“Que digan lo que saben y cómo es que lo saben…” Un pedido de información sobre un martirio en las fronteras del Gran Chaco (1639-1640)

• Main Author: René Osvaldo Geres
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Centro Científico y Tecnológico-CONICET, Mendoza & Universidad Nacional de La Pampa 2013-06-01
• Series: Corpus: Archivos Virtuales de la Alteridad Americana
• Subjects: Pelichocos; Labradillos; Palomos; Chiriguanos; Conversion; Chaco
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/corpusarchivos/354

The paper presents the context and transcript of the request of information on the death of the Jesuit Gaspar Osorio Valderrábano and his companions, composed by order of the Bishop of Tucuman, Maldonado y Saavedra, between 1639-1640, in the cities of Salta and Jujuy. This is an appendix to a file in the General Archive of the Nation regarding the death of the priests Roque Gonzalez de Santa Cruz, Alonso Rodriguez and Juan del Castillo. It is an unpublished document that refers to the relationship between the missionaries of the Society of Jesus and some indigenous groups—Pelichocos, Labradillos, Palomos and Chiriguanos—who used to move around near the confluence of the rivers Perico and Siancas, in the border of Jujuy, during the first half of the seventeenth century. The report, which compiles testimonies of “reduced” Indians from Marcos Cabello’s encomiendas, is a source that contributes to the knowledge of these groups—some practically unknown to the historiography of the region—, the relationship established with the missionaries in a situation of ethnic friction, and the solutions reached by these groups under such circumstances in a varied “geo-ethnic” space.