Labateca, Apostolic Prefecture of

LABATECA, APOSTOLIC PREFECTURE OF. - In the north-eastern regions of Colombia, erected on 15 June 1945 with territory detached partly from the diocese of Nueva Pamplona and partly from the apostolic prefecture of Arauca. It has an area of about 15,000 sq km with a population of 14,000 inhabitants. In the northern part of the mission live several hundred indigenous people, belonging to the Unkasias, Cesarias, Mojicones and Pedrazas tribes.

In the region between the Cubugon and the Sinsiga-Royotá rivers live about 4,000 Tusebas, divided among the tribes of the Teguas, Tekankas, Cobaria, Bonkotas and Sinsigas. They are Indians originating from the ancient Lagoa-Santa race (Brazil), who later merged with the Chibchas, from whom they took their language and customs. They do not obey a single chief. Each family is independent, under the orders of the father, who is at the same time a magician; he presides over births, adolescent initiations and marriages, and sings over illnesses in order to cure them. They practice a naturalistic polytheism: they worship waters, mountains and plants with very complicated rites. They frequently change dwelling, because they do not live in a house where someone has died. They do not trust whites, of whom they consider themselves much superior. As a rule they have only one wife, whom they treat fairly well. Their language is polysynthetic. Until the erection of the prefecture, the care of the zone was entrusted to some fathers of the Congregation of the Eudists, who established their residence at S. Librada. There, moreover, the nuns of the Immaculate Conception and of St. Catherine had a school, which they later transferred to the parish of Toledo. The mission is entrusted to the priests of the Seminary for Foreign Missions of Yarumal (Colombia). They number 5, assisted in the apostolate by 10 sisters, 19 catechists and 31 teachers. The work is arduous because of the climate and the very refractory character of the population.

Antonio Mazza