 |
| Silvino Moreira: The Guarani chief called a curfew after two teens committed suicide. Sara Miller Llana |
After teen suicides, an Argentine tribe outlaws 'white' vices
In a tropical corner of Argentina, a Guarani chief has set a 7 p.m. village curfew and prohibited alcohol.
from the November 2, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
Teen suicides new to the community
It is this collision of cultures that the community says is ultimately to blame for the suicides of the two teens, who both hanged themselves within a week of one another in September. "This has never happened before," says Rosendo Moreira, who coordinates the youth education program, which includes teaching traditional dance, their religion. The program also teaches respect for one another, their elders, and the forest in which they live.
He says that as teens adopt the lifestyles of Westerners, even with such seemingly innocuous acts as surfing the net, they are more alienated from their roots and lose of sense of identity and purpose. "Our culture is sacred for us," he says.
Edgardo Barchuk, a local reporter who covers the indigenous communities of Misiones, agrees that the effort is a positive step for a community whose loss of culture is evident, as teens are often found in the center of town drinking. "They sit in the very middle, surrounded by non-indigenous communities," he says. "They cannot handle alcohol the way whites can. This is an effort to save their community."
Many of the young residents seem to favor the plan, although a few say privately that no one in the community would speak out against the cacique. "We forgot our religion," says Mr. Espindola. The hardest part for Espindola is a measure to turn off radios once it turns dark. "Now we are better off."
A teenager's hard lesson
Despite the fact that his cousin and good friend were the two young people who committed suicide, Delfino Benitez says the curfew, which requires that he be at home with his family each night at dusk, is unfair.
Fifteen-year-old Delfino, who began drinking and heading to the center of town at age 13, says the shock of what happened has made the villagers realize how much they had lost. "It was hard to give up going out, very hard, but I support it," he says.
When the community met in September to discuss the crisis, a group of teachers, police officers, and workers from the local hospital in Puerto Iguazú also signed the cacique's plan.
The local police round up teens found in the center past curfew and take them home, says Ramón Armando Irala, who heads one of the police departments in Puerto Iguazú.
"Underage drinking is a problem in all of the state, but it's accentuated in Fortin Mborore because they are losing their roots," he says. "We fully support their initiative."
RSS feed
