Chaco Province
The Province of Chaco is a province in north-eastern Argentina. It is bordered by Salta and Santiago del Estero to the west, Formosa to the north, Corrientes to the east, Santa Fe to the south, it has an international border with the Paraguayan Department of Ñeembucú. The capital, largest city, is Resistencia. With an area of 99,633 km2, a population of 1,055,259 as of 2010, it is the twelfth most extensive, the ninth most populated, of the twenty-three Argentine provinces. Chaco Province has been among Argentina's poorest regions, presently ranks last by per capita GDP and on the Human Development Index. Chaco derives from chacú, the Quechua word used to name a hunting territory or the hunting technique used by the people of the Inca Empire. Annually, large groups of up to thirty thousand hunters would enter the territory, forming columns and circling their prey. Jesuit missioner Pedro Lozano wrote in his book Chorographic Description of the Great Chaco Gualamba, published in Cordoba, Spain in 1733: "Its etymology indicates the multitude of nations that inhabit that region.
When they go hunting, the Indians gather from many parts the guanacos. However, the earliest known mention of the term in a document was in a letter written to Fernando Torres de Portugal y Mesía, Viceroy of Peru, dated in 1589, by the Governor of Tucumán, Juan Ramírez de Velasco, who referred to the region as Chaco Gualamba; the province of Chaco lies within the southern part of the Gran Chaco region, a vast lowland plain that covers territories in Argentina and Bolivia. Chaco Province ranks as the twelfth largest Argentinian province; the highest ground in the province is the most western, near the municipality of Taco Pozo, at an elevation of 272 m above sea level. The Paraná and Paraguay rivers separate Chaco province from Corrientes Province and the Republic of Paraguay. To the north, the river Bermejo forms another natural border, dividing Chaco Province from Formosa Province. In the south, the border follows the 28th parallel south, separating the region from Santa Fe Province, while in the west it borders Salta and Santiago del Estero.
Other important rivers include: the Negro, Tapenagá, Salado, all tributaries or anabranches of the river Paraná. The province has a subtropical climate, it is divided in two different climate zones: a more humid one in the east and a drier subtropical climate in the center and west. The eastern parts of the province have a humid subtropical climate with no dry season. In the west where precipitation is lower, it has a subtropical climate with a dry winter and is classified as a semi-arid climate due to potential evapotranspiration exceeding precipitation. In the most humid parts of the province, precipitation falls throughout the year with no dry season; these areas receive around 1,400 millimetres of precipitation per year. Precipitation decreases become more concentrated in the summer months. Mean annual temperatures range between 21 to 23 °C north to south. Summers are hot with temperatures that can reach up to 38 to 41 °C in the eastern parts of the province; the western parts experience more variation in temperatures due continental influences.
During winters, incursions of cold, polar air from the south can lead to frosts and temperatures that fall below freezing. Being under an area of high solar radiation during summer, a consequence is that a low pressure system forms over the province during summer. Humidity in the province is high due to its climate in the north, the wettest portion of the province. Most of the winds that transport humid air come from the east. Winters are the most humid seasons due to this season being characterized by frequent fogs; the area was inhabited by various hunter-gatherers speaking languages from the Mataco-Guaicru family. Native tribes including the Toba, Wichí survive in the region and have important communities in this province as well as in Formosa Province. In 1576, the governor of a province in Northern Argentina commissioned the military to search for a huge mass of iron, which he had heard that natives used for their weapons; the natives called the area Heavenly Fields, translated into Spanish as Campo del Cielo.
