Manzana Jesuitica and Other Musings

Okay, so I'm going to start with the musings... you can skip down to the photos if you'd rather.

We're unhappy here in Cordoba. Nothing I can really put my finger on. The people here are very friendly, the city itself has lots of thing to do, the food is good ... there's just something missing. This country is beautiful, but the culture is really about the same.

For example, when I went shopping for a skirt for my birthday, I walked into a store in the mall and there were probably 20 people in there. I kid you not, at least 15 of them were texting someone else. Not to mention that there's been a Christmas tree in the grocery store since the week of Halloween. sigh.

So, after meeting my parents in Mendoza (wine country) for Christmas, we'll be heading back to Peru. We're really excited about the holidays with some familiar faces and then being back on the road for a few weeks. We leave Cordoba on the 22nd.

Manzana Jesuitica

We went on a tour of the Jesuit buildings here in Cordoba today. Since we've decided to leave, we're doing the tourist things we thought we'd have time to do.

The Jesuits first settled in this area in 1599. They built the first university in Argentina (it was the 3rd or 4th in South America). They built 5 estancias (ranches) outside the city to fund the running of the school. Alta Gracia was one and we are planning on visiting more of them next week.


We got a tour of their Chapel (for the indigenous), their Church, part of the University itself and their Library. The library was my favorite (go figure). They had books that were printed on the first printing press in South America. They had maps from the early 1550's to the 1700's.

The 2 coolest things they had were:
1) a copy of the bible translated in 7 languages (none of which would I be able to read- Aramaic, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, etc) It was on books the size of an end table and the stack stood about 4 feet high. Apparently there are only a couple of these still around.
2) a set of Spanish - Guarani dictionaries. This is how they were so successful in converting the locals, they were willing to communicate with them in their own language.



The Jesuits believed that the power of God was bestowed on the people and the people gave it to the King. At that point in time, the Kings of the world believed in Royal Supremacy (that they had a direct link to the will of God). The religous beliefs that the Jesuits espoused were responsible for insiting revolution. They got the royal boot from Argentina in 1767.