The Paraguayan Chaco, Mennonites and Ayoreos
They came out of there in rows, almost naked, many seemed sick ... one day they suddenly appeared at the supermarket door while we were doing the shopping. But there is no one in there, there is nothing…
Marilyn says she feels Paraguayan; could have called me German or Russian-European, or just mennonite, but it says Paraguayan, He says it with an accent that could be from Hamburg and dragging his eyeeeeeeeeee a lot as he walks among the graves of his great-grandparents. They too woke up one day being Russians or Germans and shortly after Paraguayans died, things that happen in El Chaco.
The Paraguayan Chaco, 200.000 km2 of it is not very well known what, first sparse forest, then dust and bushes and then more dust and prickly pears. Hours later the bus leaves you shaking your clothes on Philadelphia's main avenue. The streets here are a succession of low houses through which the jeeps roar, life passes between agricultural machinery and seed shops, shiny tractors, conversations about improbable rain and yawning indigenous people in portals. There is also a museum, two churches, posters translated into german and thousands of blue eyes.
«In El Chaco there is nothing, only Indians and ants ”they told them.
The first Mennonites arrived in the Chaco in 1927, of German origin many of them were refugees from the communist Soviet Union, dedicated to religious teaching and protected by the Tsar, after the revolution they were deported to labor camps in Siberia. They decided to try their luck in Paraguay and when they made an offer to the Government for those parched parcels of land they were received between disbelief and ridicule. "Do what you want, but in El Chaco there is nothing, only Indians and ants ”they told them.
They didn't seem to care, they reached hundreds and founded colonies; Silver Hill, Philadelphia, Neuland ... Today those neighborhoods have become cities that self-administer as independent municipalities, party venues are forbidden, excess alcohol and neglecting the gardens, the important thing here is religious life and above all business. 15.000 Mennonites who apply themselves in slaughter 360.000 cattle that produce more than 110 million liters of milk per year. Peanut acreage, sorghum, sesame, cotton and spurge reaches about 25.000 a 30.000 hectares and increases more and more. Its colonies are an injection of economic vitality for a country in great need of it and although many of the inhabitants of Philadelphia are unable to pronounce a single word in Spanish, there are currently two Mennonites as government ministers. On the door of the city museum there is a poster that summarizes his philosophy; Unit, faith and work.
Marilyn had 5 sons in 5 years, one behind the other, almost all study in Argentina although he hopes they will return one day and hopefully become agricultural engineers or farmers. They are quite permissive, no clothes from the last century or banning technology. There is nothing wrong with modernity, on the contrary. News Mennonites reaching Europe are further south, by Concepción, sometimes they have dealings with them at religious gatherings, They are quite peculiar and from time to time they mount a scandal. Last year they arrested a group of them that was dedicated to sedating women to rape them, "I guess for them I must be a heretic" he laughs as he dusts off his jeans. His great-grandparents died of a smallpox epidemic, the beginnings were very hard, There was not any water, there was hardly anything, when we got here it was only them. Do I want us to go see them?
His great-grandparents died of a smallpox epidemic
We left the graveyard behind and into a dirt lane, to the sides are endless expanses of grass and patches of undergrowth scattered here and there. The Chaco is the most deforested region on the planet, every year they disappear 200.000 hectares, a bottomless pit from which to extract stunted trees and bite off more areas of pasture for cattle. The forest mass has been almost reduced to the Defensores del Gran Chaco National Park, a thorny and impenetrable forest full of snakes and insects where temperatures exceed 50º for many days, And fraying day by day as breakfast cups across the country fill up.
The town is on the edge of the city behind the well-kept housing estates, a set of shacks made from old tents, scraps of cloth and drums, next to a soccer field where children play barefoot. Adults watch the game on broken plastic chairs. Some rise to greet us, they move slowly and suspiciously, almost everyone looks high. The dirtiest of them all comes forward and babbles a few words directed at Marilyn, he wants to know if he can offer him a job. She seems to know him and they exchange a few words in Guaraní.
He organized authentic human hunts to take them out of the forest and evangelize them
It is not known for sure how many Ayoreos are still in the forest, most have already left, the first in the fifties when the Mennonites cut down some of their land. New waves followed in the eighties and the last one in the 2004, the inhabitants of these shacks. When the Mennonites arrived, many of them fled into the bush. The New Tribes Mission a North American fundamentalist group, organized authentic human hunts to take them out of the forest and evangelize them.
How many are left inside? Two families still?
An old man covered in rags answers with a huge red birthmark on his face and a Bayern Munich cap. He dated fifteen years ago and still remembers his previous life:
-"Plus, many more, although most are sick. The shamans forbade them to eat deer meat and now they only eat honey, also from some anteater, they are slow and easy to catch, "he says, while smilingly rubbing his belly.
A few years ago, advised by missionaries, a group of Ayoreos entered to look for the remaining families to force them to leave, they couldn't even speak, They were greeted with arrows and those who returned alive brought back injuries of considerable importance.. The man shows us a long scar that runs down his arm. Many of them are their own relatives, brothers, padres, guys ... they'd like to find them before the bulldozers or the loggers, no one knows for sure what really happens in there.
They were greeted with arrows and those who returned alive brought back wounds as souvenirs
Marilyn points to a bent ancana with white hair and slanted eyes in the distance and asks if she is Hakeneten's wife., the man nods and they both smile.
We said goodbye politely before we left followed by a couple of young people who seem to have withdrawal symptoms., reddened pupils light up as you ask if we have work for them over and over again. Marilyn tells me that the lady we have just seen is a wife of the former boss, now deceased., his second wife. The missionaries forbade bigamy and the chief believed that he should choose, as this was his favorite he chose to kill the first.
“We have several associations to help Ayoreos to integrate and those who do work well but as soon as they earn some money they run to spend it on alcohol or set up brothels.. They are very good at it, they set up a brothel anywhere ".
They set up a brothel anywhere
We quietly return down the deserted road, the heat does not give up and the steam from the haze feeds the illusion of melting the horizon with the sky, a sky that in Paraguay is full of huge and still clouds like stuffed cows and so low that it seems possible to climb a ladder to choose the one you prefer. So close and so far at the same time.
-That boy who asked us for a job before ... I remember well, He was one of those who came to the supermarket that day when they came out of the forest. Just a child, he walked like a duck with his legs inward, he was hitting himself, in all the crystals, I fell and tried again, like this until he found the door open, a few days later everyone got sick. I really don't think there is anyone in there anymore, most likely they are all dead. There is nothing in there. and you can't live from nothing, not even in El Chaco.
Comments (1)
Isabel
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As always very interesting , the tales of unknown lands and peoples .
Continue delighting us with more stories….
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