Open letter to the political class of the Paraguayan nation. We demand the political class of Paraguay responsibilities for having discriminated Guarani in Paraguay during the past two hundred years. I hope that what guides the destiny of the Nation /will some day also contemplate the hardships suffered under miserable orphanhood. Mauricio Cardoso Ocampo (1938), Chokokue purahéi (Farmer’s song) Belgium became an independent country in 1830. The country functions in Dutch, French and German. Norway became an independent country in 1905 and functions in Norwegian, with two official variants, Bokmal and Nynorsk. Finland became an independent country in 1917 and operates in Finnish and Swedish. Iceland became fully independent in 1944 and uses Icelandic. Malta became independent in 1964 and operates in Maltese and English. Greenland became an autonomous province of Denmark in 1979 and functions in Kalaallisut (Greenlandic) and Danish. Estonia became an independent country in 1991 and functions in Estonian. Slovakia became an independent country in 1993 and operates in Slovak. The same goes for an infinite number of countries around the world. Paraguay won its independence in 1811. In 195 years of independence, Paraguay has never operated in the identifying, historic, sentimental, autochthonous, indigenous language spoken by the majority of the population, the Guaraní language. Who will answer for this bicentenary injustice, for the denial of dignity and the rights of millions of Paraguayans, of generations of Paraguayans? An enormous and crucial part of the blame, of the responsibility for this injustice lies with the political class of Paraguay. For two hundred years the political class of Paraguay has refused to build an authentic “national home” for the Guaraní language. There are hundreds of “national homes” for other languages, but none for Guaraní. The elite class of this country has refused to create a Paraguayan State that operates in Guaraní and uses it in its administration, educational system, armed forces, media, economics, culture and art, social and associative life... a country in which everyone would also speak Spanish and other languages. During these two hundred years in which Paraguay has been an independent country, languages with the same, or even less number of speakers, with a similar or even younger written tradition, have been linguistically and socially standardised and are now the languages of small and large countries around the world. This is the case for languages such as Finnish, Norwegian, Maltese, Estonian, Catalan, Latvian, etc. Why was it denied, why does it continue to be denied to Guaraní? The new Paraguayan State born in 1811 could have adopted the “national” tradition of the Jesuit missions to “govern the country” in Guaraní –an experience that was abruptly and brutally shattered in 1767, only 44 years before reaching independence– and create a state in Guaraní and Spanish. It was not done. Never in two hundred years has the political class of Paraguay explained the reasons for these two centuries of disgrace, denial and contempt. Now we have the moral obligation, at least to ourselves, and especially to all the Paraguayans who preceded us and lived in a state built without their language, our language, with regard to history and to all Paraguayans, to honestly and even painfully ask ourselves, Why did the Paraguayan State not take into account the Guaraní language when it was built? Why has it not been done in two hundred years? What abominable prejudices or ignoble, selfish and antipatriotic interests have allowed such an unjust and arbitrary act, such a barbarity? The exclusion of the Guaraní language has been a cruel, inhumane, unjust, immoral, unethical, unchristian way –in a country in which the majority of citizens are Christian– of keeping most of the population in subdued poverty, with high rates of illiteracy and suffering under the harshest and most atrocious exploitation.. It has been a way of excluding the majority of the population from political and citizen participation, of preventing them from debating about the model of their state. How has it been possible, in two hundred years, to legislate and issue laws, to exchange public and private contracts in a language that, until recently, the majority of the population did not understand? Is this not an outright injustice? Is it not a legal insecurity to leave most of the population completely defenceless? How could this happen? How can we let this happen? How could we have done so much damage to our own selves? Paraguay has legislated against the majority of its citizens. It has governed against the majority of Paraguayans. Education was never offered to all of the population. Never. Providing education to all of the country’s citizens meant and still means the creation of one Nation for all, a more just Nation for all. If the goal were to educate and reach all of the population, then all schooling and teaching would have been done in our language, in Guaraní, in addition to teaching other languages. As happens in all other normal states of the world. The state of Paraguay would have based its foundations on Guaraní. Why was this not done? Why does the Paraguayan media not ask itself day after day why this was not done and why it is not done now? In two hundred years, millions of Paraguayans have been stripped of their self-esteem. For the sole fact of speaking Guaraní and of being who they are. Only because they speak a language that existed before any European language had arrived. Their lives have been destroyed merely for speaking a language they did not choose, since no one chooses the language they speak. They have been denied the right to be first-class citizens in their own country because they speak a language that is as or even more American, as or even more ancient than our most cherished red earth. The atrocities and errors that have been committed are deplorable and worthy of tears. We should weep with guilt. Weep for days. The Guaraní language has been sullied and betrayed. Guaraní saved our Nation in the two wars that almost bled us to death, the wars of 