This area is now a protected region situated on the border between the provinces of Chaco and Santiago del Estero where a group of iron meteorites fell in a Holocene impact event some four to five thousand years ago. In 2015, Police arrested four alleged smugglers trying to steal over a ton of protected meteoric iron; the first European settlement was founded by Spanish conquistador Alonso de Vera y Aragón, in 1585, was called Concepción de Nuestra Señora. It was abandoned in 1632. During its existence, it was one of the most important cities in the region, but attacks from local Indians forced the residents to leave. In the 17th century, the San Fernando del Río Negro Jesuit mission was founded in the area of the modern-day city of Resistencia, but it was abandoned fifteen years later; the Gran Chaco region remained unexplored, uninhabited, by either Europeans or Argentines until the late 19th century, after numerous confrontations between Argentina a
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a scholarly religious congregation of the Catholic Church for men founded by Ignatius of Loyola and approved by Pope Paul III. The members are called Jesuits; the society is engaged in evangelization and apostolic ministry in 112 nations. Jesuits work in education, intellectual research, cultural pursuits. Jesuits give retreats, minister in hospitals and parishes, sponsor direct social ministries, promote ecumenical dialogue. Saint Ignatius of Loyola, a Basque nobleman from the Pyrenees area of northern Spain, founded the society after discerning his spiritual vocation while recovering from a wound sustained in the Battle of Pamplona, he composed the Spiritual Exercises to help others follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. In 1534, Ignatius and six other young men, including Francis Xavier and Peter Faber and professed vows of poverty and obedience, including a special vow of obedience to the Pope in matters of mission direction and assignment. Ignatius's plan of the order's organization was approved by Pope Paul III in 1540 by a bull containing the "Formula of the Institute".
Ignatius was a nobleman who had a military background, the members of the society were supposed to accept orders anywhere in the world, where they might be required to live in extreme conditions. Accordingly, the opening lines of the founding document declared that the society was founded for "whoever desires to serve as a soldier of God to strive for the defence and propagation of the faith and for the progress of souls in Christian life and doctrine." Jesuits are thus sometimes referred to colloquially as "God's soldiers", "God's marines", or "the Company", which evolved from references to Ignatius' history as a soldier and the society's commitment to accepting orders anywhere and to endure any conditions. The society participated in the Counter-Reformation and in the implementation of the Second Vatican Council; the Society of Jesus is consecrated under the patronage of Madonna Della Strada, a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary, it is led by a Superior General. The headquarters of the society, its General Curia, is in Rome.
The historic curia of Ignatius is now part of the Collegio del Gesù attached to the Church of the Gesù, the Jesuit mother church. In 2013, Jorge Mario Bergoglio became the first Jesuit to be elected Pope, taking the name Pope Francis; as of 2012, the Jesuits formed the largest single religious order of priests and brothers in the Catholic Church. The Jesuits have experienced a decline in numbers in recent decades; as of 2017 the society had 16,088 members, 11,583 priests and 4,505 Jesuits in formation, which includes brothers and scholastics. This represents a 42.6 percent decline since 1977, when the society had a total membership of 28,038, of which 20,205 were priests. This decline is most pronounced in Europe and the Americas, with modest membership gains occurring in Asia and Africa. There seems to be no "Pope Francis effect" in counteracting the fall of vocations among the Jesuits; the society is divided into 83 provinces along with six independent regions and ten dependent regions. On 1 January 2007, members served in 112 nations on six continents with the largest number in India and the US.
Their average age was 57.3 years: 63.4 years for priests, 29.9 years for scholastics, 65.5 years for brothers. The current Superior General of the Jesuits is Arturo Sosa; the society is characterized by its ministries in the fields of missionary work, human rights, social justice and, most notably, higher education. It operates colleges and universities in various countries around the world and is active in the Philippines and India. In the United States the Jesuits have historical ties to 28 colleges and universities and 61 high schools; the degree to which the Jesuits are involved in the administration of each institution varies. As of September 2018, 15 of the 28 Jesuit universities in the US had non-Jesuit lay presidents. According to a 2014 article in The Atlantic, "the number of Jesuit priests who are active in everyday operations at the schools isn’t nearly as high as it once was". Worldwide it runs 172 colleges and universities. A typical conception of the mission of a Jesuit school will contain such concepts as proposing Christ as the model of human life, the pursuit of excellence in teaching and learning, lifelong spiritual and intellectual growth, training men and women for others.
