The Guaraní nation in the 21st century

D.Anton

The Guaraní people, closely related to the Tupi, were one of the most numerous in South America. The natural environment of the Guaraní is the jungle where they grow their crops (cassava, sweet potatoes, corn) and use the abundant rivers to fish. Because the soils of the jungle (ferrallitic) are of low fertility and can not stand many years of uninterrupted crops, the jungle-farming peoples such as the Guarani must change their villages with some frequency. This feature does not lend itself to the development of cities or political entities of the state type. For that reason the Guarani territories were constituted by hundreds of communities scattered in the tropical South American region interspersed with populations of different jungle ethnicities (such as the Arawak peoples).

During the conquest and colonization the Guarani were eliminated, enslaved, reduced in religious missions and in all cases displaced from their traditional territories. The Guarani who survived took refuge in the depths of the forests, for which reason they were called "guaraníes monteses", or in peripheral zones to the tropical jungles.

In the last decades the felling of forests for livestock or agricultural conversion forced many resistant communities to migrate in different directions.

In the 21st century (2019), several Guarani nations survive in South America with a total population of more than 300,000 people.

The main ones are the following.

Guarani Ñandeva or Ava Chiripa: they are generally located in eastern Paraguay and in the states of Paraná and São Paulo in Brazil. It is a town that has been partially integrated. In some villages they have suffered the onslaught of churches. First it was the catholic church, now they are the evangelical cults. These "preachers" have sought to reduce spirituality and traditional Guarani rites with partial success. In any case the ñanderekó (way of being Guaraní) still subsists. The ñandeva are approximately 25,000 of which about 13,000 are in Brazil and the rest in Paraguay

Pai Tavyterá or Guarani Kaiová: these are communities that survive in northeastern Paraguay and the state of Mato Grosso do sul in Brazil. They are villages that have been pushed and displaced by agriculture and grazing, being reduced to small reserves in areas of low productivity. In Mato Grosso, many Kaiova communities have had to travel to cities, such as Dourados, where they live with other indigenous communities (eg Terenas) in conditions of extreme poverty and discrimination. This situation has led to the suicide of many young Kaoivas. Its approximate total population is 50,000.

Mbya Guaraní: they are “Guarani monteses” who were forced to migrate from their traditional jungle territories. In addition to the destruction of their habitat the Mbyá had the existential religious incentive embodied in the search for the Yvy Mara He'y (which was translated as the "land without evil", but rather it is "the jungle without traces" or the " virgin jungle "). Due to this conception the Mbya communities migrated in many directions. Some settled on the banks of rivers, others on the side of the roads, and even in the suburbs of cities. There are Mbya communities in eastern Paraguay, in all the southern states of Brazil, in Argentina (in the province of Misiones) and some arrived in Uruguay in the south and Bolivia in the north. They are the Guaraní nation that has most firmly preserved the religious traditions, they develop their ceremonies, when they can cultivate their plots in the traditional way, build their temples, and resist the bureaucratic obligations of the states (such as obtaining identification documents, sending children to the schools of the states in which they live, to be vaccinated, etc.).  They are very distrustful people and rightly so. Its total population is approximately 30,000.

Chiriguanos or Ava Guaranís: they are Guarani who in the days before the conquest moved west facing the Inca expansionism settling in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains and adjacent plains. After the conquest and colonization suffered the Spanish encomiendas and later, the domain of the authorities of the Republic of Bolivia. The Ava Guaraní people rebelled against the Bolivian government at the end of the 19th century. The rebels were massacred in Kuruyuki and their buruvichá (leader), Apiaguaiqui Tumpa (or Tüpa), was captured, tortured and shot. It is estimated that more than 6,000 ava guaraní died in these battles. On January 28 of this year (2017) 125 years after the massacre, for the first time, the president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, went to the ava communities to honor the martyr of the Chiriguana struggle with the cruel Bolivian Creole elites. Currently in the Ava Guaraní communities there are around 30,000 people.

Ache Guayakís: the Aché Guayakí or simply Aché (they do not accept the term guayaki) is made up of communities from the eastern region of Paraguay that have lived there since time immemorial. It is a village older than the Guarani. The Guarani settled in Paraguay and areas of influence about 2,000 years ago. The Atchei were already there a long time ago. They had their own language but gradually they became guaranized and developed their own syncretic dialect. They have been displaced from their traditional territories and live in a situation of discrimination and extreme poverty. They are located in Paraguay and their total population is about 2,000.

Guarayos (Guaranized Chanés): they are villages Chané (Arawak) of the foot of mount of the sierras of Santa Cruz. In times before the conquest, they were invaded by the Ava Guaraníes initiating a process of guaranization. With the policies of the new Bolivian government they have managed to develop elective and autonomous authorities. Its total population is approximately 15,000 and increasing. They live in the department of Santa Cruz, Chiquisaca and Tarija. In Argentina there are about 2,500 guarayos.

Izoceños (Guaranized Chane). They are also guaranized Chané peoples, but they were the ones who suffered least from the Ava Guarani influence. They inhabit the Izozog marshes, which are the most extensive wetlands in the region (600,000 hectares) in the Department of Santa Cruz in Bolivia.  They maintain a consolidated ethnic government in a territory with its ecological system practically intact, unchanged by commercial activities. The region is dominated by the Parapetí River, which dries completely to the height of the first isoceanic communities in the winter months. I oso oso, in Guarani, "the water that is dried up". At least 80% of those who live in the vicinity of the course of the river are native, fully integrated into the basic cycles of the ecosystem. They live by fishing -when the river has water, although they keep part of what was obtained well into the dry season-, subsistence hunting, gathering and forest resources. They also develop agriculture and livestock in a family and collective way. The political organization is based on the captaincies. The maximum authority is the "Tenta Ruvisa Guasu" (the one who takes care of or guides the community), whose charge is usually hereditary, its function is that of conciliator or mediator between the Izoceños and the public and private authorities; He does not decide, he executes the will of the people who, through assemblies, deliberate and make decisions. There is a Great Captain that represents all the communities of the Izozog - currently 17 along the Parapetí River -, it is assisted by the Captains of Alto and Bajo Izozog. They administer a sub-office and the Kaa Iya Park in the Bolivian Chaco. Although the Catholic Church has been active in the region since the 1960s, it has not been possible to eradicate the worldview and indigenous thought that today is closer to the Guaraní than to the Chané. Like the Guarayos, with the policies of the new Bolivian government the Izceños have managed to develop elective and autonomous authorities. Its population is estimated at 30,000 people.