1865-1870 and 1932-1935. By fighting in Guaraní, thousands of Paraguayans were willing to die to defend their Nation and the freedom of all. A Nation that was built against them, against their language, our language. Any normal country with even the slightest feeling of national dignity, self-esteem and respect towards its citizens would immediately have made official the language that helped save the Nation. But this did not happen in Paraguay. It did not happen! It simply did not happen! Even worse, the language and its people were persecuted, denigrated, humiliated. Guaraní was in no way elevated to the level of a state language; the language of a state for which thousands died fighting. This is tantamount to indignity. The language was relegated to the level of folklore and was denied dignity and power! We want to build the future! We will not forget –nor do we want to forget– our linguistic history. But we do want to build our future. A future for Paraguay, a future for Guaraní. A future filled with justice. But in order to build this future we need a national catharsis, we need our own linguistic truth and justice commission, to fight our own battle, to understand and close the wound we bear for all that has been done against the Guaraní language and all other Paraguayan languages in the past two hundred years. We want the political class of Paraguay to explain itself. Why have these deeds been perpetrated? Why has what has happened to us as a Nation been tolerated? We want explanations so as not to repeat the errors of the past. Once we have been given these explanations, we will look towards the future with the need to know, What are we going to do to make Guaraní a fully official language of the Paraguayan State, of Mercosur and of our part of America? We ask the political parties for specific compromises: 1. Not to nominate candidates to election or as trusted members of government those who cannot prove having a perfect oral and written command of both Guaraní and Spanish. 2. To use Guaraní orally and written in all publications, posters, stickers, placards, webs, speeches, slogans, etc. 3. To immediately publish their linguistic policy program for Paraguay and state their goals for Guaraní –indigenous, national and official language- for Spanish –official language- for the rest of the Paraguayan languages and for the languages of immigrants. As well as the terms in which these goals will be achieved. 4. To make public the names of those responsible for the linguistic policies of each party who, in turn, should explain what they will do to carry through their program and the standards by which they will evaluate the activities carried out by the Paraguayan government in terms of linguistic policies. Within this context, we demand that the political parties answer the following questions: 1. When will Guaraní be an officially regulated language? 2. When will Paraguay pass a linguistic policy law? 3. What will be done for office automation and the use of the most universal programs in Guaraní? 4. When will all laws and other state, departamental and local legal provisions be published in Guaraní and in Spanish? 5. When will it be mandatory –with all means provided– for all Paraguayan schoolchildren to have a spoken and written command of Guaraní, Spanish and a third language by the time they finish their studies? 6. When will the Paraguayan administration work, at all levels, in Guaraní and Spanish? When will civil servants –old and new– speak and write in both languages? When will a national training plan be introduced to prepare present civil servants to be able to carry out their duties in both Guaraní and Spanish? 7. When will all national symbology (name of the state, national emblem, flag, names of the institutions, national hymn, stamps, passports, identity cards, names of the cities, streets and geographical features) also be in Guaraní or be named in Guaraní? 8. When will all public and private media in Paraguay guarantee at least 50% of its offer in Guaraní? 9. When will it be mandatory for all Paraguayan firms to offer all of their products (including labelling) and services at least in Guaraní and in Spanish, and guarantee that their clients will be attended in the language of their choice, in Guaraní or in Spanish? 10. When will the obligation of accrediting foreigners with sufficient oral and written knowledge of Guaraní and Spanish before they can obtain the Paraguayan nationality be regulated? 11. What steps will be taken to make Guaraní fully official in Mercosur and in the Mercosur Parliament? 12. What steps will be taken to turn Guaraní into the fifth interamerican language alongside Spanish, English, Portuguese and French? 13. What will be done to facilitate knowledge, relations and cooperation amongst all of the Guaraní-speaking American community? 14. What will be done for Paraguayans abroad with regard to offering Guaraní language classes and classes “in Guaraní”? Tired of the frauds and deceits suffered by all Paraguayans and the Guaraní language in the past two hundred years, we ask our friends around the world to help us make this denunciation / petition known in order to alert the international community, after almost two centuries, of the indignity and injustices that the political class of our country has committed and continues to commit against our language and the people who speak Guaraní, against the citizens of Paraguay. Paraguay-Asunción, 31 / July / 2006 Signed, Movimiento de Educadores Jekupytyrâ, Perla Alvarez Britez jekupytyra@gmail.com Movimiento Campesino Paraguayo, Fermín Bobadilla info@okaraygua-paraguai.org mcp@highway.com.py www.okaraygua-paraguai.org Coordinadora de Productores Agrícolas de San Pedro Norte, Ernesto Benítez Partido Convergencia Popular Socialista, Belarmino Balbuena pcps@highway.com.py Fundación Yvy Marâe’ÿ, Miguel Angel Verón G. yvymaraey.fundacion@gmail.com Ateneo de Lengua y Cultura Guaraní, David A. Galeano O. ateneo@telesurf.com.py www.ateneoguarani.edu.py Organización Nacional de Aborígenes Independientes, Mario Rivarola Ñe'êeta rekávo Aty - Organización por el Multilingüismo nra@nra-paraguai.org