DOCSLIB.ORG

The Mennonite Presence in the Chaco from a Catholic Perspective

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Mennonite Presence in the Chaco from a Catholic Perspective The Mennonite Presence in the Chaco from a Catholic Perspective Lucio ALFERT* TRANSLATED BY C. J. DYCK Abstract: For nearly 500 years the political and cultural life of South America has been deeply shaped by the institutions and faith of the Catholic church. The growing presence of other Christian denominations over the past century has been a source of considerable tensions. In Paraguay, relations between Catholics and Mennonites have been especially challenging, particularly during the second half of the twentieth century as Mennonite colonies in the Chaco region expanded in size, economic significance and political influence. This essay offers an overview of Catholic-Mennonite relations from the perspective of a Catholic bishop. Although it does not flinch from identifying points of significant tension, it holds out the hope that an honest and open assessment of this relationship might pave the way to more healthy ecumenical dialogue in the future. 'That they may all be one... so that the world may believe that you have sent me." John 17:21. After its colonization and "christianization" some 500 years ago, Latin America was seen as a part of the Catholic world. In Paraguay it was simply assumed that people would be Catholic, with the exception of the few indigenous groups who had not yet been reached by missionaries or had resisted the christianizing process. Even today many members of the Catholic church find it unacceptable for Christians of different denominations to live side by side or to shape the life of a region or village together. This attitude has been shaped by personal experiences as well as by historical and theological considerations. Nevertheless, it is time to consider again what Jesus actually intended when he founded the church, and what theological and *Lucio Alfert is currently the Apostolic Vicar of the missionary province Hlcomayo and a member of the Paraguayan Bishops Conference. Alfert studied theology in Germany and has served as priest and missionary in Paraguay and Argentina since 1972. He was ordained bishop in 1986. In the preface to his oral presentation, Alfert acknowledged that this assessment of Catholic-Mennonite relations reflects a limited perspective, one shaped by available sources, individual perceptions and generalizations that may not be reflective of every Mennonite individual or group. This essay first appeared as "Mennonitische Präsenz im Chaco aus katholischer Perspektive," Jahrbuch für Geschichte undKultur der Mennoniten in Paraguay 2 (Sept. 2001), 125-48. Used by permission. 337 338 The Mennonite Quarterly Review pastoral consequences individual Christian churches and groups should draw from Christ's action for themselves and for their communal Christian life. HOW DO CATHOLICS UNDERSTAND THE CHURCH TODAY? To understand the relationship of the Catholic church to other religions and denominations like the Mennonites, it is important to know something about Catholic ecclesiology. How is it possible that Jesus Christ spoke of only one Church when, in fact, there are many Christian churches and contemporary Catholic documents about the Church of Christ also acknowledge the plurality of churches? The New Testament, along with Catholic history and theology, emphasize the unity and singularity of the Church; but they also acknowledge the appropriate and necessary diversity of the Church. Questions arise therefore about the relationship of churches to one another and about where the "true" Church of Christ is to be found. During the time of the Counter-Reformation, Catholic theologians often identified the Catholic church exclusively as the true Church, at times even asserting that salvation could be found in it alone, which, of course, irritated many other Christian churches. The Second Vatican Council and other more recent church documents have regarded this situation somewhat differently. "All persons are called to belong to the new people of God," the Constitution of the Second Vatican Council states: Wherefore this people, while remaining one and only one, is to be spread throughout the whole world. ... It follows that though there are many nations there is but one people of God, which takes its citizens from every race, making them citizens of a kingdom which is of a heavenly rather than of an earthly nature. ... In virtue of this catholicity each individual part contributes through its special gifts to the good of the other parts and of the whole Church. Through the common sharing of gifts and through the common effort to attain fullness in unity, the whole and each of the parts receive increase.1 To be sure, the Second Vatican Council went on to state that the Catholic church has the fullness of the means of salvation in unique measure; and Catholics continue to believe that since the Lord entrusted the new covenant only to the apostles, led by Peter, its church therefore constitutes the only body of Christ on earth into which all must fully incorporate, if they wish to belong to the people of God. Nonetheless, the church has also stated: Even more: among the total elements and gifts through which the church is built and lives, there are some and many significant [gifts] which can exist 1. Lumen Gentium [Constitution On The Church], 13. Hereafter cited as LG. A Catholic Perspective on Mennonites in the Chaco 339 outside of the visible Catholic Church. ... All that which comes from Christ, and leads to him, rightly belongs to the one Church of Christ. This means that the Church of Christ exists in the Catholic church, is expressed through it and felt in a unique way, but is not absolutely identical to it. 