The exhibition “Woods that speak Guarani” aims to share knowledge about the fact that the current national territory belongs to a wider region that goes beyond our borders and those of the other national states (Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay), because it corresponds to another kind of territory, that of cultural behaviors and traditions, where the intangible and material remnants, of which the religious imagery is only a part, ignore today’s political borders and have contributed to the formation of local identities far more than they are given credit for.

The exhibition is made up of material objects from the Jesuit Missions of Paraguay:

1. Images and other religious objects that are scattered throughout our territory; this is one of the products of the survey of material elements linked to the Indigenous missionary reality, carried out nationwide during 2006 and 2007. The pieces on display were selected from a larger surveyed group and come from different parts of the national territory. They were chosen for their heritage, testimonial, and documentary value.

2. Archaeological materials from the extinct mission town of “San Francisco de Borja del Yí” (1833-1862), recovered within the framework of the project “Arqueología Misionera en nuestro territorio: Santa Rosa del Cuareim y San Borja del Yí y otros pueblos” CSIC-UdelaR, (1995-1999), led by archaeologist Carmen Curbelo, which has a testimonial and documentary value that allows us to perceive the impact of the Jesuit mission system and the Indigenous mission peoples on the social processes that took place in our territory from the 17th century onward.