The Chaco is a huge, desolate region in the heart of South America. It is very lightly populated by people but teeming with animal life, especially birds. Iit’s a hard place in which to get around, with most of the dirt roads stretching flat and straight for hundreds of miles. About two thirds of Paraguay, the northwestern part, is in the Chaco region. But only about 100,000 of Paraguay’s 6,000,000 citizens live there. And most of them are either indigenous tribes or Mennonite immigrants with German roots.
As we left Asuncion, Paraguay’s capitol, we headed out on the one paved road that leads into the Chaco. Three hundred miles to the city of Filadelfia. Yes, that's how its spelled! And yes you do pronounce it like Philadelphia. And weird as it may look at first, it sure makes sense to spell it that way!
First we enter the Lower Chaco, a palm filled savanna with many areas permanently flooded due to the impermeable clay layer in it’s soil that won’t allow the rain water to soak in. Cattle ranching is the main means of making a living here.
Then we entered the Middle Chaco where tough, thorny scrub and sturdy trees and cactus covered the gently rolling hills. Most interesting amongst the trees is the palo borracho (drunk tree with a bulging, pear shaped trunk and thick, stiff stickers to protect it from the animal life. That rounded trunk holds water against the long droughts of the Middle Chaco. And most interesting amongst the scrub vegetation is the Quebracho which is harvested for it’s rich tannin. Filadelfia is in this region. Here in the Middle Chaco we also saw our first Tagua.
The Tagua is a wild boar, also known as the Giant Peccary, that is now in danger of extinction. It has several features that distinguish it from other wild pigs including the fact that its huge fangs grow downward while all other wild pigs have fangs that grow upward. It also has long, stiff hair that stands erect when it is in danger. However, as the Chaco has increasingly been developed by man, the dry, thick, impenetrable scrub that the Tagua needs as its habitat has increasingly been plowed under. And the cactus that it needs for food is also quickly disappearing. Currently it lives protected in several locations under the auspices of the Proyecto Tagua (Tagua Project) under the guidance of the San Diego Zoo.
Beyond Filadelfia, the highway leads on to the army post at the town of Mariscal Estigarribia. It then quickly turns to dirt as it stretches on to the Bolivian border, 150 miles further. This region, the High Chaco, has a thick but low forest cover with impenetrable barricades of sharp thorns and stickers. It too is a dry region with incredible heat, often surpassing 120 degrees!
Luckily, our trip was on a cool and cloudy weekend, with occasional drizzle. Unluckily, that means we never saw the incredible stars of the southern sky at night.
The majority of the people living in and around the cities of the Chaco are Mennonites. This religious order started in the 1600s in northern German. And from the first they were outcast from society in general due to several religious beliefs that set them apart from the Catholic church and the Protestant churches that were emerging in the 1600s. Among other things, they do not believe in infant baptism, oaths or divorce. They also are pacifists, refusing military service. Due to the persecution that resulted from their differences from other religions, many Mennonites fled Germany, settling in Prussia and the Netherlands. As the persecution continued everywhere they moved, they moved on. Many moved to Russia in the 1800s. But existence of the Russian military draft forced them to move on again. Increasingly Canada and the US became the havens the Mennonites sought out.
Today there are Mennonites in many countries around the world, usually living in a setting that allows them to isolate themselves from the larger culture. In this way they have maintained their religious and cultural identity.
The first Mennonites in Paraguay came in 1927, from Canada, when the Canadian government went back on its promise that the Mennonites could have their own religious school system and started forcing the Mennonite children to go to the Canadian public schools. Upon arrival in Paraguay, they began the incredible challenge of taming the Chaco wilderness. And they did that as Bolivian and Paraguayan soldiers fought in their fields! Yes, they arrived just in time for the Chaco War. This war, fought in the 1930s, was a war over the barren Chaco territory.
In the Chaco, the Mennonites overcame the incredible challenges of life in the Chaco wilderness, to develop a rich, agricultural lifestyle. Their dairy products are especially noted in Paraguay, where they control 70% of the dairy industry despite incredible transportation issues in delivering their products from the distant Chaco to the population centers of Paraguay.
Here in Paraguay, they have a formal agreement with the government that exempts from the required military draft, allows them to develop their own school system and requires them to develop their own infrastructure of roads and other improvements. In other words, they live here giving nothing to the government and receiving nothing from the government.
The fact that they have their own schools has aided the Mennonites in maintaining a lifestyle separate within this country. Religious instruction is fundamental in their schools. And much of the instruction is Hochdeutsch and Plattdeutsch, old German dialects. And on the streets of Fildelfia you are much more likely to hear German than Spanish!
However, as the population of Paraguay grows and more Paraguayans move to the Chaco, there is concern in the Mennonite community that the government may rescind the provisions of their special status. As a result, the Mennonites have become increasingly active in the government. There is also growing concern in the Mennonite community over the changes they see happening to their children. More and more outside influences, including materialism and alcohol, have come into their communities as more outsiders move in. Maybe they haven’t yet found their promised land in Paraguay. Perhaps the time for the next pilgrimage is approaching for Mennonites!