Guarani

The Guarani are an Indigenous people of South America native to the region spanning modern Paraguay and parts of Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia, whose language, Guarani, is unusual among Indigenous American languages in remaining a majority spoken language, co-official with Spanish in Paraguay and spoken by a large share of the country's population regardless of Indigenous ancestry. Guarani communities historically practiced swidden agriculture, cultivating cassava and maize, and were extensively organized into Jesuit mission settlements called reductions during the Spanish colonial period, which shaped much of the region's subsequent religious and social history. Guarani mythology and oral tradition, including the concept of the land without evil, continue to inform Paraguayan national culture well beyond communities that identify as ethnically Guarani today.