FROM ONE CONQUEST TO THE NEXT

During the 17th century, a second cycle of chronicles on various conquests begins, describing the Spaniard penetration of the New Spain Septentrion. Frontier chronicles where those peculiar beings live - the Chichimecas. There, everything is rough, rocky, deserted. The desert, last retreat of the devil and his armies is only inhabited by beasts that shall have to be conquered and transformed into gentle sheep of the Lord, by the power of the soldiers of Christ organized under the holy guard of the Society of Jesus.

When we consider for instance, the work of father Ribas5 who was the Yaquis' apostle according to himself, the concept of frontier that is found all over does not differ from the one included in the chronicles of the previous century. Here, Satan's image is always on the lookout and the soldiers of Christ have to fight day after day against his omnipresence. The work is no longer an account of a victory and an apotheosis of faith in American land. Rather it is transformed in a peculiar way into an illustration of the defenses and stratagems and the complete skill presented by the devil's resistance. In these chronicles, the enemy of human kind plays the part of a star and organizes the account. When reading about this bloody battle between Jesuits and the armies of the devil, one gets the feeling that the few achievements of Christianization in this barren land can be questioned at any time.

The land of the Jesuit missions in New Spain is a land of boundaries. However, contrary to what could be expected, they are not geographical boundaries. These end of the world and far-away lands mark out the place where the dissolution of anything conceivable takes place. There, even the most assured cathegories of the Christian existence seem to lack the capacity to explain what is real. This life- after-death immediately conquered space, located farther away than where the soft shadow of the missions' cross is projected, continues to be an unspeakable place. It is, at the same time, a place full - of demons - and totally empty. To fill them up, the West still defines these places, even in the 20th century, as the strange lands inhabited by fabulous beings of medieval mithology, inherited by the ancient Graeco-Latin cultures.

It is on these frontier lands where America once again blends with the fictitious Asian peripheries, an empty and no man's space where "men" - rather beasts than reasonable men - can move from one place to the other. Also and without doubt, according to father Ribas, these are remote frontier lands where God has placed under chains the people of Gog and Magog that will nourish the Antichrist armies when the time of tribulations and testing mankind with fire comes. Therefore, when P�rez de Ribas suggests that further North there could be a pass to Asia, when he pretends to further expand the New Spain frontier, the discursive need of this hypothetical pass should not be interpreted only and mechanically as a "geographical intelligence" belonging to P�rez de Ribas, but rather as a consequence of the way in which, at that time, these Westerners conceived frontiers and reported on this well-known space.

As they move deeper into these lands, as the civilization markers fade from view, the greater is the rise of those Soldiers of Christ and with each step, with every difficulty that arises, with the slightest resistance of the populations, the opposition of the satanic armies is threateningly revealed. When encountering the populations' resistance, they are unable to perceive beyond the mark of the devil's presence. Dressed in the armor and the certainty of their faith, the priests face dangers and deprivations without wavering. They are persistent and devotedly stubborn, these males that have consecrated their lives to evangelization of the boundaries. Just as terrible is the calm security with which, unhesitatingly they destroy native customs and practices, they move populations or punish, even with death individuals and groups of people that present resistance or avoid contact.