Buenaventura Vargas’ Travel Diary to the South of Chile (1921)

Abstract

Fray Buenaventura Vargas, a Chilean Franciscan friar, traveled through
southern Chile, from Araucanía to Chiloé in 1921, whose chronicle was published in
the Franciscan magazine Verdad y Bien of the same year. The present article intends to
present and describe this travel diary: knowing its author; detailing the descriptions
of the places, the mobility, the inhabitants, and the Catholic works visited; and
relating his opinions with other social and ecclesiastical concerns of the time. For
this purpose, the publication in the magazine was compiled, the five central themes
were determined and analyzed from the point of view of a Chilean from the capital
on the rural and urban landscape, the transportation routes, the implementation
of the Catholic social action and the indigenous, and Chiloé reality [..] (Ver más)