Ignatius laid out his original vision for the new order in the "Formula of the Institute of the Society of Jesus", "the fundamental charter of the order, of which all subsequent official documents were elaborations and to which they had to conform." He ensured that his formula was contained in two papal bulls signed by Pope Paul III in 1540 and by Pope Julius III in 1550. The formula expressed the nature, community life, apostolate of the new religious order, its famous opening statement echoed Ignatius' military background: Whoever desires to serve as a soldier of God beneath the banner of the Cross in our Society, which we desire to be designated by the Name of Jesus, to serve the Lord alone and the Church, his spouse, under the Roman Pontiff, the Vicar of Christ on earth, after a solemn vow of perpetual chastity and obedience, keep what follows in mind. He is a member of a Society founded chiefly for this purpose: to strive for the defence and propagation of the faith and for the progress of souls in Christian life and doctrine, by means of public preaching and any other ministration whatsoever of the Word of God, further by means of ret
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the South American continent's southeastern coast. "Buenos Aires" can be translated as "fair winds" or "good airs", but the former was the meaning intended by the founders in the 16th century, by the use of the original name "Real de Nuestra Señora Santa María del Buen Ayre". The Greater Buenos Aires conurbation, which includes several Buenos Aires Province districts, constitutes the fourth-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas, with a population of around 15.6 million. The city of Buenos Aires is the Province's capital. In 1880, after decades of political infighting, Buenos Aires was federalized and removed from Buenos Aires Province; the city limits were enlarged to include the towns of Flores. The 1994 constitutional amendment granted the city autonomy, hence its formal name: Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, its citizens first elected a chief of government in 1996.
Buenos Aires is considered an'alpha city' by the study GaWC5. Buenos Aires' quality of life was ranked 91st in the world, being one of the best in Latin America in 2018, it is the most visited city in South America, the second-most visited city of Latin America. Buenos Aires is a top tourist destination, is known for its preserved Eclectic European architecture and rich cultural life. Buenos Aires held the 1st Pan American Games in 1951 as well as hosting two venues in the 1978 FIFA World Cup. Buenos Aires hosted the 2018 the 2018 G20 summit. Buenos Aires is a multicultural city, being home to multiple religious groups. Several languages are spoken in the city in addition to Spanish, contributing to its culture and the dialect spoken in the city and in some other parts of the country; this is because in the last 150 years the city, the country in general, has been a major recipient of millions of immigrants from all over the world, making it a melting pot where several ethnic groups live together and being considered one of the most diverse cities of the Americas.
It is recorded under the archives of Aragonese that Catalan missionaries and Jesuits arriving in Cagliari under the Crown of Aragon, after its capture from the Pisans in 1324 established their headquarters on top of a hill that overlooked the city. The hill was known to them as Bonaira, as it was free of the foul smell prevalent in the old city, adjacent to swampland. During the siege of Cagliari, the Catalans built a sanctuary to the Virgin Mary on top of the hill. In 1335, King Alfonso the Gentle donated the church to the Mercedarians, who built an abbey that stands to this day. In the years after that, a story circulated, claiming that a statue of the Virgin Mary was retrieved from the sea after it miraculously helped to calm a storm in the Mediterranean Sea; the statue was placed in the abbey. Spanish sailors Andalusians, venerated this image and invoked the "Fair Winds" to aid them in their navigation and prevent shipwrecks. A sanctuary to the Virgin of Buen Ayre would be erected in Seville.
