TWO TOWERS

TWO TOWERS, SAME HERITAGE, OPPOSITE SIDES OF THE GLOBE. The Nasunugan Tower on top of a hill outside Biliran town (left) virtually has the same motif as a similar tower (right) in the reduccion (town) of La Santisima Trinidad in Paraguay, South America, on the other side of the earth. Both towers are memorials of Jesuit-inspired attempts to establish a commune-style society among the native populations around the mid-1700s. The tower in Biliran is a remnant of the Biliran Religious Revolt from 1765-1774, led by Padre Gaspar de Guevara, a native priest. The tower in Paraguay is a remnant of the War of the Seven Reductions waged by the Guarani Indians against adverse Spanish colonial policies from 1750-1761.