Las Misiones Jesuíticas – Digital Exhibit on Display in Geisel Library Through March 16

Las Misiones Jesuíticas de la región Guaranítica: Una experiencia cultural y social Americana, curated by Ramon Gutiérrez (Universidad de Granada, Spain), is on display through March 16, 2016 at the UC San Diego Library (Geisel West, 2nd floor). The digital exhibit, composed of various images of Jesuit missions and mission communities operating in the greater South American Amazon region, illustrates the economic, cultural, and social ideas and practices that gave rise to this mission system.

Founded by Ignacio de Loyola, Francisco Javier, and others in 1539, the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) would become an effective instrument in the Counter-Reformation. Jesuit evangelizers arrived in Brazil in 1556 and moved north to Peru and Mexico in 1572. As they carried out their evangelizing work among indigenous peoples, Jesuits also developed professional skills, so that their expansion into Europe, Asia, and America forged spaces of worldwide scientific development.
A lecture about the exhibit will be held on Wednesday, March 16 from 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. in Geisel Library’s Seuss Room. Guest speaker, Graciela Maria Viñuales (Ph.D. Architecture, Universidad Nacional de Tucuman), is a specialist in the preservation and conservation of architectural heritage and restoration of monuments in Ibero-American cultures. This event is free and open to the public.

The exhibit can also be seen at the Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies Conference, at the Maritime Museum of San Diego, March 17, 2016 – March 20, 2016 and at the Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies (CILAS), March 21-March 24, 2016.

The slides displayed in this digital exhibit were initially created in 2013 for the Centro Cultural Borges, Buenos Aires. It has also appeared at Universidad de Congreso (Mendoza, Argentina), Universidad de Cantabria (Santander, Spain), Instituto Ramón Llull (Barcelona, Spain), Universidad Iberoamericana (Mexico), Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí (Mexico), Universidad de Lima (Perú), and Universidad Católica (Asunción, Paraguay).

The Amazonia project at UC San Diego draws on, archives, produces, and allows researchers to view digital texts, geo-referenced maps of relevant information, and 3D images of objects, urban/agricultural environments, and the forest itself in order to trace and represent this under-explored history.