In the first foundation of Buenos Aires, Spanish sailors arrived thankfully in the Río de la Plata by the blessings of the "Santa Maria de los Buenos Aires", the "Holy Virgin Mary of the Good Winds", said to have given them the good winds to reach the coast of what is today the modern city of Buenos Aires. Pedro de Mendoza called the city "Holy Mary of the Fair Winds", a name suggested by the chaplain of Mendoza's expedition – a devotee of the Virgin of Buen Ayre – after the Sardinian Madonna de Bonaria. Mendoza's settlement soon came under attack by indigenous people, was abandoned in 1541. For many years, the name was attributed to a Sancho del Campo, said to have exclaimed: How fair are the winds of this land!, as he arrived. But Eduardo Madero, in 1882 after conducting extensive research in Spanish archives concluded that the name was indeed linked with the devotion of the sailors to Our Lady of Buen Ayre. A second settlement was established in 1580 by Juan de Garay, who sailed down the Paraná River from Asunción.
Garay preserved the name chosen by Mendoza, calling the city Ciudad de la Santísima Trinidad y Puerto de Santa María del Buen Aire. The short form "Buenos Aires" became the common usage during the 17th century; the usual abbreviation for Buenos Aires in Spanish is Bs. As, it is common as well to refer to it as "B. A." or "BA". While "BA" is used more by expats residing in the city, the locals more use the abbreviation "Baires", in one word. Seaman Juan Díaz de Solís, navigating in the name of Spain, was the first European to reach the Río de la Plata in 1516, his expedition was cut short when he was killed during an attack by the native Charrúa tribe in what is now Uruguay. The city of Buenos Aires was first established as Ciudad de Nuestra Señora Santa María del Buen Ayre after Our Lady of Bonaria on 2 February 1536 by a Spanish expedition led by Pedro de Mendoza; the settlement founded by Mendoza was located in what is today the San Telmo district of Buenos Aires, south of the city centre. More attacks by the indigenous
Ferrocarril Económico Correntino
Ferrocarril Económico Correntino was the informal name for some former narrow gauge State-owned railway lines in Corrientes Province of Argentina that used a gauge of 600 mm. Railway locomotives used firewood as fuel, running at a maximum speed of 20 km/h, therefore a trip between Corrientes and Mburucuyá 178 kilometres in length took nearly 26 hours; the first line, named "Ferrocarril Primer Correntino", operated from 1892 to 1904. After its closure part of the rail tracks were removed and the other part continued operating as a freight train for the sugar cane mill with the same name; the second line was "Compañía General de Ferrocarriles Económicos de la Provincia de Corrientes", added part of the previous railway operating from 1912 to 1927 when it was acquired by the Government of Corrientes and renamed "Ferrocarril Provincial de Corrientes". With the railway Nationalisation in Argentina the FCEC was added to the General Urquiza Railway in 1948; the line was closed in 1969 and its tracks lifted.
Italian entrepreneur Francisco Bolla, owner of suger cane mill "Ingenio Primer Correntino" had requested for a railway line to transport both and passengers. On December 18, 1890, the Provincial Legislature promulgated a Law granted Bolla a concession to build and operate a railway line; the Law specified the use of steam locomotives for the railway. Law granted Bolla's company the lands where the railway would be built exempting company from paying duties for a period of 30 years. For its part, the company had to run a minimum of three trains a week, whose fees would be established by the Government of Corrientes itself; the first section was built from Primer Correntino cane mill to San Luis del Palmar, being opened on September 23, 1892. The Provincial Government realised that the company had extended the line from San Luis to the Arroyo Riachuelito and was constructing another branch to the city of Corrientes without permission; because of that, the Government suspended the construction by decree on July 17, 1896.
Works were resumed on September 14, giving new concessions to the company. When the line from the city of Corrientes to San Luis del Palmar was finished in 1898, the railway was inaugurated, it had a total length of 625 kilometres. The railway had two German Kraus and one Tubize made in Belgium; when the Bolla's company went into bankruptcy, the railway ceased operations in 1904. Concession was cancelled and the Government ordered railway tracks to be removed. Only the San Cosme-Paso de la Patria and the branch to Puerto Italia sections were removed; the line from Primer Correntino mill to San Cosme continued running as a freight transport until 1969 when it was closed. On September 23, 1908, a new law was promulgated, it granted concession to shipping entrepreneur Carlos Dodero. In 1909 works began to extend the line to Nuestra Señora del Rosario de Caá Catí, where General Paz station was built. After the acquisition of rolling stock and properties, the line was opened in 1912. Rail tracks from Primer Correntino mill to Corrientes station had been lifted so it had to be rebuilt.