'Therefore," according to Catholic doctrine, "while we believe that these churches and fellowships have deficiencies, it is not that they are insignificant or without weight for the mystery of salvation. The Spirit of Christ has not refrained from using these as means of salvation, whose influence comes from the same fullness and grace given to the Catholic Church." Elsewhere the Constitution of the church states: All people of God are called to the peace which this all embracing Catholic unity furthers among them, In different ways Catholic believers belong to her; others who believe in Christ, and finally all people who are called to salvation through the grace of God. This new approach to evaluating other Christian, as well as non-Christian, groups constitutes a new ecumenical posture on fee part of the Catholic church. Instead of speaking of ecumenism only as a return to the past, Catholics now acknowledge that they already possess a certain communion with other Christian groups to the extent that they share the same faith, sacramental life and church structures. To speak of the Roman Catholic church as the only path to salvation is therefore no longer possible. Thus, ecumenism is an attempt to grow more and more into unity, in which there is room for all Christians, even including the common celebration of the eucharist. NATIONAL REIAÏÏONS BETWEEN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND MENNONITE CONGREGATIONS If, despite some contrary tendencies, these ecumenical developments are growing within the Catholic church today, and if we wish to move forward in that direction, we must begin by acknowledging many things in the historical relationship between Catholics and Mennonites in Paraguay that have tended to move in the opposite direction. Indeed, at times the relationship has almost resembled a religious war, and occasioned many wounds that still await healing. The Founding Years of the Mennonite Colonies There are few sources in the church archives of the bishop's conference and fte archbishop's conference in Asuncion from the early years of the Mennonites in 5he Chaco regarding their theology and religious practices. Perhaps that is 2. LG, 15; Unitatis Redintegratio [Decree On Ecumenism], 3, 15-17^ 20-23. Hereafter cited as zm. 3. UR, 3. 4. LG, 13. 340 The Mennonite Quarterly Review because Mennonites lived as closed, pacifist groups in such isolated areas, and because they initially showed no inclination to proselytize. National political reasons may also have played a significant role, since within the political constellation of that time both Paraguay and Bolivia held competing claims to large parts of the Chaco. Thus the Bolivian bishop of La Paz sent Oblate missionaries to Esteros on the Pilcomayo, while the Paraguayans sent to the northeast Chaco the Salesiane, who, like the Mennonites later, sought by their presence to further establish the Paraguayan claim. Though this still awaits further research, it is possible that the German-speaking Oblates, sharing the same language and a similar cultural heritage as the Mennonites, were sent to that area as a counterforce to the Paraguayan Salesiane. Actually, the silence of Catholic archives regarding Mennonite immigration into the region is surprising, since at the same time the church was very attentive to other religious groups who were settling in Paraguay and the Chaco—for example, the many new Protestant groups in Asuncion and the Anglican missions in the Chaco. Their presence may be another reason why the church placed the Salesian Order in the Chaco already in 1917.5 In contrast to the relative silence in church archives, records in the civil offices include numerous documents, laws, decrees and special privileges granted to the incoming Mennonites. Various documents indicate that President Jose P. Guggiari and those in other political offices felt compelled to discuss the reception of the Mennonites in the Chaco and the attendant potential legal implications for Catholic church authorities. Presumably these discussions emerged out of the historical prominence of the Catholic church in Paraguay and the church's relationship to government, as well as its participation in the concrete political life of the people, which led the church to believe that it was entitled to offer political opinions about other groups and their privileges.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Paraguay Mennonites: Immigrants, Citizens, Hosts
