Lozano, Pedro (1697–1752)

Pedro Lozano (b. 16 September 1697; d. 1752), Jesuit historian. Lozano was born in Madrid, and a year after entering the Society of Jesus (at fourteen years of age), he was sent to the Province of Paraguay. It was fairly common at the time to send young Jesuits to America for their novitiate training. In theory, they adapted more readily to the customs of the place and learned the local languages more easily. Lozano was assigned for most of his life to the College of Córdoba, where he taught philosophy and theology. He traveled extensively throughout the province, visiting missions and consulting Jesuit records in Santa Fe, Esteco, and Buenos Aires.

In 1730 Lozano began writing the first of the histories for which he became known, Descripción corográfica del Gran Chaco Gualamba (1733). He also wrote Historia de la Compañía de Jesús en la Provincia del Paraguay (2 vols., 1754–1755), and five volumes of the Historia civil del Río de la Plata, as well as two volumes titled Historia de las revoluciones de la Provincia del Paraguay (1721–1735). His most famous history, now a classic, is Historia de la conquista de la Provincia del Paraguay, Río de la Plata y Tucumán (1905). In 1750 he was given the task of preparing a report on why the Treaty of Limits (1750) would be harmful to the Indians. Lozano died in Humahuaca.

See alsoCórdoba; Jesuits.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Meliá, Bartomeu, and Liane Maria Nagel. Guaraníes y jesuitas en tiempo de las misiones: Una bibliografía didáctica. Asunción: Centro de Estudios Paraguayos, 1995.

Reiter, Frederick J. They Built Utopia: The Jesuit Missions in Paraguay, 1610–1768. Potomac, MD: Scripta Humanistica, 1995.

                         Nicholas P. Cushner