Another 178-km branch was constructed from Lomas de Vallejos to Mburucuyá. Italian engineer Mauro Herlitzka was in charge of works. One of the locomotives acquired by Dodero was a Koppel 0-6-0 built in Germany; that locomotive is serving at Tren del Fin del Mundo in Ushuaia, where it came in 1993. Other similar machines are exhibited at Concordia and Paraná stations, as well as in the Scalabrini Ortiz Railway Museum of Retiro, Buenos Aires. After the Dodero's administration failure, the railway was taken over by Banco Francés del Río de la Plata and by the Provincial Government in 1927 until the line was Nationalised during Juan Perón's administration in 1948, becoming part of General Urquiza Railway; the lack of maintenance and the floods that deteriorated the line resulted in the definitive closure by the Government in 1969. Soon after the entire line was dismantled. In 2009, there were some attempts to reactivate the railway, running trains from Santa Ana de los Guácaras and the Primer Correntino mill.
Although it was never carried out. Urquiza Railway Rail transport in Argentina "El Ferrocarril Correntino - Arqueologia Ferroviaria"
National Route 12 (Argentina)
National Route 12 is a road in Argentina, connecting the northeast section to the rest of the country. It runs through the provinces of Misiones, Entre Ríos and Buenos Aires. Starting south of the city of Zárate in Buenos Aires Province, crossing the Paraná River, through the Zárate-Brazo Largo Bridge, continues to the provincial capitals of Paraná, Corrientes and Posadas, ending at the Fraternity Bridge, in the city of Puerto Iguazú, bordering with Brazil; the road continues within Brazil as BR-469. Its length of 1,580 km, is paved. In the Zárate - Ceibas section, the road is a 4-lane highway. Before the opening of the Zárate - Brazo Largo bridge, on 14 December 1977. Cars had to cross the Paraná de las Palmas and Paraná Guazú rivers by barge; the section between the rivers, in Talavera Island, was a unpaved road. Construction on the second lane on the 45 km section between Brazo Largo and Ceibas was started on May 1997, opening to the public on 12 October 1999. National Law 25,680 published in the Official Bulletin on 3 January 2003 designates the section from Brazo Largo to Ceibas as David Della Chiesa road.
The cities with more than 5,000 inhabitants crossed by the road are: Length: 30 km. Zárate Partido: Zárate. Zárate Partido - Islas Sector: no towns. Campana Partido: no towns. Length: 535 km. Islas del Ibicuy Department: no towns with more than 5,000 inhabitants. Gualeguay Department: Gualeguay Nogoyá Department: Nogoyá. Diamante Department: General Ramírez Paraná Department: Crespo, San Benito and Paraná. La Paz Department: La Paz. Length: 678 km. RN12 is called John F. Kennedy Highway, between the capital cities of Corrientes and Misiones Provinces, Decree 8012 and Law 16484 of 24 September 1964, Soberanía Nacional on the section Saladas - Goya, Decree 427 of 10 March 1981. Esquina Department: Esquina Goya Department: Goya Lavalle Department: no towns with more than 5,000 inhabitants. San Roque Department: no towns with more than 5,000 inhabitants, but the road passes through the Department seat, San Roque Bella Vista Department: no towns with more than 5,000 inhabitants. Saladas Department: no towns with more than 5,000 inhabitants.
