Abstract

ALVARADO SANCHEZ, Nelson Manuel. Buenaventura Vargas’ Travel Diary to the South of Chile (1921). Anu.hist.reg.front. [online]. 2022, vol.27, n.1, pp.53-92.  Epub Dec 23, 2021. ISSN 0122-2066.  https://doi.org/10.18273/revanu.v27n1-2022002.

Fray Buenaventura Vargas, a Chilean Franciscan friar, traveled through southern Chile, from Araucanía to Chiloé in 1921, whose chronicle was published in the Franciscan magazine Verdad y Bien of the same year. The present article intends to present and describe this travel diary: knowing its author; detailing the descriptions of the places, the mobility, the inhabitants, and the Catholic works visited; and relating his opinions with other social and ecclesiastical concerns of the time. For this purpose, the publication in the magazine was compiled, the five central themes were determined and analyzed from the point of view of a Chilean from the capital on the rural and urban landscape, the transportation routes, the implementation of the Catholic social action and the indigenous, and Chiloé reality. The value of this account lies in these descriptions and their relationship with the permanence of realities, conflicts, and changes in Chilean society over the last hundred years.

Keywords : Catholicism; Indigenous population; Missionary work; Chile; Travel diary; Fray Buenaventura Vargas; Franciscans.

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