Santa María (Misiones)

Santa María is an Argentine municipality in the province of Misiones, located within the Concepción department. It is located at a latitude of 27° 54' South and at a longitude of 55° 23' West.

The municipality has a population of 1,687 inhabitants, according to the 2001 census (INDEC).

Within the municipality there is also the town of La Corita, which in 2001 had a larger population than the town of Santa María.

History

First reduction

The first foundation of the reduction took place in 1626 with the name of “Santa María del Iguazú” due to its proximity to the Iguazú River, or it was also known as “Itatin Region” where it is currently located. find the city of Foz do Iguaçu. This town of Santa María was founded by the priests: Diego De Boroa and his assistant, Claudio Ruyer. Starting in 1626, the first two Jesuit reductions were built in Foz do Iguaçu and Ciudad del Este, from there the aborigines were persecuted by the Portuguese - who were looking for Guaraní prisoners to sell them in the slave markets in San Pablo - to the south of Misiones. settling in what today makes up Santa María la Mayor.

Relocation

They moved to their current location, which was decided because it maintained containment by the two closest reductions: those of San Javier and Concepción (in those times it was customary to provide asylum, protection, food aid or any other product that the Reductions lacked).

With the union of these two northern towns (Santa María del Iguazú and Santa María de laCaraí) the reduction that is today in the south of the province was created. The name “La Mayor” arose due to population growth, a product of said merger in the southern territory. Furthermore, it should be noted that the name also honors the Catholicism, imposed by the Jesuits.

Starting in 1637 they settled in the current area of the Jesuit Ruins, clearing the mountain and looking for materials that would last over time. They found a large quantity of “itacurú” stones that were found in the river and streams. Being moist allowed for better cuts with chisels. Then, they extracted them and formed blocks with them, which once out of the water, dry, could not be carved. With these stones they built houses and buildings that were adhered with adobe made with mud and Itacurú stone.

In addition, asperón stone and hardwoods from the area (urunday, lapacho, guayubira, anchico) were used in the construction. The largest and most important buildings were made with the lift-prima system, and those with greater height have lasted over time, just like those of San Ignacio, except that the stone used, as already said, did not allow for carving.. The buildings of the Reduction had galleries and open patios. The houses of the Guaraníes, unlike those of the chiefs, were made of adobe. Currently, in what remains of the Ruins, a construction of the city can be seen with the central square and two roads, plus the entrance, the workshops, the school and the church, to the right of the square.

The church suffered a collapse and, therefore, the Jesuits obtained wooden beams and material to build a new church, in the meantime, a temporary hall was used. When other Jesuits arrived to elevate those who were already in the town, they brought with them smallpox and yellow fever, pests to which the Europeans were immune but the aborigines suffered greatly with hundreds of deaths. Due to these conditions, they never managed to build a new church and the workshop room functioned as a temporary chapel. Today, in front of that temporary church and on the side of the square, a prayer temple was set up where there is a statue of the Virgin of Santa María, of which there is no precise information if it was from the Jesuit era or not..

Time of Splendor

It was between 1690 and 1780 where the Jesuits taught all types of arts and languages such as Latin, Spanish and the Catholic religion. The schools were for the children of chiefs and the workshops for the other aborigines, where they learned various techniques such as iron casting, crafts, cultivation, mathematics, among other disciplines.

Invasion and decline

The third and last period took place between the years 1780 and 1850. In 1765 problems began with the religious order, from Portugal they encouraged the King's advisors to end the reductionary system, denouncing that they had created an empire in the colony within the royal possessions. Then King Carlos III, by royal decree, expelled the Jesuits in 1767. Years later the Guaraní found themselves without parental administration, being exposed again to the invasions, at that time, of Paraguayans and Portuguese. This, together with the migrations of the Guaraní to the province of Corrientes, plus the invasions of the Portuguese and Paraguayans, ended with the aboriginal population in the city, but the Creoles came to inhabit it, carrying out multiple excavations in search of gold and destroying the place..

Tourist attractions

These Ruins were declared "National Historical Monument" in 1945, then a provincial Historical and Cultural Monument in 1980 and, in 1984, UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site. Other tourist attractions of the municipality are: The ruins of Santos Mártires del Japon (in the Paraje Caá-Guazú), the Uruguay River with its islands and slides and the border with the Federative Republic of Brazil.

Likewise, the Virgin Mary found in the Ruins chapel, in addition to attracting tourism, is a religious legacy since it is the oldest Virgin in the area, it is highly venerated by the people, both in the municipality and in the rest of the province and the country. She was found in the Santa María stream decapitated, and without the baby Jesus in her arms. These faults happened because people thought that there was gold inside it. The first settlers of the place reshaped its face with cardboard and cement to give it its shape again.

La Corita Place

In its beginnings, Paraje La Corita was made up of large hectares of farms that belonged to the Nobleza Piccardo cigarette manufacturing company, who had bought the land from an English couple living in Buenos Aires, who had no heirs.

Approximately in 1945, a gendarme who worked in Concepción de la Sierra, Zubizarreta, bought a portion of land and moved there to live with his family made up of his wife and his daughter Cora, from whom the name is inherited. the one that the place is currently known as: La Corita. Years later, the soldier sold his land to those who were the first inhabitants, the family of Don Fermín Díaz, who settled in generations who remain to this day and work in this place. These first settlers were the ones who gave the name to the place, since previously the reference point was the “La Corita” field, as its first owner called it. As the years passed, the name survived in the use of all the inhabitants.

According to the last census (according to INDEC) the entire municipality of Santa María has 2,300 inhabitants, of which 400 belong to La Corita. Currently, what sustains the population is livestock (in all of Santa María there are 18,000 heads of cattle), the production of yerba mate and organic sugar.

As far as education is concerned, in La Corita there is a primary school that began operating in 1930, in the Ruins, with the name “Escuela Provincial N° 2030, Auxiliar Carlos Antonio La Fuente” (it was called so because it was the name of the gendarme who helped build the building). In 1974 the institution moved to the Place depending on the National Council of Education, where it operates until now, 2 kilometers away from the old building. In addition, there are 6 more primary schools in the municipality. There are also two secondary schools, E.F.A N° 0501 (created in 1989) and B.O.P. No. 107 (created in 2010).