    Mennonite Central Committee Peace Office Publication January –March 2009 Volume 39, Number 1 Paraguay Mennonites: Immigrants, Citizens, Hosts IN THIS ISSUE Introduction 3 Mennonites In Paraguay: by Daryl Yoder-Bontrager A Brief History by Edgar Stoesz n July of this year, people who are part Paraguay was appropriate for Mennonites Iof the Anabaptist tradition will gather in in other ways as well. A somewhat isolated, 6 A Letter from Paraguay: Asunción, Paraguay from all over the world land-locked country in the middle of the The 2008 Elections to celebrate the 15th global assembly of Southern Cone, the southern triangle of by Alfred Neufeld Mennonite World Conference. The assembly South America, Paraguay contained vast will be hosted jointly by the 8 Paraguayan tracts of sparsely populated lands in its 9 Hopes and Plans for the MWC member churches. In anticipation northwest Chaco area. The Chaco region, 2009 Mennonite World of that event, this issue of Peace Office shared with Bolivia and Argentina, is Conference Assembly 15 Newsletter offers some beginning glimpses famous for its climatic extremes. The coun - by Carmen Epp into the people and issues of Paraguay. try had long since merged Spanish-speaking and Guarani-speaking cultures. Today Span - 11 Ernst Bergen, Jumping into Almost anywhere in Paraguay at nearly any ish and Guarani, the language of the domi - Empty Space time of day one can find Paraguayans clus - nant indigenous group, are both official reviewed by Alain Epp Weaver tered in little groups drinking tereré, a cold languages. Moving to Paraguay seemed a tea, sipped from a metal straw stuck into win/win situation.
    [Show full text]
  • Religious Nationalism in an Age of Globalization: the Case of 1
    74 Religious Nationalism in an Age of Globalization: The Case of 1 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/2236-463320161405 Benjamin W. Goossen History Department of Harvard University, Cambridge MA, Estados Unidos da América [email protected] Abstract: This article uses the example of Mennonite nation-building in Paraguay during the 1920s and 1930s to argue that state formation is not inherently modernist. Tracing nineteenth and early twentieth-century discourses of Mennonite colonies in Imperial e essay advocates a reevaluation of theories of modern statehood advanced by thinkers like James C. Scott and Ernest Gellner. As conservative, pacifist Mennonites traveled from North America to the Paraguayan Chaco to escape the pressures of assimilation in democratic society, their migration paved the way for coreligionists fleeing persecution in the Soviet Union to join internationally, characterized by deep religious observance, and conceived in opposition to high modernist projects. Keywords: State-building, nationalism, Mennonites, modernity, diaspora, globalization 1 This essay draws on research for my forthcoming book, Chosen Nation: Mennonites and Germany in a Global Era. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2017, conducted with funding from the Fulbright Commission, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), and Harvard University. I wish to thank Uwe Freisen of the Menno Colony Archive and Gunolf Niebuhr of the Fernheim Colony Archive for providing primary sources, as well as Rachel Waltner Goossen for her comments. Except where otherwise noted, all translations are my own. While all qualifications in brackets are mine, italicized words are emphasized in the original documents. Almanack. Guarulhos, n.14, p.74-90 dossiê scales of global history 75 During 1936 and 1937, the German geographer Herbert Wilhelmy visited German- speaking settlements across southern Latin America.
    [Show full text]
  • Mennonites Turned Paraguay Into a Mega Beef Producer: Now Indigenous People Must Pay the Price 10 March 2020, by Joel E
    Mennonites turned Paraguay into a mega beef producer: Now Indigenous people must pay the price 10 March 2020, by Joel E. Correia the Chaco's agricultural boom: Extensive deforestation also scars the region. Roughly 14% of the Chaco forest was cut down between 2001 and 2014. The Mennonites' success in transforming the Chaco into a ranching powerhouse now undermines their own long-sought solitude, endangers this famous forest and threatens the very existence of indigenous people who've lived in the region since time immemorial. South America’s bi-oceanic highway, which will stretch from the Pacific to the Atlantic – cutting right through Paraguay – is scheduled for completion in 2022. Credit: Joel Correia, Author provided The "new Panama Canal"—that's how some are hailing a highway now under construction in South America that spans the continent, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The Bi-Oceanic Corridor cuts through the Paraguayan Chaco, Latin America's second- largest forest after the Amazon—and, these days, a hub of cattle ranching and soybean farming. A sign near Loma Plata, Paraguay, announcing the bi- oceanic highway is underway, February 2020. Credit: The Chaco—once a flat, scrubby and supposedly Joel E. Correia inhospitable forest – was transformed into a fertile agricultural region by Mennonite settlers who came to Paraguay in the early 1900s. Latin America's Mennonites By 2017 this landlocked country of 7 million had become the world's sixth-largest exporter of beef The Mennonites of the Paraguayan Chaco who .When the new road is completed in 2022, it will now number around 40,000, first arrived in the markedly increase beef and other agricultural 1920s, escaping persecution from Stalin's Russia exports by truck to global markets via seaports in by way of Canada.
