Luis de Valdivia (; 1560 – November 5, 1642) was a Spanish Jesuit missionary who defended the rights of the natives of Chile and pleaded for the reduction of the hostilities with the

Mapuches The Mapuche ( , ) also known as Araucanians are a group of Indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging ethnicity composed of various group ...

in the

Arauco War The Arauco War was a long-running conflict between colonial Spaniards and the Mapuche people, mostly fought in the Araucanía region of Chile. The conflict began at first as a reaction to the Spanish conquerors attempting to establish cities a ...

. Following the 1598 revolt of the Mapuche in Araucanía and their destruction of seven Spanish cities, Luis de Valdivia, successfully advocated the establishment of a border, and the replacement of military campaigns by missionary work that, from their point of view, would attempt the religious conquest of the rebellious Mapuche. His campaigns, called the

Defensive War A defensive war () is one of the causes that justify war by the criteria of the Just War tradition. It means a war where at least one nation is mainly trying to defend itself from another, as opposed to a war where both sides are trying to invade ...

, aroused the initial support of the Spanish monarchy, but over the years it was considered a failure and left Valdivia in disrepute.

Works

Valdivia wrote a grammar, vocabulary and religious texts of the

Huarpean languages Huarpe (''Warpe'') was a small language family of central Argentina (historic Cuyo Province) that consisted of at least two closely related languages. They are traditionally considered dialects, and include Allentiac (Alyentiyak, Huarpe) and M ...

. Some of his works include:
''Arte y gramatica general de la lengua que corre en todo el Reyno de Chile : con un vocabulario, y confessionario''
ima, 1606Sevilla, 1684. * ''Doctrina christiana y cathecismo, confessionario breve, arte y gramática y vocabulario breve en la lengua

Allentiac Allentiac (Alyentiyak), also known as Huarpe (Warpe), was one of the Warpean languages. It was native to Cuyo in Argentina, but was displaced to Chile in the late 16th century. Luis de Valdivia, a Jesuit missionary, wrote a grammar, vocabulary ...

''. Lima, 1607. * ''Confessionario breve en la lengua del Reyno de Chile, provechoso para confessar a los Indios de Chile y otras personas''. Lima, 1616. *
Sermón en lengua de Chile: de los mysterios de nuestra santa fe catholica, para predicarla a los indios infieles del reyno de Chile, dividido en nueve partes pequeñas, acomodadas a su capacidad
'. Valladolid, 1621. * ''Textos Millcayac'', Lima, 1607. ''Textos Millcayac'' has been re-published in Márquez (1943) and Tornello et al. (2011).Tornello, Pablo; Roig, Arturo; Díaz, Nora y Aguirre, Luis (2011). ''Introducción al Millcayac: idioma de los huarpes de Mendoza''. Mendoza, Argentina: Zeta Editores. ISBN 978-987-1794-10-2.

References

1560 births 1642 deaths 16th-century Spanish Jesuits 17th-century Spanish Jesuits Spanish Roman Catholic missionaries Jesuit missionaries in Chile Spanish missionary linguists Linguists of Mapuche {{Spain-reli-bio-stub