the
children. In the long term, however, this meantthe eventualcomplete Chris-
tianizationof the mission population.The compromisesthat limited mission-
ary success in the short run also made the republicanmission regime much
less destructiveto Indiancultureand permittedthe Franciscansto get to know
and later write about the old Indian ways. This voluntary strategy did not
work with all ethnic groups, however. It failed utterlywhen appliedto groups
such as the nomadic Tobas, who saw no benefit from participationin the
mission regime. The inability to use force to congregatetheir charges made
the republicanmission regime in Bolivia much less harsh than it had been
during the colonial period.
What do these similarities and differences tell us about the societies from
which the missions sprang?In his classic article, Elman Service arguedthat
the types of Indian society the Spaniardsencountereddeterminedthe institu-
tions thatthey employed to controlthe nativepopulationsratherthanthe other
way around.52Although both in California and Bolivia the Spaniardsand
52 Elman R. Service,
"Indian-EuropeanRelations in Colonial Latin America," American
Anthropologist, 62:3 (1955), 411-25.
 COLONIAL AND REPUBLICAN MISSIONS COMPARED 311

their descendants used missions for the same purposes, they were rather
different in many respects. This had to do not only with the differencesin the
social organizationof the natives, but also with the resourcesthat the Euro-
pean society was willing and able to use to bringthese territoriesinto its orbit.
The colonial state combined the missions with militarysupport,whereas the
republicanstate did not. Levels of coercion and consequentlythe numberof
conversions differed markedly. This made the missions less importantin
religious terms, for in theory fewer souls were saved; this reflectedthe much
more open and secular society that had evolved in Latin America since the
colonial period.
In contrastto the Indiansof Alta California,some of the descendantsof the
mission Chiriguanosdid producea uniqueculturethat, unlike the surrounding
large estates with their servile Indian workers, created individualswho were
surprisinglyegalitarianand self-sufficient. In a sense, the missions preserved
and redefined some of the most important characteristicsof Chiriguano
culture, including their fierce pride as an ethnic group, their ability to adapt,
and their authority structurebased on consensus. However, even here the
missions, as alternatives to the more exploitative and authoritarianmodel
embodied in the area's haciendas, succumbedto a numberof hisiorical cir-
cumstances. For one, the colonists' drive to secularize the missions, es-
pecially vigorous in the second decade of the twentieth century, eliminated
some of the marginalmissions runby the TarijaFranciscans.The Chiriguanos
themselves created more serious problems by their continual migration to
Argentina, decreasing the populationof the missions and creatingdoubts in
the minds of policy makersin La Paz whetherthe Franciscanestablishments
had any real use in keeping the Indians in nationalterritory.The final blow
came duringthe Chaco War(1932-35), when the advanceof the Paraguayans
forced the evacuation of the missions. The war effectively destroyed the
mission system. A small numberof neophytesreturnedto theirformerhomes,
now secularized, but were unableto reconstitutethe vigorous society thathad
previously characterizedthe settlements.