    [Show full text]
  • Mennonite Institutions
    -being the Magazine/Journal of the Hanover Steinbach Historical Society Inc. Preservings $10.00 No. 18, June, 2001 “A people who have not the pride to record their own history will not long have the virtues to make their history worth recording; and no people who are indifferent to their past need hope to make their future great.” — Jan Gleysteen Mennonite Institutions The Mennonite people have always been richly Friesen (1782-1849), Ohrloff, Aeltester Heinrich portant essay on the historical and cultural origins endowed with gifted thinkers and writers. The Wiens (1800-72), Gnadenheim, and theologian of Mennonite institutions. The personal reflections seminal leaders in Reformation-times compiled Heinrich Balzer (1800-42) of Tiege, Molotschna, of Ted Friesen, Altona, who worked closely with treatises, polemics and learned discourses while continued in their footsteps, leaving a rich literary Francis during his decade long study, add a per- the martyrs wrote hymns, poetic elegies and in- corpus. sonal perspective to this important contribution to spirational epistles. During the second half of the The tradition was brought along to Manitoba the Mennonite people. The B. J. Hamm housebarn in the village of Neu-Bergthal, four miles southeast of Altona, West Reserve, Manitoba, as reproduced on the cover of the second edition of E. K. Francis, In Search of Utopia, republished by Crossway Publications Inc., Box 1960, Steinbach, Manitoba, R0A 2A0. The house was built in 1891 by Bernhard Klippenstein (1836-1910), village Schulze, and the barn dates to the founding of the village in 1879, and perhaps even earlier to the village of Bergthal in the East Reserve.
    [Show full text]
  • Download Thesis
    FAITH PERSPECTIVES OF MIGRANT WORKERS 1 Faith Perspectives of Mexican Migrant Farm Workers in Canada Las perspectivas de fe de los trabajadores agrícolas migrantes mexicanos en Canada Rafael Vallejo Thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the degree of Doctor of Theology (Ph.D.) Supervisor Dr. Charles Van Engen. FAITH PERSPECTIVES OF MIGRANT WORKERS 2 FAITH PERSPECTIVES OF MIGRANT WORKERS DECLARATION I certify that this thesis is the result of my own research and that it has not been partially or totally submitted to another educational institution to obtain an academic degree. Rafael Vallejo January 31, 2018 FAITH PERSPECTIVES OF MIGRANT WORKERS 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………………………..7 ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................... ………….9 ABBREVIATIONS………………………………………………………………………..13 LIST OF TABLES………………………………………………………………………. 15 LIST OF FIGURES…………………………………….………………………………. 18 CHAPTER 1: MIGRANTS AND MIGRATION, RELIGION AND FAITH…………………………. 19 1.1 Introduction 1.1.1 Faith Perspectives of Migrant Workers 1.1.2 Migration and Religion 1.1.3 Global Migration Today 1.1.4 Migration, Globalization and Religion 1.1.5 Migration, Migrants and Christianity 1.2 Background and Significance of The Study 1.3 Objectives of the Study 1.3.1. The Research Question 1.3.2. Specific Objectives 1.3.3. Definition of Terms 1.4 Theoretical Framework 1.4.1. Lived Religion as a Theoretical Framework 1.5 Methodology 1.5.1. Subjects of the Study: Mexican Migrant Farm Workers 1.5.2. Visual Sociology 1.5.3. Post-disciplinary Approaches 1.6 Survey of Related Literature 1.6.1. Migration and Religion 1.6.2. Migration and Globalization 1.6.3. Migration and Religious Identity FAITH PERSPECTIVES OF MIGRANT WORKERS 4 1.6.4.
