When we talk about the history of the Pathfinders in South America, names like Brazil and Peru come up quickly. But the adventure also climbed the Andes and crossed the Chaco. In Bolivia, there's a fondly celebrated date: July 1970, in La Paz, with the Lucero club. In Paraguay, the Adventist church is old, it arrived in 1900, but the record of the first club is scarcer. This article gathers what's confirmed in official sources and states plainly where the history still needs better documentation.
Where it all came from: 1946, 1950, and Peru in 1955
Before reaching Bolivia and Paraguay, the movement had already traveled a long road. The first organized clubs were born in Southern California in 1946, when John Hancock, then a youth leader, helped shape the program's identity and visual look, including the famous triangular emblem. In 1950, the General Conference of the Adventist Church officially adopted the club worldwide.
In the United States, the name adopted was Pathfinders. As the program spread, it took on names in the language of each place: Desbravadores in Brazil and Conquistadores in Spanish-speaking countries. That's why, in Bolivia and Paraguay, the clubs are known as Conquistadores, the very same movement known elsewhere as Pathfinders.
The gateway into South America was Peru: on April 4, 1955, the club at the Miraflores Church in Lima was organized under the leadership of Nercida de Ruiz. It was the first Pathfinder club on the continent, and the starting point from which the idea spread, country by country.
Bolivia: the Lucero club lights up in La Paz
Bolivia's history has a carefully preserved chapter. In July 1970, tied to the Villa Copacabana Adventist Church in the city of La Paz, the Conquistadores club Lucero was born, considered Bolivia's first Pathfinder club. It began small and full of purpose: nine members under the leadership of teacher Mario Orellana.
The club's founding was authorized by the JMV (Voluntary Missionary Youth) department of the Bolivian Mission, headed by teacher Alfredo Quiroz. Still in 1970, the club held its first Investiture ceremony, setting the pace clubs would follow from then on.
Even before 1970, seeds had already been planted. Around 1946, at the Adventist school in Cochabamba, so-called progressive JMV classes were already running, with levels marked by colored scarves. It wasn't yet a club in today's mold, but it was the ground where the idea matured until it sprouted in La Paz.
"Nine children, one teacher, and a neighborhood church: that's how the movement that today has a presence across all of Bolivia began."On the Lucero club, La Paz, 1970
Bolivia: from the mountains to the whole country
After Lucero, the movement gained momentum. Already by 1971, new clubs emerged in La Paz, and growth continued across the country, reaching regions like Santa Cruz in the following years. Teacher Mario Orellana, Lucero's pioneer, remained an active figure in this expansion.
A memorable milestone of this phase was Lucero's first campout, held in August 1971, in the mountainous region between Unduavi and Chulumani, the famous Bolivian Yungas, where the Andes begin their descent toward the rainforest. Camping in that landscape, with its challenging altitude and terrain, helped forge the adventurous identity of Bolivia's Conquistadores.
It's worth noting that some dates for later clubs appear slightly differently depending on the source. That's why we stick here to the most consistent information, Lucero's founding in 1970 and the first campout in 1971, and avoid pinning down numbers where accounts diverge.
Paraguay: an old church, a discreet record
Paraguay has a long-standing Adventist presence: the work began in 1900, when Pastor Snyder landed at the port of Asunción, becoming the country's first Adventist pastor. Shortly after, in 1901, the first baptisms were recorded. In other words, the church that would give rise to the clubs has been in Paraguay for more than a century.
Despite this deep root, the exact date of Paraguay's first Pathfinder club is poorly documented in the open sources we consulted. Unlike Bolivia, which preserves a name, a place, and a month, Paraguay doesn't have, at least publicly, such a precise founding milestone. We'd rather say so honestly than invent a date.
What is certain is the outcome: today Paraguay is home to around 100 Conquistadores clubs, organized under the Paraguayan Union. The movement is alive and growing, even if its birth certificate still needs research in local archives before it can be written down with a date and a name.
Paraguay: what recent milestones tell us
Even without a founding date, the vitality of the Paraguayan movement is clear from its recent milestones. The 1st National Camporee of the Paraguayan Union took place in October 2012, in the city of Luque, gathering hundreds of Pathfinders and counselors from dozens of clubs across the country.
Paraguay also shows up at major South American gatherings: the country has sent delegations of around a thousand Pathfinders to regional camporees, showing that despite being one of the smaller unions in the South American Division, its Adventist youth are engaged and active.
These recent numbers help tell the story a different way: not through a start date, which still needs to be recovered, but through today's concrete presence. It's also an invitation for local clubs and historians to document and preserve their own origins.
"Sometimes a movement's history is proven less by its start date and more by the life it has today."On the Pathfinders in Paraguay