There are not a lot of websites about the Guaraní on the web. In addition to doing a normal Google search, I also searched via the SRJC library web site. I recommend the following 3 websites on this topic.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07045a.htm
http://www.santarosa.edu/library/ftdb/
click on Encyclopaedia Brittanica Online - off campus, enter your user name and password (any student can obtain one), enter the site and then paste in this link:
http://search.eb.com/eb/article?tocId=9038310&query=Guaraní&ct=
http://www.survival-international.org/Guaraní.htm
The first website is a religious website called New Advent. At first I was very skeptical about the information I read on this website because of the pro-Catholic history slant. I then realized that the Jesuits had the earliest contact with the Guaraní Indians of South America and thus would be a reliable source of historical accounts. Other articles that I read about the Guaraní confirmed information found on this website.
The second website is an article found on Encyclopaedia Brittanica Online. An encyclopedia is a credible source as all information must be researched and authenticated prior to publication.
The third website is run by Survival International, a worldwide organization founded in 1969 dedicated to helping tribal people around the world. They seem to have credible, current information about the Guaraní as well as other tribes around the world. They provide information on writing the government of Brazil to plead the cause of the Guaraní people. There is a listing in the British Hutchinson Encyclopaedia about this group, which adds credibility to the group and their website.
Three interesting facts:
• The Guaraní were first contacted by the Spanish in 1537 in the areas of present day Paraguay, parts of Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina. The Guaraní lived in settlements and had a chief. They farmed and hunted and practiced some cannibalism. They were deeply spiritual and had a shaman.
• A governor later ordered intermarriage with the Guaraní Indian women and also enslavement. Jesuits came along and put the Guaraní Indians in missions (called reductions) to protect them from slavery, but having them in a central area made it easier for slavers to capture them. The Guaraní eventually fled the missions to the safety of the forests.
• Guaraní is an official language of Paraguay as so many citizens have Guaraní blood. In Brazil, the Guaraní have tried to regain their ancestral land. They hate being trapped on small pockets of land surrounded by electric fences while ranches control vast areas. The depression that resulted as a lack of success in gaining their ancestral lands led to 320 suicides from 1986 to 2000, the youngest person who committed suicide was only 9 years old. In October 2004, “the president of Brazil ratified the Guaraní-Kaiowá territory of Panambizinho.”
The Guaraní, like many indigenous people in the world were treated very badly by those who came to their native lands. First the Guaraní were forced to intermarry to keep the tribal links weak. Next they were forced into slavery and into mission. Finally they have struggled for more land to live on so they can keep their tribal identities and customs. The Guaraní have been treated very badly over the last 500 years. Freire’s desire to give a voice to the oppressed would apply to the needs of Guaraní. They have been truly oppressed by those with privilege and giving them a voice through teaching could help them. I was very moved by reading about the plight of the Guaraní. I could see that the organization Survival International had given a voice the Guaraní and with that voice the Guaranís along with the Kaiowá Indians now had a territory to call their own.
