Chronicles of Catholicism in the Rubber Boom: Friar Isidoro Irigoyen’s Desobrigas with Indigenous People from Purus River (1938-1968, Amazonas, Brazil)

Abstract

After an overview through the processes of implantation of missionary structures among Amazonian populations, this article directs attention to the process of establishment of the Catholic Church in the Purus basin (Amazonas, Brazil) and its consolidation at the beginning of the 20th century, in the middle of the rubber crisis. In this trajectory of interactions between missionary activities and indigenous populations, the figure of the Spanish religious Isidoro Irigoyen, who worked in the region for 30 years (1938-1968), stands out during the socalled “Second Rubber Boom” and the subsequent decline of the Amazonian rubber market. The access to his diaries and reports on desobrigas –catechizing expeditions of indigenous and riverine people in the inner rainforest communities–, together with the reading of ecclesial and journalistic records, lead us to some keys to understand the dynamics of Catholicism during the later rubber boom in the region of the Purus River.