An approach to recent Paraguaya emigration

DEL ÁGUILA, ÁLVARO

New Haven, Connecticut

Jornada; After the Coup: economics, politics and society in Contemporary Paraguay; 2013

Yale University - Council on Latin American and Iberian Studies

After the Guerra Guasú (?Big War?), the Paraguayan population was significantly reduced: from 1.300.000 inhabitants before 1865 to 300.000 in 1870. One of the most important consequences would be the emergence of a new State which would be subordinate to its neighboring countries. One of the first measures adopted by the Government in order to jumpstart the national economy after the war, was the sale of public land to foreign capital, an action that initiated a profound process of latifundia in Paraguay. As a result, most of the population that remained after the war was not able to access the land. From then on, the spatial mobility of peasant population in Paraguay, even though it responded to economic causes, also originated in fear of political persecution and recruitment for mandatory military service. It is unusual for a Latin American country to have more than 10% of its native population living outside their national boundaries. Migration movement is, to Paraguay, a socio-historic category that cannot be disregarded in any interpretation of its national development. Emigration is one of the pillars of Paraguayan people?s peculiar way of being.