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| Name | Woman leader of Paraguay's Maka faces land battle |
| Video Uploader | Video From AP Archive |
| Upload Date | This Video Uploaded At 29-05-2019 04:36:45 |
| Video Discription | (24 May 2019) In one of Paraguay's smallest indigenous communites, the Maka, political authority has passed from father to son for generations even as the band has struggled for survival, its way of life uprooted by war and migration from a vast, isolated countryside to an urban neighbourhood near the capital. So the death in February of Andrés Chemei, a widely respected figure who led the group for 40 years, posed a problem. He had no son. The solution has been at least a small advance for women in Paraguay: Maka leaders chose his widow, Tsiweyenki to be the first female chief of an indigenous people in the South American country. "She is respected a lot for the work she does. Women preserve the culture of welcoming visitors and they (women) are very peaceful," said Yelukín, director of a dance company that performs traditional Maka dances at cultural events. While she still breaks down in tears at times thinking of her late husband, Tsiweyenki expressed thankfulness at her new post. "I feel good because the community shows me respect," she told The Associated Press in the Maka tongue, speaking through an interpreter. The 68-year-old Tsiweyenki, known to the Paraguayan state as Gloria Elizeche, has a warm smile, but a difficult task. Most of the roughly 2,000 Maka live in a 35-acre (14-hectare) colony in a city bordering the capital, Asuncion. They're also carrying on Chemei's battle to assert ownership of 830 acres (335 hectare) of lands a little way down the Paraguay River where the Maka lived for four decades before flooding forced most to move into town. While the flooding makes the land difficult to live on, its location just opposite the capital makes it valuable property for shipping and other services, a potential source of income for the Maka. Chemei had been a link to the Maka's history. The son of a chief himself, he spent time as a boy in the home of a Russian emigre general, Juan Belaieff, who established warm ties with the Maka ahead of the 1932-1935 war against Bolivia and then oversaw their move from the remote Chaco region to lands closer to the capital. Tsiweyenki herself was born in the Chaco and as a girl dedicated herself to household tasks and learned to make handicrafts. As an adolescent, attended a Baptist missionary school where she learned to read and write in the Maka language, into which parts of the Bible have been translated. Due to a lack of experience, the Maka are giving Tsiweyenki several months to learn the new role before formally taking over her duties. In addition to the standard political tasks, she'll be principal of a primary and secondary school, lead a labor union and soccer team and even head the local Baptist church. "Starting a few years ago, indigenous women in Paraguay have been organising, they have their own women's organisations, there is greater visibility of indigenous women at the national and international level as well. Therefore, that environment has given the possibility for women to assume more openly leadership roles," social anthropologist Marilin Rehnfeld explains. Still, Tsiweyenki's position is something of a landmark for Paraguay as a whole. Women gained the vote only in 1961 and the country still trails neighbouring nations in the number of women in major political posts, according to the UN women's agency. The Maka is one of 20 indigenous communities that still survive in Paraguay with a combined population of 120,000 people, according to the government's statistics agency. Most live in extreme poverty. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/36da7041d34424bd33c3d2b475658089 gFxhha17lxo |
| Category | News & Politics |
| Tags | AP Archive | 4212367 | 36da7041d34424bd33c3d2b475658089 | Paraguay Indigenous Female Leader | Paraguay | Latin America and Caribbean | Social affairs | Obituaries |