    [Show full text]
  • Mennonite World Conference Pages 6-9, 16-22 Desktop
    September 8, 2003 Volume 7, Number 17 Mennonite World Conference pages 6-9, 16-22 DeskTop A divisive debate messy relationships, that “sanctity” is as likely to be found in a “same-sex family” as it is in any other family. We have he move to legalize same-sex marriage in Canada is to grapple with today’s realities in honest, life-giving ways. raising public emotion to an intensity we don’t often But to grapple with reality doesn’t mean that we relin- T see in this country. Convictions run deep—politicians quish our ideal of marriage. For the church, the word are breaking party ranks and church members are taking “marriage” signifies not only a God-given model of compan- on their leaders as the debate divides society and church. ionship but the best environment for raising children. That Religion is back in the public discourse. is why many resist extending the word “marriage” to include We in Mennonite Church Canada are drawn into this other kinds of relationships. political debate because it touches on one of our fundamen- Third, let’s ask the difficult questions. Given the ideal of tal beliefs—that “God intended marriage as a marriage that the church holds, should we not covenant between one man and one woman for We have to grapple encourage commitment and fidelity wherever life.” And yet we can’t agree on how to respond they are found? Should we support the exten- to the proposed legislation. One suggested with today’s reali- sion of legal responsibilities and benefits to gay response (Resolution 6) divided MC Canada ties in honest, life- couples because they can help bring account- delegates right down the middle (see Aug.
    [Show full text]
  • Rodrigo Villagra Carron Phd Thesis
    THE TWO SHAMANS AND THE OWNER OF THE CATTLE : ALTERITY, STORYTELLING AND SHAMANISM AMONGST THE ANGAITÉ OF THE PARAGUAYAN CHACO Rodrigo Villagra Carron A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of St. Andrews 2010 Full metadata for this item is available in the St Andrews Digital Research Repository at: https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/ Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10023/965 This item is protected by original copyright I THE TWO SHAMANS AND THE OWNER OF THE CATTLE Alterity, storytelling and shamanism amongst the Angaité of the Paraguayan Chaco Rodrigo Villagra Carron A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the University of St. Andrews April 2009 II ABSTRACT My thesis examines from an ethnographic account how history has been made, told and interpreted by the Angaité people of the Chaco since the Paraguayan nation-state effectively carried out the colonization of this territory in the 19th century until the present day. The key elements of this account are the Angaité’s notions and practices on alterity, storytelling and shamanism and how they interplay with one another. I explore the notions of alterity and its counterpart similarity in the context of multiple material transactions in which the Angaité engage both among themselves and with outsiders. I also examine the inseparable socio-moral evaluations attached to such transactions. I show how certain transactions such as exchange or commoditisation do not necessarily conflict with good social relations. Nevertheless, the closest relationships – preferably evoked in kinship terms - are constantly constructed by the combination of several practices including sharing, pooling, cohabitation and companionship and the relational morality that underpins them.
