Jesuit Reflections on their Overseas Missions
When you think of Jesuits in their missions around the world, you—the casual reader—might not think of Plato or ancient Greek authors. Yet two of these…
Category: Territory Guarani
Paraguay: Un país en una lengua misteriosa y singular
English + Español
If you arrived in a country where almost 90% of the inhabitants speak Guarani, an official and national language along with Spanish but do not identify themselves as “Indian” or aboriginal…
Territory Guarani: Editor’s Letter
DRCLAS receptions are bustling affairs, sparkling with ample liquor, Latin American tidbits and compelling conversations. It was at one of these receptions that Jorge Silvetti and Graciela Silvestri first approached me casually regarding an issue about the Guarani…
Radical Cities: Across Latin America in Search of New Architecture
Growing up in the midst of the Irvine Company’s unimaginative southern California, without exposure to anything other than strip malls and suburban…
Transformed Worlds
In 1610, a small group of Jesuits began what would become known as one of the largest indigenous evangelism experiences in colonial America. The effort began…
The Many Meanings of Yerba Mate
I first encountered yerba mate as a Peace Corps volunteer in rural Paraguay. Everywhere I went, and at all times of the day, I saw small groups of people…
Doña Lucía: La Biografía no Autorizada
The day Lucía Hiriart returned to her native Chile from Ecuador in 1959 was not a happy one. With five young children in tow, she and her husband Augusto…
The Invention of the Guarani Aquifer System
On October 19, 1979, the presidents of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay gathered in Asunción to sign an agreement setting general principles for the utilization of…
Guaranis and Jesuits
The territory we currently identify as “Guarani” is presently divided between Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. Although this partition of a community…
The Guarani and the Iguaçu National Park
In September 2005, a group of 55 Guarani Indians occupied a forested section of the Iguaçu National Park in the state of Paraná in southern Brazil. You may…
Cosmopolitan Desires
In January 2015, shortly after terrorist attacks in Paris, the slogan “Je suis Charlie” began to circulate on Twitter and to appear on demonstrators’ signs in Paris and…
First Take: Shaping the Guarani Territory
English + Español
The stretch of land in Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay originally occupied by the Guarani is an extended region in the heart of the River Plate basin, whose…
Beyond the Dam
English + Español
The construction of the immense Yacyretá dam took place on a territory with a very powerful story. The transformation of the society and the environment of the place where it was built did…
Along Yvyrupa’s Paths
English + Español
I started living with the Guarani in September 1978, after the inhabitants of a small village on the outskirts of São Paulo built a modest wooden room as their own school and had asked the…
A Country of Music and Poetry The View from Paraguay
English + Español
As a Paraguayan singer and composer, I had the privilege of performing once with Mercedes Sosa in Asunción. When I visited her at a later date in Buenos …
Animating Peripheries
English + Español
The Museo del Barro in Asunción immerses the visitor in a collection of images and objects, often in a somewhat disordered fashion, not all categorized or…
Yacyretá
English + Español
A hydroelectric plant is about much more than water and energy. It is about community and environment, urban planning and resource development. It is…
Y marane’ÿ rekávo
English + Español
It is not only the earth that is filled with impurities. So is the water. Lifeless waters extend throughout the earth, and not only on its surface. Like cholesterol-clogged…
Total War in Indigenous Territories
English + Español
Fue esa la primera guerra total en suelo americano, tanto en el sentido técnico de E. Ludendorff –una completa subordinación de la política a la guerra, en el…
The Road Towards Universal Coverage in Mexico
English + Español
Mexico has taken gigantic steps towards universal health coverage in the last decade. In 2012, a national program called Popular Insurance came into effect…
