Cultural Values

Religion

Religion plays an important role in the life of the inhabitants of Iberá, taking characteristic distinctions as is seen in the rest of Corrientes.

Devotion to saints and especially to religious images took root easily in the Guarani people, since the strategy of the Jesuits was not the conversion of the Tupi Guarani religion but a substitution, giving new meaning to the original content. An example of this is the slight replacement of the “Tierra sin mal” (land without evil) by the pursuit of heaven and eternal life, or the cult to the dead by the worship of saints.

In the saints calendar of the area, the most venerated is the image of the Virgin Mary under different titles: Itati, the Immaculate Conception, Loreto, the Rosary and Lourdes. There is also room for other saints which were canonized by the people but not by the Church.

Within the saints not officially recognized by the Catholic Church, the most prominent are the gaucho Antonio Gil or gaucho Lega, or a figure closely linked to the tidelands, the holy man Antonio Maria, who is said could heal people with water from the wetlands and who, pursued by justice, was killed on the island of San Alonso. Also seen in the area is the devotion to the Pilarcita, a girl spontaneously sanctified by the inhabitants of the area of Concepcion who leave their dolls as offerings and whose followers grow every year.

A typical courtyard with its chapel.

Processions are a tradition especially linked to the northwestern parts of Iberá. Often devotees move from one village to another on horseback or in carriages carrying religious or parish images to visit the honored Patron Saint.

Another custom linked to religion that adds liveliness to the towns are the family chapels built in honor of a saint or virgin who the family is devoted to. In Conception del Yaguareté Cora this is particularly remarkable due to the more than 45 chapels in which faith is placed and where the day of the saint is celebrated feasting with great joy, only after having dutifully prayed a novena.