The Tupi-Guarani Nations
D.Antón
About 3,000 years ago the Tupi-Guarani ethnic groups expanded across the tropical and subtropical forests of the east and southeast of the South American continent. The Spanish and Portuguese invaders called them "Guarani" in the southeastern regions  (current states of Sao Paulo, Parana, Santa Catarina and Mato Grosso do Sul, in Brazil, eastern Paraguay and the provinces of Misiones and Corrientes in Argentina, and  "Tupi" along the Atlantic coast of Brazil where they occupied discontinuously the coastal territory North to the mouth of the Amazon River.

While it is difficult to  accurately estimate the total Tupi-Guarani population, they were probably several millions, perhaps more than ten millions spread through about 5-6 million square kilometers.
Locally the tupi-guaraní societies were composed of many communities, some of which were very numerous (perhaps up to several tens of thousands).
The Tupinamba, who inhabited the Atlantic coastal areas, were described by the Portuguese invaders and their language served as a basis for the lingua franca of Brazil during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries .
Another important group were the Carios, who inhabited the eastern bank of the Paraguay River, the "Chiriguanos" (or "Ava Guarani ') on the eastern slopes and foothills of the highlands plateau (present Bolivia),  the Parana Delta Guarani (Chandules), the Tupinikin and Potiguara the northeastern coast of Brazil today, the Cocamas, the Ñengatús and the Omaguas in the Amazon, among others.
Tupi-Guarani communities lived in villages consisting of several longhouses, which were used for years until the termites or other causes of degradation determined their abandonment. At that time they moved to another place, where established a new village and "opened" terrain for new crops in clearings."Abandoned" areas gradually reintegrated to the jungle ecosystem.
The Tupi-Guarani longhouses, were large, housed a set of "extended" families, sleeping in hammocks in the large huts.
From the productive point of view, Tupi-Guarani were farmers and fishermen. They also hunted  and gathered in the rich forest environment.  They navigated rivers, lakes and coastal waters and traded in long canoes built from large hollow logs.

The Tupi-Guarani were warring nations and periodically fought their neighbors, leading to numerous conflicts between communities. The war caused many deaths, usually men, who perished in the actions themselves, or after being taken prisoners, executed and eaten ritually. The lack of men favored polygamous practices. The chiefs could choose second or third wives divorcing their first ones.  In turn, the widowed or divorced wives, would instructed younger men on sexual and family issues.

The traditional Guarani culture was (and still is) deeply spiritual. It manifests itself mainly through its  his ñande reko or "way of being", which was a full expression of their identity, which could be ñande reko katu (way of being authentic and true) and ñande marangatu reko (way of being virtuous). The Tupi-Guarani religious thought is structured around the search for the "land without evil". In that sense it is a "moving" village, and at the same time possesses a worldview rooted in nature.
Tupi-Guarani nations deeply suffered the conquest and the population declined sharply everywhere. Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of people were enslaved, especially to work in the sugar cane plantations of northeastern Brazil. Another important part of the population was "reduced" in religious missions, losing much of their ancestral religion and customs. Millions died from disease and repressive wars imposed on them by the Portuguese and Spanish invaders.
However,  many Tupi-Guarani communities  survived migrating and hiding deep in the jungle territories.

At present the Tupi-Guarani native world is constituted by several surviving nations: the Kaiová-Pai Tavytera  in Mato Grosso and Paraguay, Ava Chiripá en Paraguay, Mbya guarani in Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia and Uruguay, Ava Guarani or Chiriguanos in the current departments of Santa Cruz, Chuquisaca and Tarija (Bolivia) and Salta, Argentina, and the Tapieté and Guarayos in the Chaco region (especially in western Paraguay and southeastern Bolivia). There are also several surviving Tupi communities in the Amazon region and in isolated spots along the Atlantic coast of Brazil.
From the book "First Nations of the South", D.Anton, Piriguazu Ediciones

Hell on Earth: Maranhão (Brazil) in the seventeenth century

Father Antonio Vieira vindicated
D.Antón
Portuguese rule in Brazil represented one of the most systematic and widespread genocides in the history of the colonization of America. Millions of people from native communities were enslaved, put to work in plantations and mines and forced to satisfy the wishes of the Portuguese settlers in every imaginable way. Many ndividuals,  previously free, healthy, became usable and disposable marchandises.

The paradise on Earth described by Morelli, Gabriel de Foigny, Fracois Salignac, Jean Jacques Rousseau and others became a living hell.
Jesuit Father Antonio Vieira witnessed the continuous abuses and indiscriminate ill treatment of native populations in Maranhão and eastern Amazon (Brazil) and recounts his imprssions in a vivid and illustrative manner.
Antonio Vieira arrived to Maranhão in 1652. His life was a constant struggle for the freedom of slaves and racial and religious tolerance.
In addition to the Portuguese language, he spoke Tupi, kimbundu (from African slaves) and various Amazonian languages. In Maranhão he found one of the most devastating exploitation of native slaves and lawlessness panoramas that could be found.
He did not hesitate to confront the planters and traders and remind them some principles of the Christian religion that, supposedly, they professed.
"What different price is paying the devil for human souls compared to what he was offered beforehand! There is no market in the world where you can get souls cheaper than here in your own land. In the Gospels, he offered all the kingdoms of the world by a soul; in Maranhão, the devil does not need to offer even a tenth of that fot all souls. It is not necessary to provide worlds or realms; it is not necessary to provide cities or towns or villages. All you have to do is offer a few Indians Tapuia and immediately he will be fervently worshiped. The cheapest opportunity! An Indian by a soul! That Indian will be your slave for a few days while he or she survives, but your soul will be enslaved for eternity. This is the contract that you make with the devil. Not only they accept but will pay money for it. Christians, nobles and people of Maranhão: do you know what God wants from you during Lent? 
He wants you to break the chains of injustice and release those who are captives and oppressed. These are the sins of Maranhão. This is what God commanded me to tell you. 
Christians, God ordered me to clarify these issues and I do. You are all in mortal sin; all of you live in a state of condemnation; and you all will go straight to hell. Indeed, there are many there now and you will meet with them if you don't change your life ...
Any man who deprives another of his freedom and,, being able to do so, doesn't do it is condemned. Therefore, all of  you or nearly all are condemned. You can tell me that even if this were true, you did not know that and you did it in good faith. I deny it! you will be condemmed! 
Some will be condemned for their knowledge, others condemmed for their doubt and still others for their ignorance. But all of you will be condemmed! "

Some years later, in 1661, Vieira was expelled from Brazil and Portugal, was arrested by the Inquisition and accused of committing "egalitarian" heresies.
Six years later, already released, he resumed his fight for the rights of slaves that would continue until his death on July 18, 1697.
From "Amerrique, the Orphans of Paradise" Danilo Antón, Piriguazú Editions.