3 - On the way of the Jesuit estancias (Jesus Maria)

The local Indian tribes called them “Guanusacate”. These lands at the feet of the Sierra Chica Eastern slope , in the north of Cordoba, were conquered by the Spanishes at the beginning of the XVIIe century. In 1618, their owner, Don Gaspar de Quevedo, sell them to the Society of Jesus. Quickly they take the name of “Jesus Maria”. Their fertility, the arrival of many Indian workmen (114 in 1747) allow to the property to garner increasingly prolific harvests. The book of account of the Father Superior Antonio Machoni, take 48000 vine-feet, 65 pear trees and gathering of 6000 ognons in account. He mentions the existence of two mills, a tank and speaks about many cattle heads. Equipped in priority with rooms and storages, the estancia “Jesus Maria” only had very tardily a chapel. The Father Antonio Castillo, in a letter sent to the Father Jose Rodriguez explains to him that he has just sent masons to work on the building site of the church. We are in 1763, a few years before the expulsion of the Jesuits (*).During the XIXe century, the estancia received historical figures of Argentina : San Martin, Belgrano, Lavalle, Sarmiento.

(*) article "The Jesuit missions" (mai 2006)
Reference for the 3 articles "on the way of the Jesuit estancias" : "El camino de las estancias" de Carlos Page