    [Show full text]
  • Prayer Cards | Joshua Project
    Pray for the Nations Pray for the Nations Ache, Guayaki in Paraguay Afro-Paraguayan in Paraguay Population: 1,700 Population: 72,000 World Popl: 1,700 World Popl: 73,900 Total Countries: 1 Total Countries: 2 People Cluster: South American Indigenous People Cluster: Afro-American, Hispanic Main Language: Ache Main Language: Spanish Main Religion: Christianity Main Religion: Christianity Status: Partially reached Status: Partially reached Evangelicals: 8.0% Evangelicals: 6.0% Chr Adherents: 55.0% Chr Adherents: 100.0% Scripture: New Testament Scripture: Complete Bible www.joshuaproject.net www.joshuaproject.net Source: Anonymous Source: Anonymous "Declare his glory among the nations." Psalm 96:3 "Declare his glory among the nations." Psalm 96:3 Pray for the Nations Pray for the Nations Americans, U.S. in Paraguay Angaite in Paraguay Population: 3,600 Population: 4,700 World Popl: 193,332,200 World Popl: 4,700 Total Countries: 104 Total Countries: 1 People Cluster: Anglo-American People Cluster: Guarani Main Language: English Main Language: Angaite Main Religion: Christianity Main Religion: Ethnic Religions Status: Significantly reached Status: Partially reached Evangelicals: 28.9% Evangelicals: 3.0% Chr Adherents: 78.0% Chr Adherents: 10.0% Scripture: Complete Bible Scripture: Translation Needed Source: Rich Thompson www.joshuaproject.net www.joshuaproject.net "Declare his glory among the nations." Psalm 96:3 "Declare his glory among the nations." Psalm 96:3 Pray for the Nations Pray for the Nations Anglo-Australian in Paraguay Arab, Lebanese
    [Show full text]
  • IN THIS ISSUE in the Fall of 1935, Harold S
    IN THIS ISSUE In the fall of 1935, Harold S. Bender, founder of this journal and one of the most respected voices in the twentieth-century Mennonite Church, gave an interview to the Goshen News-Democrat shortly after returning from Heidelberg. “I went into Germany with serious doubts as to the ability and sincerity of Hitler,” he said, “but I now am convinced that he is one of the great statesmen of our times.” Bender went on to clarify that he did “not agree with his attitude toward the church and toward the Jews”; and he later vigorously condemned Hitler’s policies. But in the mid-1930s what impressed Bender most was Germany’s remarkable economic recovery. Today, given what we know about the Holocaust and the devastation of World War II, Bender’s assessment seems naïve, if not obtuse. Nonetheless, it serves as a poignant reminder of the ongoing challenge of political and moral discernment, and the long arc of history’s judgment. This issue of MQR focuses on the Mennonite experience during the rise of National Socialism in Germany and its influence on Mennonites elsewhere, especially in Paraguay. We begin with an article by Anthony Chvala-Smith. Although his focus is primarily on the efforts of Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer to resist National Socialism, the essay serves as a helpful introduction to German Protestantism in the aftermath of World War I and the emergence of a distinct sense of German identity, captured in the complex meanings of Volk. Not least, Chvala-Smith reminds readers that resistance to Nazi ideology was indeed possible.
    [Show full text]
  • Mennonites in Paraguay As Described in the Writings of Peter P
    The "Green Hell" Becomes Home: Mennonites in Paraguay as Described in the Writings of Peter P. Klassen A Review Essay GERHARD REIMER* Kaputt Mennonita, eine friedliche Begegnung im Chacokrieg. Collected and edited by Peter P. Klassen. Filadelfia, Paraguay: n.p. 1975. Pp. 166. Immer kreisen die Geier: Ein Buch vom Chaco Boreal in Paraguay. By Peter P. Klassen. Filadelfia: n.p. 1986. Pp. 263. Die Mennoniten in Paraguay: Reich Gottes und Reich dieser Welt, vol. 1, 2nd edition. By Peter P. Klassen. Bolanden-Weierhof, Germany: Mennonitischer Geschichtsverein e.V. 2001. Pp. 480. (1st edition, 1988. Pp. 383.) Kampbrand und andere mennonitische Geschichten aus dem paraguayischen Chaco. By Peter P. Klassen. Filadelfia: n.a. 1989. Pp. 137. Die deutsch-völkische Zeit in der Kolonie Fernheim, Chaco, Paraguay, 1943-1945: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der auslandsdeutschen Mennoniten während des Dritten Reiches. By Peter P. Klassen. Bolanden-Weierhof: Mennonitischer Geschichtsverein e.V. 1990. Pp. 148. Die Mennoniten in Paraguay: Begegnung mit Indianern und Paraguayern, vol. 2. By Peter P. Klassen. Bolanden-Weierhof: Mennonitischer Geschichtsverein e.V. 1991. Pp. 376. Und oh ich schon wanderte. .: Geschichten zur Geschichte der Wanderung und Flucht der Mennoniten von Preußen über Rußland nach Amerika. By Peter P. Klassen. Bolanden-Weierhof: Mennonitischer Geschichtsverein e.V. 1997. Pp. 319. Die schwarzen Reiter: Geschichten zur Geschichte eines Glaubensprinzips. By Peter P. Klassen. Uchte, Germany: Sonnentau Verlag. 1999. Pp. 273. The story of the Mennonites in Paraguay is multifaceted and full of surprises. It is a story of successes and failures, never lacking in dramatic elements; and it embraces a wide gamut of Mennonites: from arch traditionalists like the Old Colony people from Mexico, who avoid any education save the most rudimentary, to congregations with members in the professions, even in politics, educated in national as well as European * Gerhard Reimer is professor emeritus of German at Goshen College.
