|
|
||
|
|
Nicolás Armentia: Basque Missionary in Bolivia (The following is an abbreviated version of a paper by Professor Mary Ritchie Key, linguist of the University of California, Irvine. The full version is to be published shortly in Spanish translation in the journal Kultura edited by the Diputación Foral de Alava.) Much of the data available today on the languages of South America was recorded by missionaries who explored and settled the regions that were and are beyond the pale of a technological society. Bishop Nicolás a Armentia, Franciscan missionary, was one of those who contributed to the archives with a dedication and scientifically-minded curiosity that is rarely equaled. Armentia was born in the Basque country, sometime between the fifth and the seventh of December in 1845 in the village of Bernedo (Vitoria) in the province of Alava, a very long way from his final resting place. His parents were Vincente Armentia and Nicolasia Ugarte, who maintained a social position of dignity and respect in the community. Hervas y Panduro (1804) cites the name Armentia in his index of topographical names of the Basque area of Spain, and according to historical studies and ancient documents, the place name of Armentia goes back at least to the fourteenth century. In the Basque country there are two locations with this name: one near Vitoria and the other in Condado de Treviño. It is likely that the family was named for the territory from which they came. Armentia is said to be a place name in Bolivia as well. The encyclopedia of 1930 mentions a Lake Armentia which is supposedly near the Madre de Dios River. This is the area which Padre Armentia explored and it is not impossible that there was a lake there early in this century which was named after him or other Basque pioneers who came from Armentia, Spain. It is not on the present-day maps, but the great river systems of the jungles shift with remorseless strength and one ox-bow gives way to another through the years, variously producing new lakes and emptying old ones. At the age of twelve Nicolás traveled a short distance north to study at Elorrio in the province of Vizcaya. Perhaps he was influenced at that time by the revered martyr Valentín Berriochoa, because it was during these early years that he began to feel the need to dedicate his life to missionary endeavors. He returned home to get permission from his parents to enter a Franciscan monastery in France. He entered the order in Amiens in December of 1860, and a year later at the age of sixteen, took his first vows. Undoubtedly he was inspired there by the illustrious Padre José Areso who ardently recruited missionaries for the Americas. In 1864, he was sent to the Colegio de Propaganda Fide de La Recoleta in La Paz, Bolivia where he completed his theological studies. He was ordained in April 1869. The next decade was spent in the jungle and headwater areas of northern Bolivia where he devoted his life to the Indians, principally at the missions of Tumupasa, Ixiamas, and Covendo. During this time, he also had assignments at the Colegio in La Paz. At the time that northern region of Bolivia was scarcely described, at least accurately, even though it had been invaded many times by hunters of the "lost gold," the Dorado or Paititi. The Bolivian government recognized in Armentia a person who would explore without exploiting, who could document the necessary information about this relatively unknown area, and who was fearless of the wild rumors as well as authentic reports of killings by the Indians. Thus, in 1881 the government commissioned Armentia to make an expedition down the Beni River. After careful preparation he set out on this, his first expedition, which was later to be referred to again and again by such writers as Groeteken, Marcelino de Civezza, and Nusser. Armentia was not the first outsider to go into the territory. He had studied the historical documents of the area and summarized these earlier forages in his work Navegación del Madre de Dios. But after the others are forgotten, Armentia will long be remembered for the information which he gave to the scientific world. He located villages by latitude and longitude with a penchant for accuracy. In his diary he wrote that he aimed for "exactness and truth," and added that he tried not to exaggerate! His background in experimental science and astronomy prepared him for keen observation and the material he gathered on the flora and fauna of the area is noteworthy for its accuracy. At the end of one of his accounts (1887), he gives charts for the year of 1885, in which he recorded temperature and barometric readings and weather conditions during his journeys, as well as the distances between the areas he covered. The Indians, who for three hundred years before Armentia's time had suffered the capricious behavior of intruders, were often unfriendly. He tells of one incident when he was trying to contact a frightened group who ran when they saw Armentia's party. Armentia pursued them with gifts in his hands. Immediately the Indians turned and faced him – their bodies painted with vegetable dyes, wearing bark clothing and holding a bow in the left hand and an arrow in the right. Armentia advanced and put gifts in their hands to prohibit their drawing an arrow. The Indians quickly dispensed with the gifts and retained their arrows at the ready. Armentia then maneuvered them all into a sitting position, because it is difficult to draw a bow from the posture! His quick thinking and clever but gentle strategies preserved him and his party from perishing on more than one occasion. There were also illnesses to overcome. He relates how he convalesced in Ivon and watched while others died around him. The Indians were especially vulnerable to diseases of the whites and whole villages were disseminated by scarlet fever or just the common