Empedrado Department: Empedrado Capital Department: Corrientes San Cosme Department: no towns with more than 5,000 inhabitants, but the road passes through the Department seat, San Cosme Itatí Department: Itatí Berón de Astrada Department: no towns with more than 5,000 inhabitants. General Paz Department: no towns with more than 5,000 inhabitants. San Miguel Department: no towns with more than 5,000 inhabitants. Ituzaingó Department: Ituzaingó Length: 317 km. Capital Department, Misiones: Posadas, Miguel Lanús] and Garupá. Candelaria: Candelaria; the road passes through the Department seat Santa Ana. San Ignacio: San Ignacio and Jardín América. Libertador General San Martín: Puerto Rico. Montecarlo Department: Montecarlo and Puerto Piray. Eldorado Department: Eldorado. Iguazú: Puerto Esperanza, Colonia Wanda], [Puerto Libertad and Puerto Iguazú. In 1990 concessions were leased with toll collection on the busiest national roads, dividing the country in zones called "Corredores Viales"; the section between the junction with National Route 9 in Zárate and the junction with National Route 14 in Ceibas is part of Corridor Vial 18, under the management of Caminos del Río Uruguay with a toll booth in Zárate.
In 1996 the concession was extended to 28 years with the condicion that the bidding company built a highway between the Complejo Unión Nacional and Gualeguaychú. The section between the General Justo José de Urquiza bridge and Ceibas was completed on October 12, 1999. Due to the currency devaluation of 2002, road work in the Ceibas - Gualeguaychú section was delayed; the Virgen de Itatí Concesionaria de Obras Viales company took control of Corridor Vial 13, among others, Route 12 between km markers 871 and 1641, in the provinces of Corrientes and Misiones, from the junction with National Route 123 to the access to the Tancredo Neves International Bridge, excluding the section near the provincial capital city of Posadas installing toll booths in Riachuelo, Ituzaingó, Santa Ana and Colonia Victoria. In 2003 the Corredores Viales concession contracts expired, the numbering system was changed when calling for a new bidding process. Corridor Vial 6 is now controlled by Empresa Concesionaria Vial and includes Route 12 in the same section as the previous concession.
National Route 12 had a different layout through the provinces of Buenos Aires, Entre Ríos and Corrientes. The original road started in Buenos Aires, passing through General Campana and Zárate; the section between Zárate's port and Puerto Constanza, in Entre Ríos Province, crossed the Paraná river by barge in a 3-hour crossing. After the change of route of National Route 9, in the late 1950s, the section from Avenida General Paz and Campana was changed to RN12. In 2005 the 8 km section between National Route 9 in Campana and the Bartolomé Mitre bridge access over the Paraná de las Palmas river changed to Buenos Aires provincial jurisdiction as a new section of Provincial Route 6. RN12 runs over the ol roadbed of National Route 193 to the bridge over National Route 9 in Zárate. After Ceibas it followed the present National Route 14, traversing near Gualeguaychú, the present Provincial
Paraguay
Paraguay the Republic of Paraguay, is a country of South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, Bolivia to the northwest. Although it is one of the only two landlocked countries in South America, the country has coasts and ports on the Paraguay and Paraná rivers that give exit to the Atlantic Ocean through the Paraná-Paraguay Waterway. Due to its central location in South America, it is sometimes referred to as Corazón de Sudamérica. Spanish conquistadores arrived in 1524 after navigating northwards from the Río de la Plata to the Paraná River, up the Paraguay River. In 1537, they established the city of Asunción, the first capital of the Governorate of Paraguay and Río de la Plata. Paraguay was the epicenter of the Jesuit Missions, where the Guaraní people were educated and introduced to Christianity and European culture under the direction of the Society of Jesus in Jesuit reductions during the 17th century. However, after the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spanish territories in 1767, Paraguay became a peripheral colony, with few urban centers and settlers.
