Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Winning Souls For Christ

Father Juan Fonte established the first mission pueblo among the Tarahumara in 1611 and implemented the Jesuit policy of reducción, or reduction, designed to Christianize and “civilize” native peoples by bringing them into concentrated communities. Formerly, the Tarahumara lived in isolated homesteads dispersed throughout the wild mountains and canyons.

The Jesuits introduced the Tarahumara to irrigation, the plow, the axe, new crops and domesticated animals—advancements that radically altered their subsistence farming lifestyle.
Link (here)

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