Salesian Messianism in Northern Patagonia? Last Quarter of 19th Century, General Roca Town

The Salesian order arrived Argentina in 1875 and four years later settled in Patagonia; its main mission was to evangelize, educate and "civilize" the natives who lived there. Once stablished, the Salesians began practicing itinerant missions to form different kinds of institutions and in 1883 created the Apostolic Vicariate of Northern and Central Patagonia and the Apostolic Prefecture for the Southern Patagonia. The documents reviewed show that the Salesians took their work as redemptive and even messianic; however, the Indians never assigned them those features. This paper addresses the development of this situation in Northern Patagonia during the last quarter of the nineteenth century, particularly in the town of General Roca.