Many historians have chronicled the trajectory of missionaries and their activities in colonial Latin America. Jones's book on the attempts to convert natives in the tropical lowlands on the eastern flanks of the Andes adds insights on one religious organization that was active in that under-studied frontier mission field. The missionaries of Santa Rosa de Ocopa traced their origins back to a reform movement within the Franciscan order called the Apostolic Institute, which built a network of conversion-oriented outposts in the Amazon region, and eventually in far-flung southern Chile, between 1706 and 1824. Their stories demonstrate the negotiations involved in dealings between the Church and the state and the accommodation, flight, and rebellions of the peoples that the missionaries were trying to teach.
Highlights include Jones's discussion of native resistance to early initiatives, the demographic effects of disease, the Juan Santos Atahualpa rebellion of the 1740s, the corruption of crown functionaries and some viceroys (one filled his pockets with 495,500 pesos), martyrdom, and Ocopa's increasing role after the expulsion of the Jesuits (1767). He also covers the “new method” of evangelization through colonization and commerce and the effects of the Apostolic Institute's factionalism in the face of renewed initiatives to implement Bourbon reforms.
These topics are interwoven to narrate the ups and downs of Ocopa's history. The missionaries were down when the crown's promised support did not materialize or was delayed (1718-30); when the native population plummeted; when the natives rebelled (1712, 1719, 1724, and 1737) or fled; and when the Juan Santos Rebellion destroyed 21 of 23 mission outposts. They also suffered when crown officials were dealing with the aftermath of the 1746 earthquake and tsunami; when the viceroy closed the Jauja and Tarma entradas; and when factionalism led to the crown takeover of Ocopa. Ironically, they were up when one viceroy was determined to centralize power, expanding in the 1750s into Huanuco and Cajamarquilla and eventually setting up an outpost in Chiloé in southern Chile with the support of Charles III; they were also up after the Jesuit expulsion. Hispanization through trade appealed to the crown, as did mission expansion, which also promised frontier occupation and hampered Portuguese expansion west.
The main contribution of the book is that Jones shows in exacting detail the room for negotiation of the Bourbon's reform policies. Ocopa interpreted these crown mandates and selectively implemented royal policy initiatives. Here, the author writes vividly of the idiosyncrasies and biases of leading personalities. Some viceroys were supportive; some were not. Some religious themselves had strong characters and objectives, which led, especially in the late eighteenth century, to internal conflicts that hampered their work. Yet, they usually effectively mediated between the state and the populace.
But therein lies the weakness of this otherwise fine work. Jones dedicates relatively little space to the natives—the object of the missionaries’ efforts and the justification for their presence. He mentions them most prominently as rebellious opponents to European incursions, giving them agency, yes, but without ethnographic context and dimensions.
