Studia Historica: Historia Contemporánea (Apr 2011)
Indigenous people (in) (and) the Paraguayan Independence
Abstract
The independence of Paraguay, which started as a revolution against the power of Buenos Aires, the capital city of the viceroyalty of la Plata, did not produce any thoughts against native exploitation, and neither did it have relevant indigenous leaders or demands, although demographically speaking the indo-mestizo presence was higher than in the Banda Oriental. Paraguayan revolutionaries’ stance in relation to the indigenous population was conditioned in the first place by the strategic position of Jesuit Missions, and soon after by the policies applied by Dr. Gaspar de Francia, who after an early egalitarian impulse which favoured the gradual creation of a new unity, implemented integration and expulsion measures similar to those used during colonial times. The suppression in 1848 of the communal systems of the Guaraní people by Carlos Antonio López culminated a strategic integration within a «Paraguayan» identity. This decisive step in the shaping of the Paraguayan nation-state was completed by constructing Paraguay’s past as a Guaraní nation, thus establishing the starting point for all future Creole accounts of the nation.
