This article proposes a reflection on the turbulent times experienced missionary in the region of Rio Grande do Sul and its implications for collective memory and the imagination of the storytellers who live there. The memory of many conflicts that occurred in that territory - since the New World conquest process, through the building of baroque seven cities in the Jesuit-Guarani areas, to the various revolutions that stirred their borders - remains transfigured in mythic images that re-presenting the marvelous bestiary, the presence of spirits and terror in the missionary landscape.
collective memory; imaginary; missions; Baroque; Rio Grande do Sul.