El Proyecto Misionero Amazónico de los Salesianos: Contradicciones Y Tensiones

The Salesians arrived in Ecuador called by the Government. The main reason: their ability to start technical education in the country. In a second moment, when, at the request of the same Government, the Apostolic Vicariates of the East were created, the Salesians were asked to take charge of the Vicariate of Méndez and Gualaquiza to ensure a stable and organized presence in the territory, when the State was still very little present; while, with the rubber boom, multitudes of adventurers of all kinds were penetrating into the region from Brazil and Peru, taking advantage of the navigability of the rivers. There is living testimony of these experiences, among them that of Juan Bottasso, sdb. His coexistence with the indigenous communities is materialized in published works on the Shuar and other nationalities of Ecuador. He went into the eastern missions in order to serve the communities. He considers himself an Italian-Ecuadorian, "I spent 23 years in Italy and 53 in Ecuador". He has witnessed the history and the stages of transformation of this country, especially in the East; he remembers the roads, in the part of the mountain range, where people traveled on horseback or on foot, which gave it the condition of an exotic and mysterious place, but this was not an obstacle to continue with his mission of social help, "without being a poet, he likes to observe nature with a different look and an adventurous spirit that helped him to survive in the jungle".