History of the Triumphs of Our Holy Faith amongst the Most Barbarous and Fierce Peoples of the New World (review)

History of the Triumphs of Our Holy Faith amongst the Most Barbarous and Fierce Peoples of the New World. By Andrés Pérez de Ribas. An English Translation Based on the 1645 Spanish Original by Daniel T. Reff, Maureen Ahern, and Richard K. Danforth. Annotated with a Critical Introduction by Daniel T. Reff. (Tucson: University of Arizona Press. 1999. Pp. ix, 761. $85.00.)

What else but monumental? Oversize, ponderous, and carefully presented in a readable, annotated edition, this indisputably basic work on seventeenth-century ethnohistory should revive interest in the benefits of painstaking scholarship. Too many scholars for too many decades had shunned the crushing task of translating these poignant observations of the peoples of northern New Spain by the Jesuit missionary Andrés Pérez de Ribas. The translators, however, are to be sincerely congratulated for their meticulous attention to the text and the tenacity that was required to bring this publication to light.

The work of Andrés Pérez de Ribas, a native of Andalusia, has been constantly consulted for years because it constitutes one of the best basic texts of an eyewitness participant in the evangelization of the tribes of northern New Spain. Unfortunately, there has never been a reliable or complete English version until this edition. Pérez de Ribas' monumental Historia was composed, revised, and corroborated over nearly twenty-five years. He worked as a resident missionary in the missions of Sinaloa in the early 1600's and returned to Mexico City to recuperate failing health. Supported by his own experience and notes, he spent years writing and revising his observations with letters and reports from the northern frontier. The final versions were edited in Europe, where he spent time in Madrid and Rome.

Perhaps the strongest aspect of this publication is the genuinely reliable and meticulous translation. The debate over the usefulness of translations will rage forever in the halls of academe, but the reality is that translations serve the immediate purpose of expanding thoughts and experiences not otherwise available to many linguistically impaired investigators. The "translators" of this work have done a remarkable job of precision and readability. And beyond that, they worked diligently to establish an authentic text.

One immensely valuable contribution is the critical introduction by Daniel Reff. It displays a true effort to understand the thinking of Pérez de Ribas so that the objectivity of his data can be fairly evaluated. Reff is intense in his efforts to place the Jesuit missionaries in a strict, medieval context, both literarily and politically. Whether one wishes to accept his conclusions must be left to the reader, but he clearly lines out the complex issues of evangelization. No one could expect the men of their time to be anything other than what their cultural contexts and education made them. Given the substantial amount of erudition employed by Reff, it is curious why and how he omitted any discussion of the radical place of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius in the formation and functioning of the Jesuits in New Spain. The imagery of the Exercises, particularly regarding the "Kingdoms," pits man against the devil, which is how many Jesuits interpreted the struggle between good and evil--not as a foray into demonology. By not exploring the influence of the Exercises in the formation and thinking of these seventeenth-century religious, Reff is guilty of a rather pronounced omission, and it raises the question of why such a major work on the Jesuit missions credits no input from contemporary, Jesuit consultants. The Society of Jesus is not so biased in dealing with its history as one is left to believe by references to earlier generations of Jesuit historians.

Although one cannot expect the editors and commentators of such a lengthy work to cover all...