page_title: Wayuu people
section_title: Evangelization process
hierarchical_section_title: Wayuu people / History / Evangelization process
caption_attribution_description: Wayuu people on horses.
context_page_description: Wayuu is an Indigenous American ethnic group of the Guajira Peninsula in northernmost part of Colombia and northwest Venezuela. The Wayuu language is part of the Maipuran language family.
context_section_description: The process of evangelization of the Wayuu people restarted in 1887 with the return of the Capuchin friars under reverend friar José María de Valdeviejas. In 1905, Pope Pius X created the Vicariate of La Guajira with friar Atanasio Vicente Soler y Royo as first Vicar, in an attempt to "civilize" the Wayuu people.
  The friars then created the orphanages for Wayuu children beginning with the La Sierrita orphanage, built in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains in 1903, followed by the San Antonio orphanage, located by the Calancala River, in 1910, and the Nazareth orphanage in the Serrania de Macuira mountains in 1913, creating a direct influence over the Rancherias  of Guarrachal, El Pájaro, Carazúa, Guaraguao, Murumana, Garra patamana and Karraipía, with Nazareth exerting some control over the rancherias of Taroa, Maguaipa, Guaseipá and Alpanapause. The friars constantly visited the settlements inviting the Wayuu to attend mass. Wayuu children in the orphanage were educated with traditional European customs. Conflicts between the Wayuu people and the Colombian government decreased since then. In 1942 Uribia celebrated Christmas and New Year's Eve for the first time.
caption: Wayuu riding on horses, 1928
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