The Via Christi:
A Route that Unifies Cultures and Times

It is fascinating and why not touching to travel the road that depicts the life of a Mapuche Christ with realistic sculptures that stand for crucial moments of our society. Without realizing it, the path may lead us to revive moments of the 2001 Argentine crisis or, why not, become part of the Conquest of the Desert. It is a matter of letting it flow.

Junín de los Andes is a destination that is very much linked to religious tourism because most activities are religion-oriented. We will see special offers to visit some points such as the MunicipalMapuche Museum, Cerro de la Cruz, the church of Nuestra Señora de las Nieves or a self-guided tour to places where Blessed Laura Vicuña lived. But the most attractive tour due to its size and work is the Via Christi, a circuit that intends to recreate the life of Jesus Christ with huge statues (of both big size and great artistic quality) standing in 18 stations carefully distributed along a 2.5 km (1.55 mi) path.

This project started in the year 2000 and it is still fortunately expanding. Architects, plastic artists and construction workers as well as religious consultants worked in the project, and they have done a magnificent job and have created an amazing route with impressive sculptures and engravings full of historical value.

Nevertheless, the most stunning part of the circuit or at least what caused a personally captivating effect is the dialectics between past and present. The historical time of Jesus Christ, the years of the Conquest of the Desert and the present are blended in the plaster and the symbolic load of every chosen element. Moreover, this is not only a space-time but also a social blending. Every scene outlines the cultural syncretism between the Mapuche and the white man in biblical situations that make us think about the present and are dreadfully captivating.
Maybe some examples can depict the experience.

Station Nº 4: “Jesus heals the one-handed man". We can see Jesus performing a healing miracle while a man holds the one-handed man from below the earth. The scene may be a mere reflection of the biblical passage; however, upon reading the interpretation of Alejandro Santana, project director and sculptor of most pieces, the figures have a different meaning. The image was created in a time of crisis, when, despite the ever growing poverty, market laws and globalization were mandatory prescriptions. The one-handed man represents a crippled unemployed man, who wants to work but cannot move his hand and who is being pulled down by an economy expert whose face looks like Domingo Cavallo¹ . One person is one-handed but not buried; the other is blind.

Station Nº 6: “Jesus washes his friends’ feet”. This a symbolic scene of harmony among cultures. The image of the old lady whose feet Jesus washes and before whom he "kneels" is based on Grandmother Rosa Cañicul, a member of the Mapuche Pullán Pullán people, who agreed to pose but only after members of seven nearby communities had gathered to pray to God for this.

Station Nº 11: “Jesus is stripped of his clothing”.
This scene represents the situation lived by the aborigines during the Conquest of the Americas and of the Desert. The three characters are: Spanish Conqueror Pizarro, the indigenous Christ, and General Julio A. Roca, who strips Jesus off his poncho ² embroidered with stripes typical of that native culture.

Engraving of Station Nº 13: "An ear for a patacón ³".Here, Santana analyzes how the work started by Roca was continued by Yrigoyen in the Tragic Patagonia and the execution of workers during the strikes then taking place in the south of the country. They gave people hunters one patacón for each indigenous ear they would give in.

The tour is as interesting as pleasant. The landscape is unbeatable and between stations you can find resting places with drinking fountains, small ponds and points of observation, all of them perfectly sculpted and planned by architects.
For all the aforesaid, this is evidently a highly recommended tour not only for the faithful but also for art lovers and those who like innovative proposals and projects showing an outstanding effort and vocation.

By Marina Ollari