Guaraní people

A Guarani family captured by slave hunters. By Jean Baptiste Debret

In 1537, Gonzalo de Mendoza traversed through Paraguay to about the present Brazilian frontier. On his return, he made acquaintance with the Guarani and founded the city of Asunción, later the capital of Paraguay. The first governor of the Spanish territory of Guayrá initiated a policy of intermarriage between European men and indigenous women; the descendants of these matches characterize the Paraguayan nation today. The Laws of the Indies forbade slavery in Hispanic America.

The first two Jesuits, Father Barcena and Father Angulo, came to what is now the State of Paraná, Southern Brazil, in 1585, by land from the west. Others soon followed, and a Jesuit college was established at Asunción. In 1608, as a result of the Jesuit protest against the enslavement of the indigenous population, King Philip III of Spain gave authority to the Jesuits to convert and colonize the tribes of Guayrá. In the early period, the name Paraguay was loosely used to designate the entire river basin, including parts of what are now Uruguay, Argentina, Bolivia, and Brazil.

Exploring expeditions were accompanied by Franciscan friars. Early in the history of Asunción, Father Luis de Bolaños translated the catechism into the Guarani language and preached to Guarani people who resided in the area around the settlement. In 1588–89 St. Francis Solanus crossed the Chaco wilderness from Peru and stopped at Asunción, but gave no attention to the Guarani. His departure left the Jesuits alone with their missionary work, and to defend the natives against slave dealers.[10] The Jesuit provincial Torres arrived in 1607, and "immediately placed himself at the head of those who had opposed the cruelties at all times exercised over the natives".[11]

Today, the Guarani language is the official language of Paraguay, Bolivia, Argentina, and Mato Grosso do Sul in Brazil. As of 2012, an estimated 90% of the people in Paraguay spoke Guarani.

The center depot of the slave trade was the town of São Paulo. Originally a rendezvous place for Portuguese and Dutch pirates, it later became a refuge for criminals, who mixed with Native American and African women and actively participated in the capturing and selling of Guaranis as slaves.

To oppose these armed and organized robbers, the tribes had only their bows and arrows. Many Guaranis were slain or enslaved by the slave hunters active in Brazil during those years.

Contemporary Guarani shaman

In 1607, Spanish King Philip III sent a letter to the governor of Rio de Plata Hernandarias de Saavedra to instruct him to send the newly arrived Jesuits to begin their missionary work.[12] With Spanish royal protection, the first Guayrá mission, Loreto, was established on the Paranapanema by Father Joseph Cataldino and Father Simon Macerata in 1610. The Jesuit priest Father Ruiz de Montoya discussed the difficulties of spreading the missions and his interactions with the Guarani in his book The Spiritual Conquest. Ruiz de Montoya wrote that one of the Guarani caciques Miguel Artiguaye initially refused to join the missions until threatened by another Indigenous group. Artiguaye then returned to the mission and begged for protection.[13] As the mission provided the only real possible protection against enslavement, the Guarani flocked there in such numbers that twelve more missions were created in rapid succession, containing all 40,000 Guaranis. The Jesuits were seen as intermediaries between the Spanish authorities and the Guarani caciques.[14] The Jesuit missions needed new converts and required workers to assist in the maintenance of the missions. The Guarani helped grow the crops to sustain the missions' populations and also produce goods to sell and trade to fund the missions.[15] Stimulated by this success, Father González and two companions journeyed to the east bank of the Uruguay River (now the country of Uruguay) and established two or three small missions in 1627. The local tribes killed the priests and the neophytes and burned the missions.

Slave raiders saw the Guarani missions as "merely an opportunity of capturing more Indians than usual at a haul".[16] In 1629, an army of Paulistas surrounded the San Antonio mission, set fire to the church and other buildings, killed those who resisted or were too young or too old to travel, and carried the rest into slavery. San Miguel and Jesus Maria quickly met the same fate. Eventually, reinforcements gathered by Father Cataldino drove off the slavers. Within two years, all but two of the establishments were destroyed, and 60,000 Christian converts were carried off for sale to São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The attacks usually took place on Sunday, when the whole mission population was gathered for Mass. The priests were usually spared, but several were killed.

