The region

Road Number 14, which joins Buenos Aires and the Iguazú Falls, runs parallel to the Uruguay River and near the natural reserve Iberá, where the economies of Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina converge. Cattle raising, rice growing and afforestation are the main economic activities of the area.

In 1627, the Jesuits arrived in Yapeyú and settled on the banks of the Uruguay River with the local guaranies (indigenous people). It became the most populated settlement in the area. The community organization of labour led by a few priests lasted more than a century, in spite of the continuous harassment of the Portuguese, who ransacked the area in search for wealth and indigenous people who were traded as slaves.

The expulsion of the Jesuit order took place in 1767 when they were expelled from all the Crown territories. The history of Yapeyú then went through different stages in which the local forces together with the central ones sent from Buenos Aires tried to defend themselves from the attack of the Bandeirantes.

José de San Martín was born in Yapeyú in 1778, where he spent his childhood. He then
started his military career in Africa and Spain. When he came back to America, he became one the main heroes in the Latin American independence movement.

Text in spanish by Gonzalo Garcés (Publishing House Seix Barral 2000 Prize)

   Un paseo por el orígen