Following independence from Spain at the beginning of the 19th century, Paraguay was ruled by a series of authoritarian governments who implemented nationalist and protectionist policies. This period ended with the disastrous Paraguayan War, during which Paraguay lost at least 50% of its prewar population and around 25–33% of its territory to the Triple Alliance of Argentina and Uruguay. In the 20th century, Paraguay faced another major international conflict – the Chaco War – against Bolivia, from which the Paraguayans emerged victorious. Afterwards, the country entered a period of military dictatorships, ending with the 35 year regime of Alfredo Stroessner that lasted until he was toppled in 1989 by an internal military coup; this marked the beginning of the "democratic era" of Paraguay. With around 7 million inhabitants, Paraguay is a founding member of Mercosur, an original member of the United Nations, the Organization of American States, the Non-Aligned Movement and the Lima Group; the city of Luque, in Asuncion's Metropolitan Area, is the seat of the CONMEBOL.
The Guarani culture is influential and more than 90% of the people speak different forms of the Guarani language on top of Spanish. Paraguayans are known for being a happy and easy-living people and many times the country topped the "world's happiest place" charts because of the "positive experiences" lived and expressed by the population; the indigenous Guaraní had been living in eastern Paraguay for at least a millennium before the arrival of the Spanish. Western Paraguay, the Gran Chaco, was inhabited by nomads of whom the Guaycuru peoples were the most prominent; the Paraguay River was the dividing line between the agricultural Guarani people to the east and the nomadic and semi-nomadic people to the west in the Gran Chaco. The Guarcuru nomads were known for their warrior traditions and were not pacified until the late 19th century; these indigenous tribes belonged to five distinct language families, which were the bases of their major divisions. Differing language speaking groups were competitive over resources and territories.
They were further divided into tribes by speaking languages in branches of these families. Today 17 separate ethnolinguistic groups remain; the first Europeans in the area were Spanish explorers in 1516. The Spanish explorer Juan de Salazar de Espinosa founded the settlement of Asunción on 15 August 1537; the city became the center of a Spanish colonial province of Paraguay. An attempt to create an autonomous Christian Indian nation was undertaken by Jesuit missions and settlements in this part of South America in the eighteenth century, which included portions of Uruguay and Brazil, they developed Jesuit reductions to bring Guarani populations together at Spanish missions and protect them from virtual slavery by Spanish settlers and Portuguese slave raiders, the Bandeirantes. In addition to seeking their conversion to Christianity. Catholicism in Paraguay was influenced by the indigenous peoples; the reducciones flourished in eastern Paraguay for about 150 years, until the expulsion of the Jesuits by the Spanish Crown in 1767.
The ruins of two 18th-century Jesuit Missions of La Santísima Trinidad de Paraná and Jesús de Tavarangue have been designated as World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. In western Paraguay Spanish settlement and Christianity were resisted by the nomadic Guaycuru and other nomads from the 16th century onward. Most of these peoples were absorbed into the mestizo population in the 19th centuries. Paraguay overthrew the local Spanish administration on 14 May 1811. Paraguay's first dictator was José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia who ruled Paraguay from 1814 until his death in 1840, with little outside contact or influence, he intended to create a utopian society based on the French theorist Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Social Contract. Rodríguez de Francia established new laws that reduced the powers of the Catholic church and the cabinet, forbade colonial citizens from marrying one another and allowed them to marry only blacks, mulattoes or natives, in order to break the power of colonial-era elites and to create a mixed-race or mestizo society.
He cut off the rest of South America. Because of Francia's restrictions of freedom, Fulgencio Yegros and several other Independence-era
Guaraní people
Guaraní are a group of culturally related indigenous peoples of South America. They are distinguished from the related Tupí by their use of the Guaraní language; the traditional range of the Guaraní people is in present-day Paraguay between the Uruguay River and lower Paraguay River, the Misiones Province of Argentina, southern Brazil once as far north as Rio de Janeiro, parts of Uruguay and Bolivia. Although their demographic dominance of the region has been reduced by European colonisation and the commensurate rise of mestizos, there are contemporary Guaraní populations in these areas. Most notably, the Guaraní language, still spoken across traditional Guaraní homelands, is one of the two official languages in Paraguay, the other one being Spanish; the language was once looked down upon by the upper and middle classes, but it is now regarded with pride and serves as a symbol of national distinctiveness. The Paraguayan population learns Guaraní both informally from social interaction and formally in public schools.