Only a few thousand natives were left of nearly 100,000 just before the Paulista invasion. Father Antonio Ruiz de Montoya purchased 10,000 cattle, and was able to convert the natives from farmers to stock raisers. Soon under Fathers Rançoncier and Romero the Uruguay missions were re-established. In 1632 the Mamelucos discovered a new line of attack from the south. In 1638, despite some successful resistance, all twelve of the missions beyond the Uruguay River were abandoned and their people consolidated with the community of the Missions Territory. In the last raid Father Alfaro was killed.

In the same year Father Montoya, after having successfully opposed the attempts of the governor and the bishop of Asunción to reduce the natives' liberties and the mission administration, sailed for Europe. On this trip he was successful in obtaining letters from Pope Urban VIII forbidding the enslavement of the missionaries under the severest church penalties, and from King Philip IV of Spain, permitting Guaranis to carry firearms for defense and to be trained in their use by veteran soldiers who had become Jesuits.

When the next Paulista army, 800 strong, attacked the missions in 1641 they were met by a body of Christian Guarani armed with guns on the Acaray River. In two battles, the Paulista army suffered a defeat that warded off invasions for ten years. In 1651, the war between Spain and Portugal encouraged another Paulista attack to gain territory for Portugal. Before Spanish troops could arrive to help defend the missions, the fathers themselves led a Guarani army against the enemy. In 1732, at the time of their greatest prosperity, the Guarani missions were guarded by a well-drilled and well-equipped army of 7,000 Guaranis. On more than one occasion this mission army, accompanied by their priests, defended the Spanish colony.

In 1732, there were 30 Guarani missions with 141,252 converted Guaranis. Two years later a smallpox epidemic killed approximately 30,000 of them. In 1765, a second outbreak killed approximately 12,000 more, and then spread westward through the tribes of the Chaco.

In 1750 the Treaty of Madrid between Spain and Portugal transferred to Portugal the territory of the seven missions on the Uruguay River, and the Guaranis were ordered to leave; they refused, being familiar with the Portuguese as slave hunters. Seven years of guerrilla warfare killed thousands of them (see Guarani War). The Jesuits secured a royal decree restoring the disputed mission territory to Spanish jurisdiction. Two missions in 1747 and a third in 1760 were established in the sub-tribe of the Itatínes, or Tobatines, in central Paraguay, far north of the older mission group. In one of these, San Joaquín de los Tobatines (founded 1747), Martin Dobrizhoffer ministered for eight years.

In 1767, the Jesuits were expelled from Spanish dominions by royal edict. Fearing the outcome of this decision, viceroy Antonio María Bucareli y Ursúa entrusted the execution of the mandate in 1768 to two officers with a force of 500 troops. Despite their mission army of 14,000, the Jesuits submitted without resistance. Guarani caciques from Mission San Luis wrote a letter to the Governor of Buenos Aires on February 28, 1768, to ask for the Jesuits to stay. They wrote, "The fathers of the Company of Jesus know how to get along with us, and we with them, we are happy serving God and the King."[17] The Guarani request was denied, but the letter highlights the value of the relationship the Jesuits and Guarani had established in the region.

Ruins of the church at São Miguel das Missões, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.

The missions were turned over to priests of other orders, chiefly Franciscans, but under a code of regulations drawn up by the viceroy and modeled largely on the Jesuit system. Under chaotic political regulation, the missions rapidly declined. Most Guaranis returned to the countryside. According to the official census of 1801, fewer than 45,000 Guaranis remained; cattle, sheep, and horses had disappeared; the fields and orchards were overgrown or cut down, and the churches were in ruins. The long period of revolutionary struggle that followed completed the destruction. In 1814, the mission Indians numbered 8,000, and in 1848 the few who remained were declared citizens.

