Living Or Surviving?

By Hélène Gignoux



Iguazu Falls

Have you ever wondered if you were living a real life? Do you think you’re happy or are you seeking happiness? Do your daily worries really make sense? What are your life priorities?  For people on the other side of the world, these questions have a radically different meaning. Think about it and make up your mind… What I am going to depict today is a colorful portrayal of a Guarani Community that I encountered last summer in Northern Argentina and their unusual way of living… Surrounded by tropical forests, about 40 Guaranies were living in a tiny village made of wooden houses, a few miles from Iguazu Falls.

The majority of the population was minors, and many young teenagers had babies. The entire population seemed vulnerable; they received aid from an association to satisfy their immediate needs. When I encountered them, they seemed very quiet. What caught my attention was the fact that when they gathered, nobody was alone, they behaved like a true family-a clan. When I spoke to a Guarani mother, she told me that they were learning 3 languages in order to sell their products: Spanish, English and Guarani, their native tongue.

I was later intrigued by a small group of teenagers sitting in a circle, smoking and drinking alcohol, doing nothing. Ok, you are going to say that in Europe or in the US this is also pretty common. They were young, there was nothing wrong with this, and I agree with you, but here was the thing: isolated deep down in the jungle, with no job opportunities, nowhere else to go, nothing to achieve, I wondered what the future would be for these young people? Would it be living day after day? Or changing drastically, choosing adventure and leaving their roots to settle in a city? Could they follow their own choices?

Then, something else surprised me… I saw 10 kids watching TV, and at this moment I was thinking that this might reinforce a sense of frustration fest by the Indians: with this media they had a window to a completely different world with opposite behaviors, materialistic values based on consumer society, with massive financial power… Did this represent a threat for them? Did it urge them to go and see what was happening outside of the village? And did it lead them to this grim question: what would be the fate of the remaining Guaranies? Was this media a threat or a benefit for them? People say one must move along the times, but was this concept irrelevant for them?

Guarani Kids

Taking into account these short observations, when all is said and done, are Guaranies happy and free people? Do they really need humanitarian action? Does it have a beneficial impact for them? Is outside help necessary even though they have been living this way for ages? Well, I would say not necessarily… In this particular context, it appears to me that humanitarian action may be, above all, useful for them for water sanitary projects, and to create social links, and to allow them to build a sustainable communication network between the community and the rest of the world.

Ultimately, I would say that perhaps this is not a question of living or surviving: the community has been living there for generations, and that reveals that this is their authentic life style. Family, roots, and preserving their original way of life seem to be vital priorities for them. Have they found the key to happiness? Maybe.