cold. He tells of the epidemic of scarlet fever in 1885 when a quarter of one half of the people in many villages died. Those of us who know intimately the climate, the illnesses, the difficulties in traveling from 12,000 feet to sea level, and the hardships of the rainforest cannot help but respect the prodigious output of Armentia's contributions and publications. It isn't the jaguars and boa constrictors that make life difficult in the jungle. It is the bugs and the sweat mixing with one's pen and paper that exasperate one beyond endurance at times. At one point in his diary, Armentia noted that, "it seemed we didn't have time for anything else but removing niguas!" (The nigua is the chigoe which burrows underneath the skin around the toenails.) Father Armentia began publishing his works in 1883 which appeared regularly, ending posthumously in 1913. His linguistic and anthropological studies are no less outstanding than his geographical and other scientific writings. He concerned himself with the classification of the languages he studied and gave enough hints and suggestions about he Tacanan and Mosetene tongues that the linguist Lafone Quevedo subsequently observed that there seemed to be a relationship between them. Within the Tacanan family he made comments about closeness and distance of relationship which have turned out to be amazingly accurate. He compiled a chart of sound correspondences which he called “inter-equivalences” recognizing the regular sound change between the languages. Reference is made to vocabulary items which illustrate the sound correspondences, in the best of comparative tradition. This is all the more admirable given the fact that the work was completed in the 1880s, long before linguistic methodology was available to field workers. Father Armentia drew a map of the area, showing locations of the Indians where he discovered them. In addition, he carefully noted rivers, neighboring tribes, and other identifying features throughout his texts that placed the Indians accurately. The two decades spent with the Indians were to be followed by Armentia’s return to the cities. From 1888 he began to hold official and important posts at the Colegio in La Paz, and in 1891 was named “Guardian.” During this directorship the beautiful Templo de La Recoleta was constructed.In 1894, he was given an official assignment to return to Spain to recruit new missionaries. The next year he returned to Bolivia and continued his strong and capable leadership in the church. This led to the incorporation of La Recoleta in Sucre in 1898 where Father Armentia was received with grateful admiration. His happy days there were short lived, for he was soon to be named General Commissary of Bolivia. As Commissary he traveled to the remote missions. While in La Paz, Armentia continued to make important contributions to the government. His book Límites de Bolivia con el Peru…(1897) is a result of his diplomatic mission in helping to settle the border dispute between Peru and Bolivia. He had intimate knowledge of the exact location of rivers and settlements and he carefully documented and critically analyzed earlier reports. These qualifications led to his post of Vice-President of the Sociedad Geográfica de La Paz from 1897 to 1899. In fact, he was a founding father of the society in 1889 and published in its first bulletin (1898). The contributions that he made to the government of Bolivia inspired the president of the country, General José Manuel Pando, to nominate Armentia for bishop. This request was honored by Leo XIII; on 22 October 1901 he was named Bishop of La Paz and on 24 February 1902 he was consecrated in the city of Sucre. In the Record of Deaths of the same church in La Paz where he served so faithfully and for so long a time, it is recorded that he died in the city of La Paz on 26 November 1909. Father Angel Domaica, from his homeland, tended him at his death. He was buried in the “Panteón de los Notables” until 1941 when his remains were removed to the new “Mausoleo de Notables” by the Honorable Municipalidad de La Paz. What makes a person leave a comfortable home in a beautiful setting, such as Alava, to go to a strange world and expend such energy to produce works and writings for which he would receive nothing? The answer to this question is the secret of Father Armentia’s life. From his portraits he was a man with a gentle face and unimposing posture. His coarse tunic appears to be hand-woven. His gentleness and kindness did not preclude strength of character and a firm stance when it was indicated, for example in the border disputes. He balanced goodness and intellectual integrity by combining religious fervor and scientific discovery for the benefit of all. Following St. Francis of Assisi, the founder of his order, he was not burdened with need of many possessions, and this contributed to the success of his explorations, where, it is said, he took simple provisions, and “with a sextant on his back, a book of prayers in one hand and a compass in the other, he traversed the wide region between the Beni River and the Madre de Dios.” Many of the settlements in the jungle area remain as Father Armentia left them. The little village of Ivon on the Beni River, for example, still sits on the high river bank to the ancestors of the Indians who live there still. The scientific world saluted him at his death and salutes him again in this essay. Note of Appreciation: This biography has been an international endeavor, as Father Armentia would have wanted it to be. Information has come from Austria, Bolivia, Germany, Spain, the Vatican, and several Franciscan centers in the United States. My special thanks go back to Madrid and Vitoria; La Paz, Sucre, and Riberalta. I also want to express my appreciation to the department of Classics at my own university for help in translating the Latin. |
|
|
|
|
