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Title Don't cry! : the Enlhet history of the Chaco War / edited by Hannes Kalisch and Ernesto Unruh ; Spanish translation from the Enlhet and commentary by Hannes Kalisch ; translation from Spanish into English by Nicholas Regan
Published Montreal ; Kingston ; London ; Chicago : McGill-Queen's University Press, [2022]

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Description 1 online resource (xx, 291 pages) : illustrations, maps
Contents Front Matter -- Contents -- Figures and Maps -- Where Our Voices Come From -- An Opening of Paths -- The Accounts -- Explorers -- Inside the Forts -- Outside the Forts -- Parallel Events: The Smallpox Epidemic -- Unbridled Violence -- Reactions -- In Dialogue with the Enlhet Accounts -- The Establishment of Violence as a Means of Relating -- Dilemmas -- Movement Under Pressure -- A Parenthesis: Events Parallel to the War -- Violence, Neither Necessary Nor Accidental -- Actors -- A Further Reflection: The Enlhet Accounts and Paraguay -- The Names of the Forts -- Glossary -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index
Summary "The Enlhet, an Indigenous people of the Paraguayan Chaco, remained virtually untouched by colonialism until the 1920s. This changed with the arrival of Mennonites, who began settling in the centre of Enlhet territory in 1927; the Chaco War soon after (1932-35), the deadliest conflict in the western hemisphere after the American Civil War; and a terrible smallpox epidemic at the same time. In Don't Cry! the Enlhet give their own account of this period, focusing on their experiences of the war between Paraguay and Bolivia, in voices never before heard outside their own society. Their accounts, translated from the Enlhet language and set alongside sensitive historical-anthropological analysis, allow unprecedented access to these hitherto hidden perspectives. Enlhet witnesses to those times describe the processes of colonization to which they were subjected while, at the same time, insisting on their own vision of the world. This vision challenges the views of colonial society, symbolizing the search for a relationship that assumes a shared history, addresses the gulf between peoples, and embraces the potential of each. These oral histories bear witness to the role of Indigenous voices in overcoming the colonial mindset deeply rooted within Western societies, which lacks the conceptual framework to meet Indigenous societies on equal terms. A unique example of history from below, from an Indigenous perspective, this book reflects a crucial moment in the history of a people who preserved their language despite adverse circumstances and whose origins still inform their daily life. Don't Cry! demonstrates the importance of native voices for both indigenous and colonial societies."-- Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Spanish translated from the Enhelt ; English translated from the Spanish
Description based upon online resource; title from PDF title page (viewed April 26, 2022)
Subject Chaco War, 1932-1935 -- Personal narratives, Paraguayan
Chaco War, 1932-1935.
Indians of South America -- Paraguay -- Colonization.
Oral history -- Paraguay
HISTORY / Latin America / South America
Indians of South America -- Colonization
Oral history
Paraguay
Genre/Form Personal narratives
Form Electronic book
Author Kalisch, Hannes, editor, translator.
Unruh, Ernesto, editor.
ISBN 9780228011736
0228011736
Other Titles Do not cry!