Lively exchanges marked the intense days of work during the meeting of the Order’s historians and archivists in Argentina.
The IV International Congress on the History of the Order of Preachers in America and the I Meeting of OP Archivists in America took place in Mendoza, Argentina, from 28 to 30 May 2025. This academic event followed previous editions held in Mexico (2013), Bogotá (2016), and Providence, United States (2019). Historians and archivists of the Order participated from Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Mexico, the United States, Spain, and France, ensuring a rich and diversified exchange.
These were intense days during which 60 papers were presented, organized into eight thematic panels: “Organizational Structures and Institutions,” “Written Culture,” “Participation in Political Processes,” “Daily Life in American Convents,” “Women in the Order of Preachers,” “Artistic Languages: Architecture, Painting, and Music,” “Biographies, Hagiographies, and Images of Sanctity,” and “Dominican Archives: History, Organization, Current State, and Prospects.” In addition, two keynote lectures were delivered: “Divine Providence and Marian Patronage: Their Role in the Stories about the Restoration of the Dominican Province of Colombia,” by Br. Juan Francisco Correa Higuera, OP (USTA, Bogotá), and “Five Hundred Years after the Restoration: A Social and Demographic Approach to the First Professed Dominicans in the Province of Santiago de Mexico, 16th Century,” by María Fernanda Mora Reyes (UNAM, Mexico).
Four books related to the history of the Order of Preachers were also presented: The Dominicans in the Americas and The Philippines (c.1500–c.1820), edited by David T. Orique, OP, Rady Roldan Figueroa, and Cynthia Folquer; Los Dominicos en el Río de la Plata: nuevos temas y avances de investigación histórica (siglos XVIII al XX), edited by Estela Calvente (Universidad del Norte Santo Tomás de Aquino, Tucumán, Argentina); Los lectores y los oyentes del convento de Santo Domingo de Santiago de Chile (S. XVII), by Miguel Lecaros (Universidad del Norte Santo Tomás de Aquino, Tucumán, Argentina); and the first Spanish edition of Santo Domingo y su misión, by Br. Gianni Festa, OP, and Br. Agustín Laffay, OP.
In addition to the academic activities, the participants enjoyed a concert of sacred music by the Slovenian Choir of Mendoza, directed by Diego Bosquet; guided visits to the Museum of Cuyo’s past and to the convent of Santo Domingo; and a cultural tour of the city of Mendoza and its surroundings. These were days of profound academic exchange and growing friendships, which will surely foster the continued development of research into the history of the Order in the Americas.
Finally, it was announced that the next Congress will be held in Colombia in 2029, to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the arrival of the Dominicans in what is now Colombian territory.
