If you walk down the street in Paraguay, you will hear people speaking Spanish, the official language of most of the countries of Latin America. But, particularly if you are in the countryside, you will also hear something else: Guaraní.

It’s one of the most widely spoken Indigenous languages in the Americas; a mother tongue of roughly six and half million people. In particular, in Paraguay.

There, most Paraguayans speak Guaraní or a mixture of Guaraní and Spanish, regardless of whether or not they are Indigenous Guaraní, mestizo, or white. When Paraguay was invaded in the mid-1800s, Guaraní became the language of resistance. It has been preserved and passed down from generation to generation. 

This is episode 49 of Stories of Resistance—a podcast co-produced by The Real News and Global Exchange. Independent investigative journalism, supported by Global Exchange's Human Rights in Action program. Each week, we’ll bring you stories of resistance like this. Inspiration for dark times.

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Written and produced by Michael Fox.

Here is Michael Fox’s reporting for The World on Guaraní:  https://theworld.org/stories/2024/10/01/guarani-is-identity-how-an-indigenous-paraguayan-language-has-endured-through-the-ages

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