People

Northern Argentine Criollo

12/14/07

More about the Criollo People:

Corrientes Church Planting Team

Alisha and David Holt Ricardo Freitag Peterson Family Lisa Levdale

Find out more about the Gauchos

Oscar Chapo, Pastor in Quitilipi

Who are the Criollos? If they lived in Mexico, they would be called "Mestizos." However, since "Mestizo" has a derogatory connotation in Argentina, we have chosen to refer to our people as the "Northern Argentine Criollos." They are really a "hidden" people, displaced by waves of European and other immigrants and never deliberately and specifically focused upon by Great Commission Christians for a Church Planting Movement.

Because of their lack of prestige, the Northern Argentine Criollos are clearly an unreached people group. Statistical research is ongoing, but we have so far been able to identify fewer than 10,000 believers, mostly Pentecostal or Assemblies of God, among them. General Conference and Conservative (Swedish) Baptists have worked for about fifty years in the northwestern provinces of Argentina, but in the 95+ year history of Southern Baptist work in Argentina, only five Southern Baptist missionary units have ever worked in the Northern Argentine Criollos’ homeland. That is, up until now!

The Criollos speak Spanish. The Bible is readily available in Spanish, but the Criollos know almost nothing of the Scriptures, since the majority prefers to communicate and learn through the spoken word rather than by written means. This is why narratives are our principal communication format.

Carrying Wood. I'm not sure if this is part of a wheelbarrow or part of a bicycle or what but seems to be carrying wood.

The old ways and the new ways. Outside my apartment I can hear the traffic coming and going, but at times I also hear the clip clop, clip clop of the horses hooves on the payment. At night, it seems that I'm in the midst of an English novel, with the horses clip clopping along on cobblestone pavements. ---

Most Criollos live at or near the bottom of the Argentine socioeconomic scale. The group is generally extremely poor, with a high alcoholism and suicide rate. There are many single mothers since legal marriage is not the norm. Family size is generally quite large. Domestic violence and abuse are the norm among some subgroups, especially those who have migrated to urban areas. Our strategy addresses root causes by focusing on strengthening families, early childhood education, and basic hygiene/health care training. We plan and undertake our community/economic development projects in such a way as to avoid creating or perpetuating dependency.

Again, there has been evangelism among our people, but without New Testament discipleship and multiplication of churches. As a result, a Church Planting Movement has never happened among this people. A Church Planting Movement is happening when all Great Commission churches are constantly and rapidly birthing new churches as a normal part of their life. In these exciting days, more and more local believers are asking us about our purpose, our target group, and the vision we believe God has given for reaching the Northern Argentine Criollos. As they hear our answers, God is bringing them and us together to see the impossible made reality among our people!

Criollo teenagers riding in a horse drawn buggy (a carrito).

This is a carrito or carro, a popular form of transportation with the Criollos.

These three children stopped to talk. They are from a poorer area of Saenz Peña. Note there clothing --this was in winter and cool enough to require a coat.

This is a seventeen-year-old with her baby. Teenage pregnancies are fairly common among the Criollos.