Bruchko: The Astonishing True Story of a 19-Year-Old American, His Capture by the Motilone Indians and His Adventures in Christianizing the Stone Age Tribe

Among the central themes of Bruchko is the complexities of cross-cultural missionary work. Missionary work aims to bridge gaps across cultures through spreading Christianity, but this endeavor brings considerable challenges. Throughout Bruchko, Olson is keen to highlight these challenges and demonstrate how his approach to overcoming them is effective.

Olson’s mission in South America faces numerous challenges because of cultural differences. First, linguistically, Olson struggles to communicate with those he hopes to convert; he does not speak Spanish when he arrives in Venezuela, and for both the Yuko and the Barí, Olson must learn entirely unfamiliar languages. Second, by inserting himself into a region with a history of violence between Indigenous and settler communities, Olson has to overcome preexisting mistrust. His harsh reception by the Yuko is caused by the recent murder of two Yukos by outsiders, and the Barí are prone to violence against outsiders because of the frequent attempts to exploit their land. Finally, issues arise from the differences in cultural values between Olson and the Indigenous tribes. The Barí’s traditions of non-individualism and hiding negative emotions are starkly different from Olson’s experience of North American life, causing issues in how he can relate a message to people without the life experience he is used to. Through stressing the challenges he faces in converting the Barí, Olson shows the magnitude of the task that makes his eventual success more noteworthy.

Olson’s meeting with the tribes on the Orinoco River exemplifies one method of overcoming the cultural differences between missionaries and Indigenous people: trying to change Indigenous culture so it is more “Western.” The missionaries are the Mavaca settlement try to bring about a complete cultural revolution for the Indigenous people, linking their conversion to Christianity with the need to dress in Western clothes and change their traditions. Similarly, Olson notes that many missionaries make a point of competing with the traditional tribal healers; hoping to replace their “demonic” element with Western medical practices. This model of conversion is heavily criticized throughout as ineffective and pointless. Olson highlights that attempting to destroy Indigenous cultures leads to huge societal divisions that hamper further conversion attempts. The people of the Orinoco tribes that had not converted believed the new Christians had “rejected everything about us” (49), which led to their own rejection of Christianity. The ineffectiveness is compounded by Olson’s argument that it is a misguided mission: “[W]hat does the good news of Jesus Christ have to do with North American culture?” (50).

Over the course of the narrative, Olson develops his own approach to overcoming cross-cultural differences and seeks to prove its effectiveness. Olson’s model is based on relating Christian beliefs to Indigenous culture with the goal of making people find their purpose in Jesus. In his mission, this results in the creation of “Jesus the Motilone” (137). His conversion of Bobby is the test case and the start from which further conversions of the Barí happen. To convert Bobby, Olson waits until he has been integrated into Barí society, relates his work to a Barí prophecy, and explains theology using concepts Bobby already knows. Because of this, when Bobby converts, he understands the central Christian message while taking it for granted that Jesus reflected his own cultural experience. To translate the Bible later, Olson uses the same tactic by altering aspects of parables to fit what the Barí can relate to. This method allows Olson to keep the fundamental message of Christianity the same while abandoning any cultural trappings so that the Barí can convert without needing to sacrifice their traditions. The effectiveness of this is shown in his success at converting most of the Barí.

Olson stresses that his success at overcoming the complexities of cross-cultural interaction is due to his unique method of presenting religion to the Barí. Showing why he used this method and how it was implemented is central to Bruchko.