    [Show full text]
  • Culture in the Classroom
    MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND CULTURE SECRETARIA NACIONAL DE CULTURA CultureTeaching in Aid theMaterial Classroom for Teachers Beatriz González de Bosio Asunción, Paraguay January 2010 Editorial: CEPUC Publication Center of the Catholic University Tel.: 334 650 ext. 173 Design, offset and printing: CEPUC Publication Center of the Catholic University Layout: Mariana Barreto Photography: • Centro de Artes Visuales (Center for Visual Arts) • Museo del Barro ( Museum or Clay) Acknowledgment to: Lic. Lía Colombino Chase. • National Secretariat of Tourism SENATUR. Visual Archives Copyright by the Author Total or partial repreduction through any means or electronic methods (including photocopies, recording or data collection process such as scanning, OCR) without the written consent of the author violates her rights. Prior consent of the author or the Publication Center of the Catholic University is required. The deposit of copies ordered by Law Nº 94 has been executed. January 2010 Asunción - Paraguay I.S.B.N.: 99925-854-8-X Preface to the English edition “Culture in the Classroom” was conceived as a teaching aid guide aimed at helping those in the educational front line to become conversant with the concept of culture as defined by the UNESCO. In a country like Paraguay, possessing the invaluable asset of extensive bilingualism where the Guarani Indian language is spoken by a majority of the population regardless of the speakers’ ethnic origin, finding value in an individual’s background is a way to reaffirm self-steem and to assure persistence in schooling as a threshold to success in life. The task of helping local culture survive, first, and thrive, later, is made all the more opportune by the onslaught of globalization and its threat of condemning smaller societies mores and customs to oblivion in the wake of mass media indoctrination.
    [Show full text]
  • PDF Hosted at the Radboud Repository of the Radboud University Nijmegen
    PDF hosted at the Radboud Repository of the Radboud University Nijmegen The following full text is a publisher's version. For additional information about this publication click this link. http://hdl.handle.net/2066/146368 Please be advised that this information was generated on 2021-10-10 and may be subject to change. ¿¿s- оco о о Nijmegen Studies in Development I and Cultural Change RW. Stunnenberg Entitled to Land The Incorporation of the Paraguayan and Argentinean Gran Chaco and the Spatial Marginalization of the Indian People Verlag breitenbach Publishers Saarbrücken - Fort Lauderdale Entitled to Land The Incorporation of the Paraguayan and Argentinean Gran Chaco and the Spatial Marginalization of the Indian People EEN WETENSCHAPPELIJKE PROEVE OP HET GEBIED VAN DE BELEIDSWETENSCHAPPEN PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen, volgens besluit van het College van Decanen in het openbaar te verdedigen op dinsdag 7 september 1993 des namiddags te 3.30 uur precies door Petrus Walterus Stunnenberg geboren op 9 april 1963 te Nijmegen Promotor: Prof. Dr. J.M.G. Kleinpenning ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Ibis book was written over a period of four years with the Department of Human Geography of Developing Countries, Faculty of Policy Sciences, Catholic University of Nijmegen, the Netherlands. The study is based on two periods of fieldwork among the Indian people of the Paraguayan and Argentinean Gran Chaco, carried out from 1990 to 1992. The study is far from complete since a considerably longer period of time would have to be spent in the field in order to fully comprehend the complex developments that currently take place in the Chaco region.
    [Show full text]