In modern Spanish, Guaraní is applied to refer to any Paraguayan national in the same way that the French are sometimes called Gauls. Their language is similar to Spanish, but there still are many small differences; the history and meaning of the name Guaraní are subject to dispute. Before they encountered Europeans, the Guaraní referred to themselves as Abá, meaning "men" or "people"; the term Guaraní was applied by early Jesuit missionaries to refer to natives who had accepted conversion to the Christian religion. Cayua is translated as "the ones from the jungle". While the term Cayua is sometimes still used to refer to settlements of indigenous peoples who have not well integrated into the dominant society, the modern usage of the name Guaraní is extended to include all people of native origin regardless of societal status. Barbara Ganson writes that the name Guaraní was given by the Spanish as it means "warrior" in the Tupi-Guaraní dialect spoken there. Guarinĩ is attested in 12th-century Old Tupi, by Jesuit sources, as "war, warrior, to wage war, warlord".
Early Guaraní villages consisted of communal houses for 10 to 15 families. Communities were united by common interest and language, tended to form tribal groups by dialect, it is estimated that the Guaraní numbered some 400,000 people when they were first encountered by Europeans. At that time, they were sedentary and agricultural, subsisting on manioc, wild game, honey. Little is known about early Guaraní society and beliefs, they practiced a form of animistic pantheism, much of which has survived in the form of folklore and numerous myths. According to the Jesuit missionary Martin Dobrizhoffer, they practiced cannibalism at one point as a funerary ritual, but disposed of the dead in large jars placed inverted on the ground. Guaraní mythology is still widespread in rural Paraguay. Much Guaraní myth and legend was compiled by the Universidad Nacional de Misiones in northern Argentina and published as Myths and Legends: A journey around the Guarani lands, Anthology in 1870. Guaraní myth and legend can be divided into the following broad categories: Cosmogonic and eschatological myths.
After him comes a pantheon of gods, chief among them Yporú, more known as Tupã. Jasy is another "good" deity who rules the night while Aña is a malign deity who dwells at the bottom of the Iguazu River. Animistic mythology, animals and minerals being animated and capable of becoming anthropomorphic beings or in reverse the transmuted souls of people, either born or unborn, who have become animals and minerals; the course of such anthropomorphism appears dictated by the pantheon of god-like deities because of their virtues or vices. Such animistic legends include that of the Lobizón, a werewolf type being, the Mainumby or hummingbird who transports good spirits that are resident in flowers back to Tupá "so he can cherish them". Isondú or glowworms are the reincarnated spirits of certain people. Ka'a Jarýi was a woman. Pombero are elf like spirits who dwell in the forest and must be appeased, they have never been human. Principal among these is Jasy Jatere who has never been human and like all Pombero is from a different realm.
His characteristics are vague and uncertain, his powers badly defined as is the place where he resides. He is described in one legend as a "handsome, thickly bearded, blond dwarf", naked and lives in tree trunks. Other versions say he loves honey, his feet are backwards, he is an "ugly, old man". Most legends agree that he snatches children and "licks them", wrapping them in climbing plants or drowning them in rivers. To appease him gifts, such as honey, are left in places in the forest associated with him. Another Pombero is Kuarahy Jára, their protector, he is known for abducting young boys who are alone and trying to catch birds. If necessary he can take the form of a tree or a hyacinth. Kurupi is a phallic mythological figure who will copulate with young women, he has scaly skin like a lizard, hypnotic eyes, an enormous penis. The sacred Iguazu Falls hold special significance for the Guaraní and are the inspiration for numerous myths and legends, they reveal the sound of ancient battles at certain times, they are the place where I-Yara—a malign Pomboro spirit—abducted
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