Dois jesuitas no Chaco

Florian Paucke e Martin Dobrizhoffer

Abstract

In this article we investigate the parallel destinies that define the trajectories of the Jesuit missionaries Florian Paucke and Martin Dobrizhoffer. Coming both from central Europe, the first was born in 1719 in Silesia, the second a year earlier in Freidberg. They arrived together in Río de la Plata in 1749. They worked in the Southern Chaco: Paucke, for most of his stay, in the mission of San Javier, among the Mocovis; Dobrizhoffer, among the Guarani, Mocovis and Abipones; in the missions of San Javier, San Fernando, Timbó and San Joaquin. Both had to go into exile, like all the other members of the Order, when, through the Pragmatic Sanction, it was decided in 1767 that the Company would be expelled from all Spanish domains. Paucke settled in Bohemia and in 1774 began to write the work that would become known as Hacia allá y para acá (Hin und Her). Dobrizhoffer took refuge in Vienna, and between 1777 and 1782 he wrote the Historia de los Abipones (History of Abiponibus). Paucke died in 1780, and Dobrizhoffer in the following decade, in 1791. Analyzing these works, we will discuss the representations offered by both authors.of the Amerindians, of daily life in the missions and of the natural environment, but also the divergent positions on forced exile suffered by the missionaries.