Paraguayan Gringo

The original inhabitants of present-day Paraguay were Guaraní Amerindians of the Tupi-Guaraní language family. As many as 150,000 Amerindians may have been living in Paraguay at the time of the earliest European contacts. The first European known to have explored Paraguay was the Italian Sebastian Cabot, sailing from 1526 to 1530 in the service of Spain. The first permanent Spanish settlement, Nuestra Señora de la Asunción (Our Lady of the Assumption, present-day Asunción), was founded at the confluence of the Paraguay and Pilcomayo rivers on Assumption Day, 15 August 1537.

Paraguay’s next two centuries were dominated by Jesuit missionaries, whose efforts to protect the Amerindians from Portuguese slave traders and Spanish colonists resulted in one of the most remarkable social experiments in the New World. Shortly after the founding of Asunción, missionary efforts began. The priests organized Guaraní families in mission villages (reducciones) designed as self-sufficient communes. Amerindians were taught trades, improved methods of cultivation, and the fine arts, as well as religion. Above all, they were protected from exploitation by the Spanish colonists, who sought to exploit them. As the settlements prospered and grew in number to around 30 (with over 100,000 Amerindians), the jealousy of the colonists sparked a campaign to discredit the Jesuits. Eventually, the King of Spain became convinced that the order was trying to set up a private kingdom in the New World, and in 1767, he expelled the Jesuits from the New World. Once they had left, the reducciones disappeared. As for the Spanish colony at Asunción, it dominated the area of the Río de la Plata throughout this period. However, in 1776, when Buenos Aires became the capital of the new viceroyalty of La Plata, Asunción was reduced to an outpost.

In achieving independence, Paraguay first had to fight the forces of Argentina. Buenos Aires called on Paraguay in 1810 to follow its lead in a virtual declaration of independence. Paraguay declared independence from Spain but rejected the leadership of Buenos Aires. An Argentine expedition was decisively defeated, and Paraguay completed its move toward independence by deposing the last of its royal governors in 1811.

Since then, Paraguay has been dominated by dictatorships or near-dictatorships. The first and most famous of the dictators was José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia (known as “El Supremo”), originally a member of the five-man junta elected in 1811 to govern the newly independent nation. He was granted full dictatorial powers for three years in 1814 and thereafter had the term extended for life. Francia attempted to cut Paraguay off from all contact with the outside world. Commerce was suspended, foreigners were expelled, relations with the papacy were broken off, and an anticlerical campaign was begun. All criticism was stifled, and a widespread spy network was developed. However, at the same time, Francia was honest and tireless in his devotion to his personal concept of the country’s welfare. Francia governed until his death in 1840. Today, he is regarded as Paraguay’s “founding father.”