A 2018 study in The Quarterly Journal of Economics found that "in areas of former Jesuit presence—within the Guarani area—educational attainment was higher and remains so (by 10–15%) 250 years later. These educational differences have also translated into incomes that are 10% higher today. The identification of the positive effect of the Guarani Jesuit missions emerges after comparing them with abandoned Jesuit missions and neighboring Franciscan Guarani missions. The enduring effects observed are consistent with transmission mechanisms of structural transformation, occupational specialization, and technology adoption in agriculture."[18]

The Guarani people in Bolivia, called Chiriguanos, lived in the foothills of the Andes and had a different history than most other Guarani people. Noted for their warlike character, the Chiriguanos were hostile in turn to the Inca Empire, the Spanish, and the independent state of Bolivia from the late 15th to the late 19th century. The Jesuit missions had little success among the Chiriguanos, although Franciscans in the 19th century attracted numerous converts. The Chririguanos were not finally pacified until the defeat in 1892 of forces led by their messianic leader Apiaguaiki Tumpa in the Battle of Kuruyuki.[19]

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  A Guarani community called Taperigua, in Rodeíto, San Pedro, Jujuy, at the Calilegua National Park, Argentina
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  The Ruins of San Ignacio Miní, part of the Jesuit Missions of the Guarani people, near the Ruins of Jesús de Tavarangue. Today, a tourist spot.
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  A sign in Guarani language at the kitchen of a bakery, in Posadas. As it is described in Spanish, the literal translation is: place where bread is made

Indigenous Guarani in Argentina fight to protect their ancestral lands from illegal logging and government neglect.[20] A group formed by members of the Guarani community called "Los Rumberos," or “The Patrollers,” safeguard the forest to deter further encroachment.[21]

The Guarani people and culture persist. Many are descendants of mission exiles. In Paraguay, Guarani lineage predominates in the population and the Guarani language is spoken in most departments to this day.

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  Pai Tavytera people in Amambay Department, Paraguay, 2012
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  Through the Paraguayan diaspora, the Guarani culture can be appreciated in almost every corner of the world. In the picture, the Paraguayan folk dance group Alma Guaraní “Guarani Soul” is attending the International Folklore Festival Vitosha in Sofia, Bulgaria.

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  Tereré, a typical Guarani infusion of yerba mate, being taken in San Rafael de Velasco, a historical territory of the Guarani in Bolivia.
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  (Guarani: guavira "fruit bush") Club Deportivo Guabirá fans. The name of the club is one example of the impact the Guarani left in the Bolivian culture.
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  The flag of the Autonomous Guarani Territory of Charagua, Bolivia

Guarani medicine man holding cross and maraca

The Eastern Bolivian Guarani, being one of many indigenous peoples in Bolivia, live in the Gran Chaco, near the Pilcomayo River, in southeastern Bolivia close to the Paraguayan and Argentine borders, including portions of Santa Cruz, Chuquisaca, Tarija Departments. This region reaches nearly as far north as Santa Cruz de la Sierra and includes portions of the Guapay, Parapetí, and Ɨtɨka Guasu (or Pilcomayo) River valleys.[22] The Bolivian Guarani are represented by the Assembly of the Guarani People.[23] Some Guarani placenames in Bolivia: Yacuiba, Paraimiri, Itaimbeguasu, Tatarenda, Saipurú, Capirenda, Itay, Ibamiragera, Carandaytí, Ipaguasú, Abapó, Timboy, Caraparí, Urubichá, Kuruguakua, Guanay, Yaguarú and Rogagua.

There are three principal subgroups of Guarani in Bolivia,[24][25] marked by dialectical and historical differences:

• Around fifty thousand Ava Guarani principally in the Andean foothills. Ava means man in Guarani, and thus Ava Guarani has become the name for numerous Guarani ethnic groups in Paraguay and Brazil.[26]
• Simba (Quechua: braid) Guarani who live near the Pilcomayo River and have been identified by men maintaining a tradition of braided hair, although most young men no longer uphold this practice.[27] They are sometimes called Guarani katui (Guarani: Guarani par excellence)
• The Izoceño Guarani or Tapɨi of Izozog who live in the region of Ɨsoso or Izozo on the Parapetí River